FIFA’s annual report for its Disciplinary Committee and Ethics Committee
For the first time, FIFA has published an annual report regarding the activities of the FIFA’s Disciplinary and Ethics Committees. The reports contain information about activities for the season 2019/2020, and was published alongside a similar report on FIFA’s anti-doping activities. The publication of the reports can be seen in connection with FIFA’s aim to improve the transparency of its legal proceedings and internal mechanisms.
The FIFA Disciplinary and Ethics Report 2019/20 offers analysis and statistics of the cases processed by FIFA’s two judicial bodies over the 2019/20 season. The report, delivered by Mario Gallavotti, Director of Independent Committees and Carlos Schneider Salvadores, Head of Disciplinary and Ethics shows that more than 800 cases were handled by the two committees during last season. The vast majority of these cases, 703 cases, were handled by the Disciplinary Committee,
The Disciplinary, Appeal and Ethics Committees are FIFA’s judicial bodies. These members of these judicial bodies shall have the knowledge, abilities and specialist experience that is necessary for the due completion of their tasks, and are elected by the FIFA Congress for terms lasting four years, and for a maximum of three terms. The Disciplinary Committee consists of a chairperson, a deputy chairperson and a specific number of other members. It issues the sanctions described in the FIFA Statutes and the FIFA Disciplinary Code on member associations, clubs, officials, players, intermediaries and licensed match agents. The Ethics Committee shall be governed by the FIFA Code of Ethics. It is divided into an investigatory chamber and an adjudicatory chamber. The Ethics Committee may issue the sanctions described in the FIFA Statutes, the FIFA Code of Ethics on officials, players, intermediaries and licensed match agents.
The report shows that 417 of the decisions, more than half of the decisions passed by the Disciplinary Committee, are connected to breaches of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC) art. 15, failure to respect decisions from by a body, a committee or an instance of FIFA or a decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Of the decisions that were not respected, most were passed by FIFA’s Dispute resolution Chamber (289), whilst 95 were passed by the FIFA’s Players Status Committee (PSC), 31 from Court of arbitration for Sport and 2 from the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.
Although the report does not disclose the details regarding which provisions that have been breached, it seems likely that the most commonly breached provision handled by the Disciplinary Committee is Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) art.12bis which stipulates that any club found to have delayed a due payment for more than 30 days without a prima facie contractual basis may be sanctioned. The article was implemented in 2015 alongside a fast track procedure, including frequent use of single judges and a DRC sub-committee which provides clubs a strong incitement to respect their financial obligations. Since the provision was implemented in 2015, it has contributed to a far easier procedure for clubs that have claims related to transfer fees, solidarity contributions and training compensation.
