Sooner or later Uefa’s fair play rules are going to face a challenge in court from a club that wants to spend as they like. Would such a challenge succeed? This is a question that has been debated over the last few days by members of the Sport and the European Union e-mail list who include some leading sports lawyers. Not surprisingly, no definite conclusion has emerged which is why the question is likely to eventually go to the courts (jncidentally, leading to a nice earner for the lawyers involved).
Sooner or later Uefa’s fair play rules are going to face a challenge in court from a club that wants to spend as they like. Would such a challenge succeed? This is a question that has been debated over the last few days by members of the Sport and the European Union e-mail list who include some leading sports lawyers. Not surprisingly, no definite conclusion has emerged which is why the question is likely to eventually go to the courts (jncidentally, leading to a nice earner for the lawyers involved).
One contributor pointed out that Uefa itself had worsened the problem of the financial gap between giant and even large clubs by devising the Champions League. There were simple solutions that could work better such as requiring clubs that play in European competitions to split their gate revenues fifty-fifty (think Manchester United versus Blackpool) or to require leagues to split their television money equally between members. The underlying politics means that this would never happen.
Any challenge would be likely to proceed from the European Union legal principles concerning ‘abuse of a dominant position’ and ‘restriction of the free market for goods and services’. It could be argued that Uefa is the only provider of a service (football games) in Europe and therefore constitutes a monopoly. However, could Uefa be challenged by potential entrants? For example, Media Partners attempt ed to enter the market with a new competition and it was this threat that led to the Champions League.
Given that it can be challenged, Uefa is probably not a simple monopoly. Another consderation would be, is this monopoly detrimental? Does it capture what is called consumers’ surplus? The answer is probably not.
But in any case Uefa can be seen simply as an authority regulating a market in the way that stock exchanges regulate markets. So it would seem unlikely that a legal challenge would succeed which is not to say that the attempt may not be made.
It may be, however, that ‘creative accounting’ will render the rules largely ineffective. One contributor to the debate paraphased the owner of a baseball team he had met: ‘Profits reported in the annual report of teams is not the point. I can turn 1 million of it into a 1 million deficit and give every accountant in the country to agree with me.’ Quite possibly the reverse trick could be used in European football to make deficits disappear and give the appearance that a club was breaking even.