Can the activities of international sports organizations be considered as cartelization in the context of competition law, the scope of which is expanding day by day? The European Super League (“ESL”), which has occupied the sports media for a long time in the past year, caused intense reactions from Fédération Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”) and Union of European Football Associations (“UEFA”) due to its establishment and stated that there would be administrative sanctions for the teams that plan to participate. After the ESL Company brought the dispute to the European Court of Justice, 15 judges were assigned to file C-333/21. The ESL Company underlined that FIFA and UEFA abused their dominant position in the matters on which it requested a preliminary decision within the scope of its application. In the application, they also clarified that the abuse of dominant position in the context of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”) and the establishment of FIFA and UEFA undertakings as a football organization, possibly to ratify any attempt as a precondition, is again contrary to Article 101 of the TFEU. Does the supervision of the members subject to Articles 67 and 68 of the FIFA Statute mean that the regulations regarding the market in the context of competition law are carried out by the undertaking? Considering the dispute in question, even though it seems that ESL Company, which started with the participation of 12 teams, currently hosts 3 teams, the plaintiff undertaking will question the positions of undertakings such as FIFA and UEFA in the sports industry and ensure that it is confirmed whether they abuse their dominant position in the market. In the summary of the defenses of the defendant undertakings on the subject, they defended the unity of sports and stated that a new initiative would harm this integrity.
The ability of the undertaking, which is the governing body in terms of sports activities, to approve the attempts of third parties in the market within the pre-authorization system, became clear with the decision of the European Union General Court on 16 December 2020 on the International Skating Union. When the decision in question is considered within the scope of international football governing bodies, should it be accepted that FIFA and UEFA have not abused their dominant position, or should the claim that Articles 101 and 102 of the ABIIA have been violated should be confirmed? The Turkish Football Federation (“TFF”), which has an autonomous structure in our country, does not currently have any regulation regarding the limits of its powers in terms of communities that can take similar initiatives. In Article 77 of the TFF Statute, it is accepted that the authority for international competitions and tournaments belongs to FIFA and UEFA. Opinion of the Turksih Competition Authority in case of a possible dispute, prevention of abuse of dominant position in the market or, on the contrary, its approval due to the special position of the sports industry. It is obvious that the disputes mentioned in the sports industry, whose market volume is high in terms of income and distribution, may be subject to unfair competition.
On the other hand, when the initiative carried out by the ESL Company and the undertakings participating in the group are considered, it can be stated that the said body itself causes unfair competition and cartelization in a way. It should be emphasized that this undertaking, which consists of 12 teams with high budgets and high incomes in the sports leagues in which they operate, also leads to unfair competition in terms of teams that are not formed. In both aspects, the subject remains open to discussion and up-to-date in the context of competition law.
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