If we want to bring back under democratic accountability, sports in its social and economic dimension,

we can only do it through the European Union.

So it's a very good example of the kind of democratic added value that the European Union can bring to European citizens. Welcome back to Europa Felix.

In his book, post-war, the historian Tony Judd spoke of the largely un-European mental universe of most Europeans.

Yet he also identified one ubiquitous exception, sports.

And especially football, a game without frontiers for players, managers and spectators alike.

He even wrote, what really united Europe is football.

Whether or not that's true, it's hard to deny that sport is a major part of social and economic life

in Europe. So how sports is governed, how it is regulated and by whom is a question that is worth taking seriously.

And it's a question on which EU law has something to say.

Already there is a modest amount of case law from the European Court of Justice on sports and

European law.

And right now, there are several more cases pending.

The Royal Antwerp Football Club case, the International Skating Union case, and of course,

and this one has drawn a lot of media coverage, the Super League case. My guest in this episode

definitely takes football seriously. His name is Miguel Piarish Maduro. He's an academic, a political

commentator on Portuguese TV, a former minister in the Portuguese

government, a former member of the Court of Justice, and an incurable fan of football.

He recently wrote a paper called EU Law and Sports, a match made in hell or in heaven.

The paper draws on his expertise as an EU constitutional lawyer,

on his acuity as an observer of political institutions,

and on his personal experience as chair of the governance committee of FIFA.

...