Thread by @soconaill

The European Super League case was before the EU's court this week. Arguably the highest profile EU Law Sport interaction since Bosman and there were some very interesting Irish angles involved in it. 🧵below h/t to my @LawUCC colleague @deckie for the tip off on the Gaeilge!

ESL was big in the news last year. It emerged in a blaze of tweets and very quickly *seemed* to go down in flames with many of the original clubs pulling back after terrible reactions from nearly every quarter; see piece from me here in @thejournal_ie thejournal.ie/readme/footbal…

But some clubs didn't want to let it lie and via a Spanish Court the case ended up in the highest Court in Europe. The ESL was always going to have a big impact on Irish football but the story continues to have some very interesting Irish angles at the Court

Firstly UEFA was represented before the Court by Corkman and @LawUCC graduate @KeaneLegal a noted Brussels based Competition Law and Sports Law expert who we're lucky enough to have come and speak to our students each year

The Irish Government, like all EU Member States (and even some non EU States), had an opportunity to make submissions on the case and Ireland choose to do so in Irish, Ireland's first official language and an official EU language.

Irish has emerged as a full working language at the Court with a growing unit featuring many @LawUCC Law & Irish and Law & French grads working as lawyer linguists and interpreters. Last year we even had a case heard fully in Irish at the Court rte.ie/news/europe/20…

Ireland's counsel Dr Stephen Brittain BL very capably put Ireland's arguments to the Court in Irish (which was then simultaneously interpreted into as many as 22 other official EU languages) - at one point Court even asked to slow down to help the interpreters!

Refreshing to see that the Irish Government is proactively choosing to make their submissions in Irish and this compliments a lot of the work done by the Government and successive Ministers like @eamonocuiv @SeanKyneGalway @ThomasByrneTD @jackfchambers in promoting Irish at EU

The actual points made by Ireland can be summarised as follows;
Ireland Supports UEFA's position
Existing model is compatible with EU Law, ESL isn’t. Irish clubs at least have the possibility of advancing and UEFA has detailed solidarity payments which would be put at risk.

Ireland put a lot of emphasis on fact that big clubs would hold all income, Small clubs would suffer. It’d have a particularly harsh impact on Ireland which has a small number of professional clubs with no possibility of ESL teams

In the case of Ireland and other national leagues this would gradually erode interest, support and participation in football. ESL would erode the distribution and income solidarity in European football. This money allows for development of skills and public facilities.

Ireland finished by noting that sport is very different from the normal ‘market’ due to the specific nature of sport. Current arrangements are proportionate. Big clubs would have no obligation to develop and support small clubs like Irish ones under a ESL model.

Overall the Irish position was aligned with most other countries although there was a particular emphasis on the smaller size of Irish top level football and the disproportionate impact the ESL could have on it. The Irish position is a commendable and well reasoned one IMO

You can watch for yourself below - the Irish pleading starts at 2h 30m in the first video of Hearing C-333/21 curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/p1_1…