Sport has been a recurring topic for the CJEU in its application of EU law since the 1970s, but until recently it was hardly relevant to the area of State aid. This has changed significantly since 2019, when the GC annulled Commission decisions on State aid in the professional football sector, followed by two CJEU rulings in 2021 and 2022. The article will show that the judicial application of State aid law in these cases was not unique (especially as sport-specific claims by football clubs were considered irrelevant), that the cases provided insights of general importance for State aid law (eg regarding the standard of proof) and that Article 165 TFEU does not provide a specific exception.
Keywords: State aid and sport; Spanish football cases; notion of aid; selectivity; standard of proof