Editor's note: This report compiles all relevant news, events and materials on International and European Sports Law based on the daily coverage provided on our twitter feed @Sportslaw_asser. You are invited to complete this survey via the comments section below, feel free to add links to important cases, documents and articles we might have overlooked.

The Headlines

#Save(d)Hakeem

The plight of Hakeem al-Araibi – the 25-year-old refugee footballer who was arrested last November in Bangkok upon his arrival from Australia on the basis of a red notice issued by Interpol in contravention of its own policies which afford protection to refugees and asylum-seekers – continued throughout the month of January. Bahrain – the country Hakeem al-Araibi fled in 2014 due to a (well-founded) fear of persecution stemming from his previous experience when he was imprisoned and tortured as part of the crackdown on pro-democracy athletes who had protested against the royal family during the Arab spring – maintained a firm stance, demanding that Hakeem be extradited to serve a prison sentence over a conviction for vandalism charges, which was allegedly based on coerced confessions and ignored evidence.

While international sports governing bodies were critised from the very beginning for not using enough leverage with the governments of Bahrain and Thailand to ensure that Hakeem’s human rights are protected, they have gradually added their voice to the intense campaign for Hakeem’s release led by civil society groups. FIFA, for example, has sent a letter directly to the Prime Minister of Thailand, urging the Thai authorities ‘to take the necessary steps to ensure that Mr al-Araibi is allowed to return safely to Australia at the earliest possible moment, in accordance with the relevant international standards’. Yet many activists have found this action insufficient and called for sporting sanctions to be imposed on the national football associations of Bahrain and Thailand.      

When it looked like Hakeem will continue to be detained in Thailand at least until April this year, the news broke that the Thai authorities agreed to release Hakeem due to the fact that for now the Bahraini government had given up on the idea of bringing Hakeem ‘home’ – a moment that was praised as historic for the sport and human rights movement.

Russia avoids further sanctions from WADA despite missing the deadline for handing over doping data from the Moscow laboratory 

WADA has been back in turmoil ever since the new year began as the Russian authorities failed to provide it with access to crucial doping data from the former Moscow laboratory within the required deadline which expired on 31 December 2018, insisting that the equipment WADA intended to use for the data extraction was not certified under Russian law. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency thus failed to meet one of the two conditions under which its three-year suspension was controversially lifted in September 2018. The missed deadline sparked outrage among many athletes and national anti-doping organisations, who blamed WADA for not applying enough muscle against the Russian authorities.

Following the expiry of the respective deadline, it appeared that further sanctions could be imposed on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, but such an option was on the table only until WADA finally managed to access the Moscow laboratory and retrieve the doping data on 17 January 2019. Shortly thereafter, WADA President Sir Craig Reedie hailed the progress as a major breakthrough for clean sport and members of the WADA Executive Committee agreed that no further sanctions were needed despite the missed deadline. However, doubts remain as to whether the data have not been manipulated. Before WADA delivers on its promise and builds strong cases against the athletes who doped – to be handled by international sports federations – it first needs to do its homework and verify whether the retrieved data are indeed genuine.  

British track cyclist Jessica Varnish not an employee according to UK employment tribunal

On 16 January 2019, an employment tribunal in Manchester rendered a judgment with wider implications for athletes and sports governing bodies in the United Kingdom, ruling that the female track cyclist Jessica Varnish was neither an employee nor a worker of the national governing body British Cycling and the funding agency UK Sport. The 28-year-old multiple medal winner from the world and European championships takes part in professional sport as an independent contractor but sought to establish before the tribunal that she was in fact an employee of the two organisations. This would enable her to sue either organisation for unfair dismissal as she was dropped from the British cycling squad for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and her funding agreement was not renewed, allegedly in response to her critical remarks about some of the previous coaching decisions.

The tribunal eventually dismissed her challenge, concluding that ‘she was not personally performing work provided by the respondent – rather she was personally performing a commitment to train in accordance with the individual rider agreement in the hope of achieving success at international competitions’. Despite the outcome of the dispute, Jessica Varnish has insisted that her legal challenge contributed to a positive change in the structure, policies and personnel of British Cycling and UK Sport, while both organisations have communicated they had already taken action to strengthen the duty of care and welfare provided to athletes.  

Sports Law Related Decisions

•  Employment Tribunal – Reserved judgment in the case involving Jess Varnish

Official Documents and Press Releases

• CAS – Bulletin 2018/02
• CAS – Code of sports-related arbitration (effective from 1 January 2019)
• FIFA – Statement on Hakeem al-Araibi
• FIFA – Letter to the Thai authorities concerning Hakeem al-Araibi
• FIFA – FIFA Appeal Committee partially upholds appeal lodged by Kalusha Bwalya
• FIFA – FIFA, UNESCO and the World Food Programme agree innovative partnership
• FIFA – Global Transfer Market Report 2018 - women
• FIFA – Global Transfer Market Report 2018 - men
• FIFA – Intermediaries in International Transfers 2018
• FIFA – Joint public statement on behalf of FIFA, UEFA, AFC, the Premier League, LaLiga and Bundesliga on beoutQ
• FIFA – Normalisation committee appointed for Namibian FA
• Human Rights Watch – Qatar: Partial reforms risk undermining progress
• IBSF – IBSF sanctions Russian bobsleigh athletes and official for anti-doping rule violation with a period of ineligibility of two years
• IOC – New year’s message 2019
• IOC – IOC disappointed at decision of Swiss Federal Tribunal
• IOC – IOC sanctions one athlete for failing anti-doping tests at London 2012
• IOC – Stockholm-Are and Milan-Cortina submit innovative Games plans for the Olympic Winter Games 2026
• Tennis Integrity Unit – Annual Review 2018
• Tennis Integrity Unit – Cristobal Saavedra-Corvalan suspended and fined for failing to cooperate with TIU corruption investigation
• UEFA – Club Licensing Benchmarking Report Financial Year 2017
• UEFA – UEFA report details European football’s journey to profitability
• WADA – New Year message to stakeholders from WADA President and Director General
• WADA – Reminder: WADA is soliciting feedback on the Anti-Doping Charter of Athlete Rights
• WADA – Update on extraction of Moscow Laboratory data and RUSADA compliance status
• WADA – Statement from the WADA Athlete Committee on Russian compliance situation
• WADA – WADA expert team to return to Moscow
• WADA – WADA successfully retrieves data from Moscow Laboratory
• WADA – WADA Executive Committee endorses CRC recommendation to continue applying conditions of RUSADA compliance
• WADA – WADA Compliance Review Committee update

In the news

Doping

• Associated Press Russian court says bobsledder can keep Olympic titles
• BBC Sport Alexandr Zubkov to keep Olympic titles in Russia despite IOC ruling
• Andy Brown WADA’s Intelligence & Investigations department covering 20% of cases
• Sean Ingle Marathon champion Jemima Sumgong has doping ban doubled to eight years
• Sean Ingle Tribunal to hear claims ex-Team Sky doctor Freeman ordered testosterone
• Sean Ingle WADA accussed of being ‘played’ after Russians miss doping data deadline
• Sean Ingle WADA athletes body adds to pressure for new ban on Russia
• Sean Ingle WADA experts set to return to Russia to investigate doping data after IT row
• Sean Ingle WADA retrieves doping data from Moscow but doubts linger over veracity
• Sean Ingle Russia avoids further WADA sanctions despite missing data deadline

Football

• David Conn Europe’s top-tier football clubs reap benefit of FFP with first overall profit
• David Conn Manchester City refuse to give UEFA any comment on FFP allegations
• David Conn Revealed: The ‘dire consequences’ of football’s relationship with gambling
• Helen Davidson Hakeem al-Araibi: Bahrain says refugee footballer’s life is not in danger
• Helen Davidson Call for FIFA’s Salman al-Khalifa to step down if Hakeem al-Araibi is not freed
• Sean Ingle FIFA urges Thailand to release Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi
• Sean Ingle Real Madrid and Barcelona overtake Manchester United as top earning clubs
• Sean Ingle and Helen Davidson Campaigners say case of Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi now an ‘emergency’
• Tariq Panja FIFA’s boss wants to remake the game. Europe wants no part of it.
• Tariq Panja Politics looms over empty seats as Saudi Arabia faces Qatar in Asian Cup
• Tariq Panja U.A.E. accuses Qatar of fielding ineligible players at Asian Cup
• Tariq Panja When is a hacker whistle-blower? In Football Leaks case, a Hungarian judge will decide
• Tariq Panja and Kevin Draper Cristiano Ronaldo’s DNA sought by Las Vegas police in rape investigation
• Tariq Panja and Hiroko Tabuchi Japan’s Olympic chief faces corruption charges in France

Other

• Stine Alvad FIFA fails to live up to own human rights standards in #SaveHakeen case, critics say
• Philip Blenkinsop Nike’s Dutch tax status investigated by EU regulators
• Sean Ingle Jess Varnish loses employment tribunal case against British Cycling and UK Sport
• Sean Ingle Jess Varnish: I lost, but my stance has exposed a culture of fear
• Sean Ingle ‘Lives have been transformed’ – the entrepreneur who put £10m into grassroots sport
• Sam Jones Police in Spain break up tennis match-fixing ring involving 28 pros
• Braden Keith FINA relaxes rules, won’t ban athletes for competing in non-FINA events
• Malay Mail CAS dismisses Karim’s appeal against IAAF
• Liam Morgan Japanese Olympic Committee President indicted on corruption charges in France
• Jonathan Taylor Response to open letter from Sebastian Samuelsson

Academic Materials

International Sports Law Journal

• Cem Abanazir E-sport and the EU: The View from the English Bridge Union
• Alexander Brown and Roger Baines The Potential Exploitation of Non-English Speaking Players in UK Professional Football Contracts
• James Brown Genetic Doping: WADA We Do About the Future of ‘Cheating’ in Sport?
• John Didulica Changing the Game: The Legal Framework for the Laws of the Game, Management of Human Performance Data and Related Safety Considerations in Women's Professional Sport
• Matteo Maciel and Adam Walton Can Player Economic Value Rights Be Used as Collateral?

Other

• Jan Exner Sporting Nationality in the Context of European Union

Blog

Law in Sport

• Katherine Apps Can you ‘temporarily step down’ from an employment role? A view on Craig Bellamy’s position
• Kevin Carpenter Podcast on career in sports law and sports integrity
• Angela Collins Gender equality in football – how much does FIFA ‘value’ the women’s game?
• Zoe Dudgeon and Elinor Boote A comprehensive guide for sports bodies on tackling discrimination
• Nick Hawkins and Naomi Latham Top tips for football clubs on navigating complex employment negotiations
• Marc Peltier French law brought into line with the World Anti-Doping Code
• Angelo Rigopoulos A guide to UEFA’s good governance reform
• Toni Roca FIFA’s proposed solidarity mechanism reforms – an effective solution or a lost opportunity?
• Brendan Schwab Podcast on the Hakeem al-Araibi case 

Other

• Jack Anderson Sport scandals of 2018
• Nikki Dryden Why Hakeem al-Araibi’s plight is a test of the Olympic movement itself
• Marina Hyde Inconceivable! Russia yet again leaves Sir Craig Reedie looking the fool
• Marina Hyde Saudi Arabia, sportwashing and golf’s daring sortie into enemy coffers
• Marina Hyde The anti-WADA ‘lynch mob’ is not one Vernon Kay and co would recognise
• Sean Ingle Football must go in hard on Bahrain over the Hakeem al-Araibi affair
• Doug MacQuarrie Another point of view from Doug MacQuarrie, Chair of iNADO
• Sportschau The duped cheat
• Minky Worden Hakeem al-Araibi’s case is a true test of FIFA’s new human rights policy

Upcoming Events

• 8 May – FIFA and Human Rights: Impacts, Policies and Responsibilities, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, Netherlands
• 22-23 May – Football Law 2019: Player Transfers, Agents, Politics and the Business of Football, London, UK
• 27-28 June – 14^th Sport&EU Annual Conference, Valleta, Malta
• 12-13 September – Understand the Rules of the Game 2019: LawInSport Annual Conference, London, UK
• 24-25 October – Third Annual International Sports Law Conference of the International Sports Law Journal, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, Netherlands

The Editors of the International Sports Law Journal (ISLJ) invite you to submit abstracts for the third ISLJ Annual Conference on International Sports Law, which will take place on 24 and 25 October 2019 at the Asser Institute in The Hague. The ISLJ, published by Springer and Asser Press, is the leading academic publication in the field of international sports law. The conference is a unique occasion to discuss the main legal issues affecting international sports with renowned academic experts and practitioners.

We are delighted to announce the following confirmed keynote speakers:

• Beckie Scott (Chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Athlete Committee, Olympic Champion, former member of the WADA Executive Committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)),
• Ulrich Haas (Professor of Law at Univerzität Zürich, CAS arbitrator), and
• Kimberly Morris (Head of FIFA Transfer Matching System (TMS) Integrity and Compliance).

We welcome abstracts from academics and practitioners on any question related to international sports law. We also welcome panel proposals (including a minimum of three presenters) on a specific issue. For this year’s edition, we specifically invite submissions on the following themes:

• The role of athletes in the governance of international sports
• The evolution of sports arbitration, including the Court of Arbitration for Sport
•  The role and functioning of the FIFA transfer system, including the FIFA TMS
•  The intersection between criminal law and international sports (in particular issues of corruption, match-fixing, human trafficking, tax evasion)
• Hooliganism
• Protection of minor athletes
• Civil and criminal liability relating to injuries in sports

Please send your abstract of 300 words and CV no later than 30 April 2019 to a.duval@asser.nl. Selected speakers will be informed by 15 May.

The selected participants will be expected to submit a draft paper by 1 September 2019. All papers presented at the conference are eligible (subjected to peer-review) for publication in a special issue of the ISLJ.  To be considered for inclusion in the conference issue of the journal, the final draft must be submitted for review by 15 December 2019.  Submissions after this date will be considered for publication in later editions of the Journal.

The Asser Institute will cover one night accommodation for the speakers and will provide a limited amount of travel grants (max. 250€). If you wish to be considered for a grant please indicate it in your submission. 

Editor's note: Daniela Heerdt is a PhD candidate at Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands and works as Research Officer for the Centre for Sports and Human Rights. Her PhD research deals with the establishment of responsibility and accountability for adverse human rights impacts of mega-sporting events, with a focus on FIFA World Cups and Olympic Games. She published an article in the International Sports Law Journal that discusses to what extent the revised bidding and hosting regulations by FIFA, the IOC and UEFA strengthen access to remedy for mega-sporting events-related human rights violations.

On November 26^th, the Human Rights Advisory Board[1] of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) published its second report. This blog provides a summary and brief evaluation of the report, by drawing a comparison to the previous report issued by the Human Rights Advisory Board (hereinafter: the Board) based on the content of the recommendations and FIFA’s efforts to implement the Board’s recommendations. The third part of this blog briefly reflects on the broader implications of some of the new recommendations issued for FIFA’s internal policies. The conclusion provides five more general points of observation on the report. More...

Editor’s note: Sven Demeulemeester and Niels Verborgh are sports lawyers at the Belgium law firm, Altius.

Introduction

In its 16 November 2018 judgment, the Court of Justice of the European Free Trade Association States (the EFTA Court) delivered its eagerly awaited ruling in the case involving Henrik Kristoffersen and the Norwegian Ski Federation (NSF). 

On 17 October 2016, Kristoffersen had taken the NSF to the Oslo District Court over the latter’s refusal to let the renowned alpine skier enter into a sponsorship with Red Bull. At stake were the commercial markings on his helmet and headgear in races organised under the NSF’s umbrella. The NSF refused this sponsorship because it had already granted the advertising on helmet and headgear to its own main sponsor, Telenor. Kristoffersen claimed before the Oslo District Court, that the NSF should be ordered to permit him to enter into an individual marketing contract with Red Bull. In the alternative, Kristoffersen claimed damages up to a maximum of NOK 15 million. By a letter of 25 September 2017, the Oslo District Court referred several legal questions to the EFTA Court in view of shedding light on the compatibility of the rules that the NSF had invoked with EEA law.

If rules do not relate to the conduct of the sport itself, but concern sponsorship rights and hence an economic activity, these rules are subject to EEA law. The EFTA Court ruling is important in that it sets out the framework for dealing with - ever more frequent - cases in which an individual athlete’s endorsement deals conflict with the interest of the national or international sports governing bodies (SGBs) that he or she represents in international competitions.More...

Season 2 of #FootballLeaks is now underway since more than a week and already a significant number of episodes (all the articles published can be found on the European Investigative Collaborations’ website) covering various aspect of the (lack of) transnational regulation of football have been released (a short German documentary sums up pretty much the state of play). For me, as a legal scholar, this new series of revelations is an exciting opportunity to discuss in much more detail than usual various questions related to the operation of the transnational private regulations of football imposed by FIFA and UEFA (as we already did during the initial football leaks with our series of blogs on TPO in 2015/2016). Much of what has been unveiled was known or suspected by many, but the scope and precision of the documents published makes a difference. At last, the general public, as well as academics, can have certainty about the nature of various shady practices in the world of football. One key characteristic that explains the lack of information usually available is that football, like many international sports, is actually governed by private administrations (formally Swiss associations), which are not subject to the similar obligations in terms of transparency than public ones (e.g. access to document rules, systematic publication of decisions, etc.). In other words, it’s a total black box! The football leaks are offering a rare sneak peak into that box.

Based on what I have read so far (this blog was written on Friday 9 November), there are three main aspects I find worthy of discussion:

• The (lack of) enforcement of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) Regulations
• The European Super League project and EU competition law
• The (lack of) separation of powers inside FIFA and UEFA More...