Revamped European Super League may flop but the door for change is now open

Even if elements of new proposals raise more questions than answers, Fifa and Uefa know their dominance is under threat.

Aleksander Ceferin had been joined from their wood-panelled offices by Nasser al-Khelaifi of Paris Saint-Germain and La Liga’s Javier Tebas.

It wasn’t hard to notice that something was up. Not only was the president of Uefa giving a rare press conference, Aleksander Ceferin had been joined from their wood-panelled offices by Nasser al-Khelaifi of Paris Saint-Germain and La Liga’s Javier Tebas. Each was there to talk about a single court judgment whose ramifications, even Ceferin admitted, have yet to be fully digested. That’s how seriously the powers-that-be take the European Super League.

On the day, the European court of justice’s ruling in the case brought by the European Super League Company against Uefa had something for everyone. The headline takeaway from the 71-page document was that Uefa (and Fifa) had been “abusing a dominant position” and needed to change. As the regulator of the game, its rules on allowing the creation of new competitions had not been “transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate” and were “contrary to competition law”.