Editor’s Note: Shervine Nafissi (@SNafissi) is a Phd Student in sports law and teaching assistant in corporate law at University of Lausanne (Switzerland), Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC).
Introduction
The factual background
The dispute concerns a TPO contract entitled “Economic Rights Participation Agreement” (hereinafter “ERPA”) concluded in 2012 between Sporting Lisbon and the investment fund Doyen Sports. The Argentine player was transferred in 2012 by Spartak Moscow to Sporting Lisbon for a transfer fee of €4 million. Actually, Sporting only paid €1 million of the fee while Doyen Sports financed the remaining €3 million. In return, the investment company became the owner of 75% of the economic rights of the player.[1] Thus, in this specific case, the Portuguese club was interested in recruiting Marcos Rojo but was unable to pay the transfer fee required by Spartak Moscow, so that they required the assistance of Doyen Sports. The latter provided them with the necessary funds to pay part of the transfer fee in exchange of an interest on the economic rights of the player.
Given that the facts and circumstances leading to the dispute, as well as the decision of the CAS, were fully described by Antoine Duval in last week’s blog of Doyen vs. Sporting, this blog will solely focus on the decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (“FSC”) following Sporting’s appeal against the CAS award. As a preliminary point, the role of the FSC in the appeal against CAS awards should be clarified.More...
Editor’s note: Professor
Mitten is the Director of the National Sports Law Institute and the LL.M. in
Sports Law program for foreign lawyers at Marquette University Law School in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He currently teaches courses in Amateur Sports Law, Professional
Sports Law, Sports Sponsorship Legal and Business Issues Workshop, and Torts.
Professor Mitten is a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),
and has served on the ad hoc Division for the XXI Winter Olympic Games in Sochi,
Russia.
This Book Review is published at 26 Marquette Sports Law Review 247 (2015).
This
comprehensive treatise of more than 700 pages on the Code of the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) (the Code) is an excellent resource that is useful
to a wide audience, including attorneys representing parties before the CAS,
CAS arbitrators, and sports law professors and scholars, as well as
international arbitration counsel, arbitrators, and scholars. It also should be of interest to national
court judges and their law clerks because it facilitates their understanding of
the CAS arbitration process for resolving Olympic and international sports
disputes and demonstrates that the Code provides procedural fairness and
substantive justice to the parties, thereby justifying judicial recognition and
enforcement of its awards.[1]
Because the Code has been in existence
for more than twenty years—since November 22, 1994—and has been revised four
times, this book provides an important and much needed historical perspective
and overview that identifies and explains well-established principles of CAS
case law and consistent practices of CAS arbitrators and the CAS Court Office. Both authors formerly served as Counsel to
the CAS and now serve as Head of Research and Mediation at CAS and CAS
Secretary General, respectively, giving them the collective expertise and
experience that makes them eminently well-qualified to research and write this
book.More...
Graph 1: Number of Cases submitted to CAS (CAS Satistics)
More...