Geneva, July 10 (BUS) – A group of top football clubs face the UEFA Champions League organizers in court on Monday in a legal match that threatens the biggest disruption in European football in more than 25 years.
The Premier League project failed at its launch 15 months ago, but the company formed by the twelve rebel clubs – led by Real Madrid, Barcelona and now Juventus – has taken a case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Judges from 15 of the European Union’s 27 member states will hear arguments over two days with the majority of those national governments backing UEFA, according to the Associated Press.
The clubs accuse UEFA of alleged abuses of market dominance by controlling football competitions that violate European law.
UEFA’s defense is that it protects the sport’s special place in European society by running competitions in a hierarchical structure open to all and funding the game’s grassroots.
The ruling is unlikely this year and will not affect Premier League clubs playing in UEFA competitions from September.
Ten in the Champions League groups with Manchester United and Arsenal in the European League Two.
It is the most anticipated sporting decision of the Luxembourg Court since the Bosman ruling in 1995.
This affair turned the football transfer system upside down, increased the salaries of the best players, and ultimately accelerated the split in wealth and competitiveness between wealthy and other clubs.
Now, some of those same revenue-generating clubs and global brands playing in the Champions League want freedom from UEFA control to run their own competitions like MLS.
insult