A no-poach agreement by Portuguese first and second division football clubs during the coronavirus pandemic "can potentially be compatible" with European Union law, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said on Thursday.
The Luxembourg-based ECJ said that "whilst pursuing an objectively anticompetitive aim in recruitment, the agreement at issue also pursued an aim objectively favourable to competition: that of ensuring stability of player rosters playing in the First and Second Divisions."
After the season was suspended in early 2020, the Portuguese league and the top flight and second division clubs reached an agreement not to sign players who had unilaterally terminated their contracts due to exceptional circumstances in connection with the pandemic.
The Portuguese competition body rated this a violation of competition law in 2022 to which the clubs objected. The case went to Portugal's Competition, Regulation and Supervision Court which referred questions on the matter to the ECJ.
The ECJ said it was now up to the Portuguese court "to take account of those circumstances for the purpose of determining whether that agreement has as its object the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition."
