The Italian Football 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 Competition and Market Authority has fined the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for a total amount of over 4 million euros (4,203,447.54 euros).
The Authority 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 organisation of competitive youth football competitions and to extend it to the recreational-amateur market, in which it operates in competition with the Sports Promotion Bodies (EPS).
The abusive strategy was achieved first and foremost through the FIGC’s failure to stipulate the agreements required by the CONI EPS Regulation (2014) for the carrying out 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 has instrumentally used its regulatory power, illegitimately considering as competitive the amateur activity carried out by the Sports Promotion Bodies with athletes between 12 and 17 years of age. Furthermore, it has also imposed for athletes up to 12 years of age (by definition not included in competitive activity) the agreement between the Federation and the EPS and the pre-authorization of the event, thus limiting the freedom of the Amateur Sports Associations affiliated with the FIGC and their athletes with double membership to participate in tournaments organized by the EPS. In this way, the ability of the Sports Promotion Bodies to exert sufficient competitive pressure on the Federation has been reduced, hindering and/or weakening competition in the market for the organization of recreational-amateur events.
Rome, 1 July 2024
Text of the Provision
