Interview: French legal prodigy on taking on PSG and UEFA in battle for heart of European football

Juan Branco is used to taking on powerful figures and high-profile causes, but the youthful French lawyer and activist’s current legal battle against the controlling powers of European football may be his biggest and longest lasting challenge yet.

The lawyer is representing LaLiga in the French and European courts as it takes on football’s powers across multiple jurisdictions in challenging the “impossible” finances of some of Europe’s leading clubs.

Previously, Branco – who was born in Malaga in 1989 to a Spanish mother and Portuguese film producer father but educated in Paris, where he now practises law – has represented the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the Gilet Jaunes and taken on Emmanuel Macron in a bestselling book. TV France describe him as an “angry young man who dreams of changing the ‘system’”. One of his critics, an official with links to Paris Saint Germain, told me he was like Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Gulliani.

In June it was revealed that LaLiga had made three separate complaints over the finances of Manchester City, Juventus and Paris Saint Germain. If taken seriously they could have dramatic consequences not just for the clubs, but the entire European game. Branco is leading the case for LaLiga. 

The case kicked off with a bang. In June Branco tried to use the French courts to block Kylian Mbappe’s contract renewal at PSG, which killed a prospective move to Real Madrid. The contract deal was reported to be worth €200 million.

The court did not grant an injunction, but Branco says that part of the case – which he believes transcends Mbappe and takes in the French and Qatari states, league and representative bodies, while also embodying some of the biggest issues in football today – “Is fully alive and under instruction by the Court.”

Taking on Qatar

“We deposited a 140 pages long detailed argument, with 3000 pages of supporting documents, that deconstructs for the first time what we consider to be the fraudulent schemes created by Qatar to artificially build up a ‘nation-branding’ club and destabilize the football market,” he says. 

“We describe in detail how a coordinated initiative, using Bein and PSG, was organized, with the full support of French authorities, to legitimize the organization of the 2022 World Cup and achieve political goals.

“This is the first time that an overall approach to the many problems triggered by Qatari initiatives, and more broadly, by the lack of harmonization of the regulatory dispositives related to financial fair play at the European Union level, are dealt with together.”

French and EU law

Branco describes the case as relying on highly technical legal approaches, based partly on French administrative law and partly on EU competition law. 

“It is a very strong initiative that relies on in-depth researches that for some, are completely novel,” he says. 

“Part of our arguments are based on French administrative law. We discovered for example that the FFF and LFP did not have legal grounds to homologate Mbappé contract, for technical reasons related to the delegation of powers provided to them by the State. This is a technical but very powerful argument, as it potentially affects all the legal acts taken by the Federation and the League in 2020 and 2021.”

He alleges that under EU competition law “a black hole” was created by the French and Qatari authorities to “systematically violate” several articles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [TFEU]. He rattles these off –  “101, 102, 107, 108 and 116” – and alleges “what we consider to be fraudulent schemes created to cover it up.”

He adds: “We put on the table all the compromises and conflicts of interests that allowed for these developments, at all scales.”

LaLiga’s positive approach

At the heart of the case is what he describes as the “strong and healthy system” of governance created by LaLiga “that forces its clubs to respect a certain number of criteria, that can be perceived as the first functional FPF ever established.”

“Our goal is to obtain a harmonized system, and as a consequence, to make sure that both UEFA and EU authorities ensure not only that rules exist at a continental level, but that mechanisms that ensure their implementation at national level exist and are respected,” he says.

He describes the LaLiga model of governance as “inspired by European initiatives [that] aims to enforce the European law principles in the professional football ambit. They echo very strongly the dispositions created by UEFA, which have nonetheless never been harmonized, creating huge disequilibriums that are incompatible with EU Law and that threaten the football ecosystem.”

Fan malaise

Branco says that this ultimately affects not only the interests of fans – “which are caught in an inflationist system that makes it more and more complicated to identify oneself and participate in the football environment” – but also “the existence of traditional clubs.”

Some of these, he deadpans, have become “washing machines” laundering the reputations of “oligarchs and rogue states that are looking for some kind of legitimization.”

“This,” he says, “Goes beyond football, which is a massive influence tool that affects all social ambits.”

He refers to the “explosion of joy” of Newcastle supporters after Saudi Arabia decided to invest in their club as part of “a worrying phenomenon, and a symptom of an overall crisis that needs to be addressed.”

Long fight

Branco says that there are not likely to be quick solutions to the legal fight he is embarking upon.

“This is a years long process, and we are ready to concede many interlocutory defeats,” he admits.

“Going to the French administrative courts is a bold move, as the closeness they entertain with French State is very much known. But it is also a way to test the capacity of regulatory authorities and national judiciary systems to deal with the inner contradictions of the current system.”

His belief is that the case will ultimately end up in the European General Court [EGC]. He points to a complaint made by Barcelona’s socios, outraged at Messi's move to PSG and which is still going through the courts as a precedent.

“After a long instruction and many back and forths both with the French League and the European Commission, the EGC decided to hold an audience on this case, and requested a report from its most experimented judge,” he explains.

“The Tribunal administratif de Paris is just finishing its instruction, after a year of analysis. Of course, this is a very complicated case, much more complicated than the Mbappé. But the fact the cases are still alive and are going to be heard at the EGC is a sign that something is moving and might happen earlier than expected.”