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Sports Arbitration

Sport has become a thriving business. In line with this development, sport-related transactions and disputes have grown more and more complex and can no longer be handled succesfully without specific legal and industry expertise.

Switzerland hosts a substantial number of international sport governing bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, the International Federations governing football (FIFA), basketball (FIBA), volley-ball (FIVB), ice hockey (IIHF), cycling (UCI), swimming (FINA), equestrian sports (FEI), ski (FIS), and many more. Within the Olympic Movement, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has become the central forum for dispute resolution. In fact, CAS jurisdiction is mandatory for all doping disputes involving international level athletes.

Originally meant to “keep the sport out of court”, arbitration nowadays presents to all stakeholders in the sport arena a chance to seek and obtain justice.

In the last several years, the CAS has decided more than a thousand cases, ranging from issues such as doping, transfer of players, eligibility, sponsorship to purely commercial disputes.

The proceedings before the CAS are governed by Swiss arbitration law and disputes are often decided according to Swiss substantive law. Moreover, a consistent corpus of sports case law is emerging in this area. As appeals before the Swiss Supreme Court are possible on very restrictive grounds, CAS proceedings constitute the athletes' only “day in court”. Hence, acting before CAS requires special knowledge and expertise not only of the arbitration process under Swiss law but also of the specificities of the CAS proceedings and case law.

LÉVY KAUFMANN-KOHLER is able to provide exceptional expertise in this new field of dispute resolution. A former member of the International Council of Sport Arbitration (ICAS), Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler was closely involved in the setting up of the CAS, in particular of the CAS ad Hoc Division for the Olympic Games, which she presided until the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The author of one the main reference works on sports arbitration, Antonio Rigozzi has extensive experience in both international arbitration and sports law, which makes him one of the most prominent experts in the field. Dr. Rigozzi regularly advises and represents clients in all types of matters before the CAS and other sports dispute resolution bodies.