Integrity principle of sports competition: seeking certainty

Abstract

The fall of 2021 in European football was marked by a pause in the Super League case: the Union of European Football Associations stopped disciplinary proceedings against the three clubs remaining in the status of organizers, and also canceled all mandatory payments to the confederation from the clubs that left the project. In a previous article, we looked at the UEFA Statutes and the UEFA Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations as possible sources of regulation that would have been violated by the emergence of new competition. However, the existence of UEFA regulation preventing the proliferation of organizers of football events on a European scale met with a possible obstacle from the economic-competitive guarantees provided in the provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. At the moment, UEFA is preparing to consider the dispute in the instances of European justice. One of the key arguments on the part of UEFA may be the violation by the Super League organizing clubs of the principle of the integrity of the competition (the integrity of sports). This will additionally update the meaning of the principle for sports justice. However, UEFAs chances of a successful application of the principle seem low: this principle is too elastic and subjective, although it has been featured in the normative regulation of sports for a long time. In the present study, the author has analyzed all the disputes before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in which the principle of the integrity of sporting events was declared. The conclusions made confirm the complexity of a convincing appeal to the principle of any sports subject.