The Antitrust Authority has fined the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for a total amount of over 4 million euros (4,203,447.54 euros) for abuse of a dominant position.
According to the guarantor authority, the Federation has abused its dominant position in the market for the organization of competitive youth football competitions to exclude Sports Promotion Bodies and limit their activity in the sector of amateur football competitions.
The Authority, we read in a note, has in fact ascertained that the FIGC, at least since 1 July 2015, “has implemented a complex exclusionary strategy to strengthen its dominant position in the organization of youth football competitions of a competitive and to also extend it to the amateur recreational activity market, in which it operates in competition with the Sports Promotion Bodies (EPS)”.
The abusive strategy, it is explained, was first and foremost achieved through the failure of the FIGC to stipulate the agreements required by the CONI Eps Regulation (2014) for the performance of competitive activity. This allowed the Federation to preclude EPS from accessing the market for the organization of competitive events, thus guaranteeing itself a position of substantial monopoly.
Secondly, the FIGC used its regulatory power in an instrumental way, illegitimately considering as competitive the amateur activity carried out by Sports Promotion Bodies with athletes aged between 12 and 17.
Furthermore, it also imposed an agreement between the Federation and the EPS and the pre-authorization of the event for athletes up to 12 years of age (by definition not included in competitive activity), thus limiting the freedom of the Amateur Sports Associations affiliated to the FIGC and of their athletes with dual membership to participate in the tournaments organized by the EPs
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