FIFA’s decision-making bodies

Introduction

The value of the football industry has seen a formidable growth in recent years. In its Football Benchmark report for 2020, KPMG estimated that the 32 most valuable clubs in Europe had a total value of almost EUR 40 billion. A substantial part of the clubs’ money is spent on transfers of football players. In January 2021, FIFA published a global transfer market report that revealed that the total spending on international football transfers in 2020 exceeded USD 5,63 billion. Further, the report showed that a total of more than 18,000 international transfers had been concluded including more than 1,000 transfers for female football players. The record for the highest transfer fee is held by Brazilian football star Neymar who was priced at USD 263 million when he was transferred from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain in 2018.

The growth in the number of transfers and transfer fees have contributed to a rising number of disputes between the involved parties, i.e. buying clubs, selling clubs, players and intermediaries/agents. Many of these disputes are handled by FIFA’s decision-making bodies, and by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). The FIFA Football Law Annual Review 2019 revealed that DRC alone issued 750 decisions in 2018.

Overview of FIFA’s decision-making bodies

Until 1 October 2021, FIFA’s decision-making bodies consisted of the Players’ Status Committee and the Dispute Resolution Chamber. As from 1 October 2021, FIFA made changes to its regulations governing its decision-making bodies, in an effort modernise its dispute processes. The new model consists of three specific chambers; the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC), the Players’ Status Chamber (PSC) and the Agents Chamber.

PSC and DRC offer arbitration in international disputes between member associations, clubs and players, disputes mainly regulated by the Regulation on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP).   The Agent Chamber will aim to offer dispute resolution and arbitration in international disputes involving agents/intermediaries.

When FIFA announced the changes to the rules regulation its decision-making bodies, they made a number of changes to the process. The main changes are:

·         Procedures are free of charge if at least one of the parties is a natural person (player, coach, football agent or match agent).

·         The deadline to pay procedural costs (if applicable) is now ten days. Payment remains a requirement for the grounds of a decision to be notified. In such cases, notification will only be made to the party that requested the grounds and paid the procedural costs.

·         An expedited decision-making process for preliminary procedural matters has been introduced.

·         Parties may be invited to undertake a voluntary and free mediation process. If mediation is successful, the mediator and relevant chairperson will ratify a settlement agreement.

FIFA anticipates that DRC alone will handle about 3,500 disputes per year, while PSC will handle approximately 700 disputes and 6,000 regulatory applications on an annual basis.

The Players’ Status Chamber (PSC)

PSC is composed of 32 members, including a Chairman and a Deputy Chairperson, representing national associations, clubs, players and other shareholders. As a general rule, the PSC shall adjudicate in the presence of at least three members, including the chairperson or the deputy chairperson. However, in cases that are urgent or raise no difficult factual or legal issues, and for decisions on the provisional registration of a player in relation to international clearance, the case may be settled by a single judge.

PSC has the competence to adjudicate two types of cases. Firstly, PSC may adjudicate on international coach disputes, or more specifically, employment-related disputes between a club or an association and a coach of an international dimension. The criteria of “international dimension” will typically be fulfilled if the coach is of a different nationality from the club or national association involved in the dispute. It is worth noting that if the relevant national association has established an independent arbitration tribunal that can guarantee fair proceedings, the dispute can be handled in the national arbitrational tribunal. Secondly, PSC may adjudicate all disputes between clubs belonging to different associations that cannot be adjudicated by the DRC, i.e. international club disputes that are not related to issuing of ITC, or to provisions regarding training compensation and solidarity mechanism. The majority of disputes handled by PSC are related to international transfer agreements, more specifically to non-payments/overdue payables of transfer fees or fees that arise from sell-on clauses.

The Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC)

In the aftermath of the Bosman-case FIFA established the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) in 2001. DRC is the FIFA's deciding-making body that offers arbitration and dispute resolution between shareholders within football, primarily football players and clubs. The DRC consists of 33 permanent members including a Chairman and two Deputy Chairpersons.

In general, DRC has competence to adjudicate in three types of disputes.

Firstly, DRC may handle international disputes between clubs and players in relation to the maintenance of contractual stability where there has been an request for an International Transfer Certificate (ITC) and a claim from an interested party in relation to said ITC request. Disputes handled under this provision normally takes place when a player unilaterally terminates his contract with the club in order to join a new club, and the former club claims that the termination was illegitimate, i.e. without just cause. 

Secondly, DRC is competent to adjudicate in disputes between a club and a player of an international dimension, which in practice entails, inter alia, all contractual disputes where the player’s nationality is different from the country where the club is based. This kind of contractual disputes between clubs and players contribute to a large share of the disputes handled by DRC, and the essential question is normally whether one of the parties have unilaterally terminated the contract with just cause. The consequences of terminating a contract will depend on whether there is just cause. Both the player and the club may be subject to financial liability and sporting sanctions, e.g. the player may be suspended for a period and the club may be excluded from one or more transfer windows.

Thirdly, DRC may hear disputes related to training compensation and solidarity mechanism of an international dimension, i.e. between clubs that belong to different associations, or where the player’s nationality is different from the country where the involved clubs are based. Training compensation and solidarity mechanism was introduced by FIFA in 2001, in the aftermath of the Bosman-case, and was initiated to encourage training of young football players, and to strengthen  solidarity amongst clubs, by securing financial compensation to clubs that had invested in training young players. For further on the regulations on training compensation and solidarity mechanism, please read this article.

The FIFA Agents Chamber

Whilst DRC and PSC already are handling disputes, and have been handling thousands of disputes for many years, the Agents Chamber not yet established. At the time FIFA announced the that they would establish the Agents Chamber, football agents/intermediaries were regulated by the Regulations on working with intermediaries. These regulations are expected to be replaced by the FIFA Football Agent Regulations, which are subject to approval.

Appeals to The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS)

Any decision issued by DRC or PSC, and probably issued by the Agents Chamber when that is established, is subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, (CAS), in accordance with chapter IX of the FIFA's statutes. The appeal must be lodged with CAS within 21 days of receipt of the decision in question. In 2019 as many as 189 decisions from FIFA’s judicial bodies were appealed to CAS.

CAS is competent to make final decisions on sports-related disputes including disputes that have been dealt with by PSC or DRC. The framework for CAS' competence, as well as provisions on procedures, deadlines etc. is regulated in the CAS-code. The parties to a case can choose from a list of just under 400 CAS arbitrators appointed by the CAS Board on the basis of their competence in sports or international arbitration. Over half of CAS's cases concern football.

For further information on handling cases for CAS, see here.