The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has decided not to go through with a bizarre lawsuit against a small German pizzeria in Hesse. The pizzeria came to the attention of the footballing authority after naming one of its pizzas after the Champions League.
A pizzeria in Gießen, Hesse, caught the attention of UEFA after giving one of its pizzas a deliciously devious name. Pizza Wolke supplies the “Champignons League” pizza to supermarkets, where it is sold frozen to hungry customers wanting food. As the name suggests, the pizza is covered with mushrooms, and it’s supplied to around 1.000 supermarket branches.
The pizzeria was deemed to be violating UEFA’s licence rights for its trademarked “Champions League,” which is the footballing association's highest level of competition. UEFA’s legal action came to public attention when Pizza Wolke posted a letter from the association’s legal department on Twitter. UEFA later confirmed their legal approach.
On Tuesday, UEFA reneged on their decision to take legal action against the pizza company. "The UEFA Champions League can live happily next to this delicious-sounding pizza," said the governing body in a sentence. UEFA blamed the threat of legal action on “an over-zealous local trademark agent acting too hastily.”
The inventor of the pizza, 31-year-old Shadi Souri, has expressed his delight at how much attention his pizza has been getting. "UEFA gave us a penalty without a goalkeeper," he said. "We then just had to shoot the ball in. You accept that as a small start-up that has no money for big marketing campaigns, but gratefully accepts it."