The EU Court of Justice has ruled that FIFA and UEFA restrictions to prohibit the Super League are unlawful, but UEFA claim the ruling is already outdated.

On Thursday morning, the Court of Justice of the European Union announced that FIFA and UEFA rules on tournaments like the European Super League are unlawful.

According to the statement, FIFA and UEFA rules requiring prior approval for new tournaments and prohibiting clubs and players from playing in them are illegal.

Rules giving FIFA and UEFA exclusive control over the commercial exploitation of the rights related to those competitions have also been judged to restrict competition unlawfully.

The court clarified that this doesn’t mean the European Super League project must necessarily be approved. The ruling is a general one, not a judgement specific to any one tournament.

UEFA claim the ruling simply relates to a previous shortfall in UEFA’s pre-authorisation framework, something they’ve already acknowledged and addressed.

UEFA add that they’re “confident in the robustness of its new rules, and specifically that they comply with all relevant European laws and regulations”.

But the other side are treating this as the first step towards a new Super League.

A22 Sports CEO Bernd Reichart writes that they’ve “won the right to compete”.

Reichart claims “the UEFA-monopoly is over”, “football is free”, and “clubs are now free from the threat of sanction and free to determine their own futures”.

Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, the only two clubs to stand by the Super League throughout this whole process, have both released statements as well.

Real Madrid claim “European club football is not and will never again be a monopoly”, and that “from today the clubs will be the masters of their destiny”.

Madrid’s statement continues: “We will continue to defend a modern project, fully compatible with national competitions, open to all, based on sporting merit and that will effectively impose respect for financial fair play.”

Barcelona claim “the medium-term sustainability of European football entails the need [to] create a concept along the lines of the Super League proposed by A22”.

UEFA evidently feel their new rules will still prevent the Super League from coming about, and you’d imagine it will be particularly difficult for any Premier League clubs to link up with a new breakaway competition after what happened last time.

But A22 Sports and the two La Liga giants clearly believe this is a landmark moment for such a competition’s inception.