UEFA Sued Over Champions League Format! » Stakes: 20 Million Euros and the Continental Body's Reputation!

A Madrid judge has accepted mathematician Leandro Shara's appeal against UEFA, whom he accuses of plagiarizing the Champions League and Europa League formats.

Spanish publication El Confidencial reveals that Commercial Court No. 16 in Madrid has declared itself competent to hear a case questioning the intellectual property of the current Champions League format.

Specifically, the court accepted the appeal from Chilean mathematician Leandro Shara, who accuses the continental governing body of copying his algorithm, which underpins the new Champions League format with a single group stage, a model also introduced in the Europa League.

According to the prosecution, Shara presented his research to UEFA officials in a series of private meetings that began in 2013, but these discussions never led to the signing of a formal contract or the payment of royalties.

The Chilean mathematician claims that UEFA implemented his model without authorization, depriving him of the exclusive right to commercialize it in the European market, and profited from revenues generated by a format that revolutionized the international football calendar.

According to El Confidencial, the court's decision represents an initial setback for the continental body. Its lawyers had intended to move the dispute to Switzerland, arguing that the format was conceived and coordinated in Nyon, and that Spanish courts lacked international jurisdiction over such a significant matter.

 The Spanish judge partially rejected this argument with reasoning that sets an interesting precedent: since Champions League and Europa League matches physically take place on Spanish territory, the "exploitation" of the allegedly plagiarized format actually occurs in Spain.

This technical detail allows the court to assert jurisdiction, albeit with a scope limited exclusively to economic damages incurred within national borders. What does UEFA risk? Although the court clarified that it cannot rule on the international fate of the competition, UEFA is now compelled to defend the transparency of its creative processes.

El Confidencial: "The risk is not just financial, but also reputational. A conviction, even if limited to Spain, would confirm the suspicion that the most profitable format in the world was born from misappropriation."