Sport & Competition Law – Annual Review 2025/26

Welcome to the Competition Law chapter of the LawInSport Annual Review 2025/26. EU and UK competition law continued to have a significant impact upon the world of sport in the last year. This chapter reviews the main cases:

• RFC Seraing judgment delivered by the European Union (EU) Court of Justice (CJEU) concerning the interplay between effective EU judicial control and sports arbitration;

• Manchester City FC Second Award in which the Premier League’s Associated Party Transaction rules were declared void under UK competition law;

• Advocate General Emiliou’s triptych of Opinions on the principles underlying the application of EU competition law to sport post-Superleague;

• The Advocate General’s specific findings in the Football Agents cases (Rogon and RCC Sports) as regards the regulation of professions such as agents by FIFA and national football associations;

• The Advocate General’s specific findings in the Tondela/Liga Portugal case concerning measures taken by the league and clubs during the COVID19 pandemic to stabilise their squads for the remainder of the 2020/21 season;

• The multi-club ownership (MCO) cases where EU competition law arguments were raised before the Court of Arbitration for Sport;

• Merger clearance for the acquisition of MotoGP by the rightsholder for Formula 1, which came to interesting conclusions on market definition for sports media rights.

The review concludes with a look ahead to 2026.^[1]  

Chapter Sections

• RFC Seraing: Status of CAS arbitral awards in the EU
• Manchester City FC Second Award
• Advocate General Emiliou’s Opinions: EU Law & Sport
• Football Agents cases (Rogon and RRC Sports)
• Tondela / Liga Portugal: COVID-19 crisis measures
• MCO cases
• MotoGP acquisition by Liberty Media
• What to look out for in 2026