Recent Jurisprudence of the Swiss Federal Tribunal on Football Matters (June 2019)

This article provides a short overview on selected recent case-law in football matters rendered by the Swiss Federal Tribunal (SFT) concerning civil law appeals filed against arbitral awards of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The decisions of the SFT treat important matters such as the formal requirements to validly submit an appeal to CAS, the required legal interest worthy of protection to submit a civil law appeal to the SFT and questions related to an athlete’s right to be heard. Sports law practitioners are well advised to remain up to date on these jurisprudential developments.

Decision 4A_238/2018, 12 September 2018^[1]

In the decision 4A_238/2018 dated 12 September 2018, the SFT rejected a civil law appeal, which had been filed by a football club against an award rendered by CAS on 20 March 2018. The club unsuccessfully argued that CAS had violated its right to be heard as well as public policy by not opening proceedings due to the late filing of the hard copies of the Statement of Appeal.

Underlying facts and procedural history

This case...

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