European Antitrust Exemption to promote Competitive Balance?

In 2007, European football (soccer) clubs sought an competition policy (antitrust) exemption and one of the justifications for this was so that European clubs could better promote competitive balance. As we see in chapter 4 of The Wages of Wins, European football (soccer) is much more balanced than American football, baseball, hockey or basketball. As I mention in class, one possible reason for owners justifying their latest cause (payroll caps, revenue sharing, antitrust exemptions, etc.) is to use competitive balance as the objective. As we show in chapter 4, league policies have little effect on competitive balance as compared to the underlying population playing the game.