Thread by @lewis_crofts

It's been pretty brutal for #EuropeanSuperLeague this morning in #EUhearing against @UEFA

EU countries lining up to call it a "cartel" that rubbishes "Europe's model of sport."

Romania, Poland, Malta, Portugal, Austria, Slovenia. None of them had a positive word for #ESL /1

Norway was also there. (It isn't an EU member, but it took up its right to plead before ECJ). It noted that Norwegian teams from the provinces had been promoted and played European sport because of the openness of UEFA structure, on sporting merit. #ESL puts that at risk /2

Shame there was no mention of @ErlingHaaland even though his old club was mentioned as one of the places that benefitted from the UEFA model.

"Its about preserving opportunities," Norway's lawyer said. /3

Portugal was represented by ex-EU judge da Cruz Vilaca. A sign of how important the country is taking it. He also went big on #SuperLeague "wiping the slate" of European principles of sport. He also said there was no legal reason to split UEFA regulatory & economic powers/4

Malta gave some interesting stats. He got 30 million from UEFA for stadiums and the sport. Whereas the annual sport infrastructure budget is les than 2m a year. So, it is quite happy with UEFA, of course. /5

.@EU_Commission was more balanced, as you would expect.

It noted there wasn't just one way to run a sport. There are different ways, and other sports don't necessarily have pre-authorisation rules. /6

While a sanctions regime could be "necessary," the EC implied that UEFA's threat to ban players and clubs from competitions went too far. It didn't seem proportionate, the EC said.

The hearing continues /ends