With the Seraing affair, the EU court of justice has put a tackle whose heap may not get up: “the end of the deception”

What decision? – Seraing affair, eu court justice

The subject of the debate? For example, The role of the Sports Arbitral Tribunal (CAS) in the case between the Liège club and FIFA. Therefore, But. Moreover, more generally, the right to challenge a decision when an arbitration procedure is imposed by an body, as do many sports federations, or even certain companies in other areas of activity.

Seraing. For example, sanctioned because he had carried out “third property” – the fact of selling part of the economic rights of a player to a third -party company – defended himself in front of the job, but the latter had followed FIFA, as is very often the case in the chief of an organ installed in Lausanne and partly funded by the sports federations. Moreover, A degree of appeal exists. Therefore, but it is the seraing affair, eu court justice Swiss Federal Court, which cares little about the compliance of sanctions to the EU law, of which he is not a member. Consequently, This is what the Court of Justice tackled.

The CJEU did not say that forced arbitration was illegal … Therefore, but delivered a verdict at least as restrictive for international federations. Consequently, She believes that the arbitration imposed. “Can only (can) compromise the rights and freedoms that the fundamental rules of union law guarantee. “ So the court judges “Whether national courts must be empowered to proceed. at the request of the litigants or even automatically, to an in -depth legal control of the compatibility of the arbitration of the TAS with the public order of the Union. “

What it involves

Clearly. any sportsman or seraing affair, eu court justice club who wishes to ask the justice of his country if a decision of the CASE is well in accordance with the law of the EU will now be able to do so by going to a judge who will then have to suspend the decision in question the time to decide. And we know that these procedures often take months, even years. Suffice to say that the CJEU has just emptied the heap of its substance.

The cabinet Dupont-Hissel. who defended Seraing and again signed a victory in the international impact after that of the Diarra affair, “Make the content of the judgment in accordance with the thesis defended by Seraing for ten years […] The disciplinary sanctions imposed in Seraing resulted from a perfectly illegal procedure. “ The Belgian Court of Cassation, which had arrested the CJEU, will be able to follow up on the bottom.

Some will regret the usefulness of the CAS in the field of sport. but this decision should above all have the consequence of obliging sports federations to question themselves. What do not fail to underline masters Jean-Louis Dupont. Martin Hissel: “The CJEU stopping worth […] For all other forced arbitrations imposed by the statutes of most international sports federations. The CJEU has radically ended the procedural deception by which international sports federations were trying to escape a real. application of EU law by the imposition of forced arbitration located outside the EU. “ A remark that is even worth beyond sport.

What held tomorrow?

Even if he has minimized the scope of the sanction in a press release. the TAS received an uppercut this Friday. He will have to question his mode of operation in question. “”The CJEU has done its share of work. it seraing affair, eu court justice is now the “social forces”, namely FifPro Europe and European Leagues in particular, which must transform the test, by imposing a just and inclusive system. They have the cards in hand; It’s up to them to make good use of it “concludes the Dupont-Hissel cabinet. Will the heap be opening a dialogue with other actors. Open an antenna in the EU to be more in accordance with European law? Anyway, he will have to reinvent himself.