In his book 'Postwar' the historian Tony Judt wrote of the ‘largely un-European mental universe of most Europeans’. Yet, he also identified one ubiquitous exception: sports – and especially football, ‘a game without frontiers, for players, managers and spectators alike’. He even wrote: ‘What really united Europe, is football.’

Whether or not that’s true, it’s hard to deny that sports are a major part of social and economic life in Europe. How sport is governed, how it is regulated and by whom, is a question that is worth taking seriously. And it’s a question on which EU law has something to say. There is a modest amount of case-law from the European Court of Justice on sports and there are several more cases currently pending: the Royal Antwerp Football Club-case, the International Skating Union-case and, of course, the Super League-case.

My guest in this episode definitely takes football seriously. His name is Miguel Poiares Maduro. He’s an academic and political commentator, a former minister in the Portuguese government, a former member of the European Court of Justice, and an incurable fan of football. He recently wrote an essay called ‘EU Law and Sports: A Match Made in Hell or in Heaven?’ The essay draws on his expertise as an EU constitutional lawyer, on his acuity as an observer of political institutions, and on his personal experience as Chair of the Governance Committee of FIFA.

He argues that the way in which European football is governed today needs to change and that the European Union is best placed to bring international sports organisations in line with principles of democracy and good governance. We talk about the European Model of Sports. About the Super League case. About the conflicts of interest that currently plague sports governance bodies. And about the Court of Arbitration for Sport. I ask him what he thinks the EU should do, and why he believes that discussing sports governance can help us gain a deeper insight in the soul of European integration.

Mentioned:

• Miguel Poiares Maduro, 'EU Law and Sports: A Match Made in Hell or in Heaven?', in: Adams-Prassl and others (eds.), The Internal Market Ideal: Essays in Honour of Stephen Weatherill, Oxford University Press 2024
• Stephen Weatherill, Never let a good fiasco go to waste: why and how the governance of European football should be reformed after the demise of the ‘SuperLeague’
• Tony Judt, Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945
• Case C-415/93 Jean-Marc Bosman and others
• Case C-333/21 European Superleague Company v UEFA and FIFA
• Case C-680/21 SA Royal Antwerp Football Club
• Case C-124/21 P International Skating Union v Commission
• ECtHR, Mutu and Pechstein v Switzerland (40575/10 and 67474/10)

Book recommendations:

• Neil K. Komesar, Imperfect Alternatives: Choosing Institutions in Law, Economics and Public Policy
• J.H.H. Weiler, The Constitution of Europe: 'Do the new clothes have an emperor' and other essays on European integration
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Justiz (The Execution of Justice)

Comments? Guest suggestions? Email me at felix@europafelix.eu