Yes i've not seen the full Belgian comments from their Competition authority and

the final court ruling wont be until next week. As I understand it their competition regulator makes recommendations which the Courts then take into account and usually follows.

I also assume our Competition Law Act is not identical to the one in Belgium although as both are giving effect to EU Directives then they will be broadly similar.

However, as I understand it, the gist of the Belgian ruling (although not yet confirmed by the Court) is that a majority of the teams voting out of vested (financial) interest to take a decision that had the effect of distorting the competition and excluding a competitor was unlawful.

The French decision (although its long and I can't understand it all with my rusty French) seems (massive caveat here due to rusty French) to be based upon the fact that the level of unfairness and harm caused to the 2 relegated clubs was not outweighed by the public/wider interest when the French league also had the option of expanding the top division open to them.

Posted By: Jim, Jun 10, 11:32:28