Dispute resolution and sports arbitration

Introduction

Nationally and internationally, sport has been given a high degree of autonomy. As long as sport organisations operate within a certain set of frames, the sport organisations themselves can decide which rules should apply in the field of sport and establish bodies that deal with violations of sports regulations and sports-related disputes. Sports-related disputes arising from a contract, e.g. related to player contracts, sponsorship contracts or media rights, may be processed by the various arbitration tribunals of the sport in question. A condition for the sports arbitration tribunal to handle these cases is that the parties have agreed that the dispute shall be settled by arbitration, either through a clause in the original agreement, or upon agreement after a dispute has commenced.

Sports arbitration

Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution, where disputes are resolved outside the ordinary courts. In sports arbitration, the dispute will be decided by one or more arbitrators. An arbitration award is legally binding on both sides and enforceable. There are several reasons why sports arbitration is preferred to ordinary court proceedings. First, the parties themselves can influence the composition of the court by allowing the parties to occupy the court with persons with special professional qualifications. In the field of sports, this means that the parties can be judged by sports arbitrators who have special expertise in sports, and not just legal background.

Furthermore, sports arbitration will contribute to a faster process compared to a process for the ordinary courts. In most cases, the costs of sports arbitration will be lower compared to ordinary court proceedings.

Domestic sports arbitration

Many national football associations have established domestic sports arbitration systems, handling sports related disputes. Typical cases dealt with by the domestic sports arbitration chambers are domestic doping cases, football disputes that do not have an international dimension between clubs regarding transfers and compensation for training and solidarity mechanism, disputes between football players and agents / intermediaries, disputes between coaches and clubs, and disputes between players and clubs.

DRC (The Dispute Resolution Chamber)

Football is the sport that generates the most disputes. The International Football Association, FIFA, is a member organization for the world's national football associations, and the national associations are bound by FIFA's regulations. Most of the disputes related to FIFA's regulations are based on FIFA's transfer regulations, RSTP. Disputes based on RSTP are decided by FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC). The DRC consists of 24 permanent judges appointed by the FIFA Board, 12 of whom are appointed by representatives of the players, and 12 who are appointed by representatives of the clubs.

DRC has the right to consider disputes between the player and the club of an international dimension, which in practice means, among other things. all contract disputes between Norwegian clubs and foreign players.

Any decision adopted by DRC could be appealed to CAS, cf. Art 63 of FIFA's statutes.

For further on FIFA’s decision-making bodies, please read this article.

The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS)

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has the competence inter alia to decide on sports-related disputes. The CAS was created by the International Olympic Committee in 1983 and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. Since the first case was dealt with by CAS in 1986, there has been a large increase in cases in recent years, and in 2016-18 it was dealt with just under 600 cases per year. The framework for CAS's competence, as well as provisions on procedures, deadlines etc. is regulated in the CAS code.

For further on handling cases for CAS, please read this article.

The ordinary courts

As stated above, sports disputes may be settled by the sports arbitration courts. It does not mean that the ordinary courts are barred from hearing the disputes. However, the access to ordinary court may be limited. The ordinary courts are, in principle, precluded from dealing with cases where there is an arbitration clause or decision. Furthermore, there may be limitations in the special legislation with regards to the right to pre-agree that a dispute shall be settled by arbitration, e.g. disputes between employers and employees.