The 19 April announcement of the breakaway European Super League by 12 of Europe’s top teams shook the world of football. The proposal was met with broad condemnation by fans, football authorities and government ministers across Europe. Governing bodies UEFA and FIFA threatened sanctions and bans.
With the rapid withdrawal of most teams involved, the project of a Super League seems dead in the bud. Rather than UEFA’s threats to the 12 top teams, it was the overwhelming mobilisation of fans, athletes, politicians and the public causing a quick turnaround. The Super League fiasco raises a number of important questions about the status quo and the future of European football.
The increasing competitiveness gap needs to be addressed. Many see the new Champions League model as a step in the direction of a de facto closed league. European football is rife with corruption and financial scandals. The beautiful game also has structural governance problems.
In the context of these challenges, what is the role of the EU? It is an established fact that only the EU can effectively regulate European sport in its transnational dimension. But should it? And, if so, how?
Moderated by The New York Times global sports reporter Tariq Panja, this instalment of #FlorenceLive will discuss these questions about the future of European football with a panel of experts in sports governance.
The EUI School of Transnational Governance’s #FlorenceLive series hosts high-level panel discussions and interviews with policy-makers and academics around the world to discuss today’s most pressing issues.
The event will be livestreamed on the STG’s YouTube channel and is open to all (no registration is required). To participate in the conversation, please join us live and post your comments and questions in the comment feed below the video.
Discussants:
Damian Collins has served as the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe since 2010. Damian’s career before politics was in the advertising and communications industries, working at M&C Saatchi and Lexington Communications. During the Coalition government Damian served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the then Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond. From 2012 to 2014 he was PPS to the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers. From October 2016 to November 2019 he was Chairman of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. In this role he led the committee’s inquiries into doping in sport, online disinformation, football governance, homophobia in sport, and the social impact of culture and sport in education. Damian is Chairman of the Conservative Arts and Creative Industries Network. His first book, ‘Charmed Life: The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon’, was published by HarperCollins in 2016.
Roberta Metsola is the European Parliament First Vice-president, elected in 2020. She was first elected to the European Parliament in 2013, becoming one of Malta's first female MEP, and then re-elected in 2014 and in 2019. Before, she served within the Permanent Representation of Malta to the European Union from 2004 to 2012 as Malta’s Legal and Judicial Cooperation Attaché and Head of the Justice and Home Affairs Unit. Following that, she joined the team of the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, as a legal advisor. VP Metsola is the Head of the Partit Nazzjonalista delegation within the EPP Group and a Member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee. VP Metsola is a Substitute Member on the Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food safety, the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in the Digital Age and the Delegation for Relations with Japan.
Miguel Poiares Maduro is Professor of the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute. Before, he was Professor at the Law Department and at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute where he was the Founding Director of the Global Governance Programme. From 2013 to 2015 he was Minister Deputy to the Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development in Portugal. June 2016 to May 2017 he was Chairman of the new Governance and Review Committee of FIFA. He is a Doctor of Laws by the European University Institute (Florence) and was the first winner of the Rowe and Maw Prize and winner of the Prize Obiettivo Europa (for the best PhD thesis at the EUI). He co-edited with Joseph Weiler the Special Book Review Issue of the European Law Journal.
Aki Riihilahti is a retired Finnish footballer. In 2013, he took up the position of CEO of HJK Helsinki and has been a prominent figure in Finnish football ever since. He was voted by leading European clubs to be the vice-chairman of European Club Association and has also important positions both at UEFA and FIFA. During his playing career, he became a well-known figure in the media, writing columns for The Times, as well as popular Scandinavian newspapers, and worked as a commentator on behalf of several broadcasters. In his home country of Finland, he is regularly invited to consult in high profile government delegations concerning sport, welfare and education.
Moderator:
Tariq Panja is a global sports reporter at The New York Times. Prior to that he was an international sports journalist in the UK and Brazil with Bloomberg News. His work largely focuses on the intersection of sports, politics and business. He is also the co-author of Football’s Secret Trade, a book that describes how a small group of actors were able to take control of soccer’s $7bn player trading market.