The CJEU's 21 December 2023 judgment in European Superleague Company v. UEFA and FIFA (C-333/21) did not authorise the Superleague. It did dismantle the doctrinal cover that UEFA and FIFA had used for fifteen years to refuse new-competition authorisation without articulated reasons. The post-judgment legal landscape is materially different from the pre-judgment one in three concrete ways.
First, prior authorisation regimes — UEFA's and FIFA's standing rules requiring approval of any third-party competition involving their member-association clubs — must now be governed by criteria that are "transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate." UEFA's revised authorisation rules, adopted in mid-2024, attempt this. Whether they survive a fresh challenge is the second case waiting to be filed.
Second, sanctions for participating in non-authorised competitions cannot be applied automatically. UEFA's removal of automatic sanctions and the introduction of a graduated review framework are direct consequences. Clubs threatening breakaway competitions therefore face a substantially weaker sanctions deterrent than they did pre-judgment.
Third — and least discussed in the headline coverage — the judgment's findings on the commercial exploitation of media and marketing rights (paras 162–177) significantly tighten what is permitted under Article 101 TFEU when a federation centralises rights selling. National-league rights tenders running in 2026 and 2027 are being drafted with this in mind.