This article focuses on the regulatory provisions governing the protest procedure applicable to AFC competitions and highlights certain key learnings from the AFC’s recent cases before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the context of protests.
Introduction
Under the competition regulations of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), a ‘protest’ is an objection of any kind related to any event and/or matter that has a direct effect on a match.
Most protests in AFC competitions concern the eligibility of players (e.g. an allegation that a particular participating player was not eligible to play in a match because he was allegedly suspended or was improperly registered for the competition) and allegations that the referee made an error in his/her decision making (e.g. disputing a red card shown to a particular participating player).
Where a protest is successful, this can have significant consequences for the match and the participating teams and players, as well as for the smooth running of the whole competition (e.g., it could be decided that a match be declared forfeit in favour of the protesting party).
As such, whilst the AFC’s...
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