Italian Football Federation fined by the Antitrust Office for abuse of dominant position

Another blow to Figafter elimination National team With Euro 2024.The Antitrust law approved Italian Football Federation for a total amount of over 4 million euros (4,203,447.54 euros) for abuse of dominant position.

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According to the regulator, the Federation has abused its dominant position in the market for organizing youth football competitions to exclude the Sports Promotion Bodies and limit their activities in the field of amateur football competitions. The Football Federation announced that it will appeal the Tarconsidering the sanction to be “unjustified”.

Figc fined by the antitrust authority: here’s why

As stated in the note, the Antitrust Office found that Figc, at least since July 1, 2015, “implemented a complex exclusionary strategy in order to strengthen its dominant position in organizing competitive youth football competitions and extend it to the market of recreational and amateur activities in which it competes with Sports Promotion Organizations (EPS).”

It is explained that the abusive strategy was pursued primarily as a result of Figc’s failure to enter into contracts required under the Coni’s Eps Regulation (2014) in order to conduct competitive business. This allowed the Federation to prevent EPS from accessing the market for organizing sports events, thus ensuring itself the position of a significant monopoly.

Secondly, Figc instrumentally used its regulatory power by illegally classifying amateur activities conducted by Sports Promotion Organizations with athletes aged 12 to 17 as competition.

In addition, it was imposed that even for athletes under 12 years of age (by definition not subject to competitive activities), an agreement between the Federation and the Eps and a prior authorisation of the event were required, thus limiting the freedom of Amateur Sports Associations affiliated with the Figc and their dually registered athletes to participate in tournaments organised by the Eps. In this way, the ability of the Sports Promotion Bodies to exert sufficient competitive pressure on the Federation was limited, which made it difficult and/or weakened competition in the market for organising recreational and amateur events.

Figc: unfair sanction, we will appeal to Tar

The Football Federation appeals against the antitrust sanction of 4 million euros against Tar of Lazio for abusing its dominant position in youth football. “Figc considers the sanction unjustified, based on documented arguments and an erroneous legal justification. Moreover,” the note continues, “this sanction was imposed for the same reasons as the sanction imposed on the Equestrian Sports Federation in a similar proceeding, a decision that was later annulled by the Council of State.” Figc maintains “the absolute correctness of its procedure” and announces the notice of appeal with a request for suspension.

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