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
Caster Semenya learns that it is not always easy for
victims of discrimination to prevail in court
The world of sport
held its breath as the Secretary General of the Court of Arbitration for Sport
(CAS) Matthieu Reeb stood before
the microphones on 1
May 2019 to announce the verdict reached by three arbitrators (one of them dissenting)
in the landmark case involving the South African Olympic and world champion
Caster Semenya. Somewhat surprisingly, the panel of arbitrators came to the
conclusion that the IAAF’s regulations requiring female athletes with
differences of sexual development to reduce their natural testosterone level
below the limit of 5 nmol/L and maintain that reduced level for a continuous
period of at least six months in order to be eligible to compete
internationally at events between 400 metres and a mile, were necessary,
reasonable and proportionate to attain the legitimate aim of ensuring fair competition
in female athletics, even though the panel recognised that the regulations were
clearly discriminatory. Ms Semenya’s legal team decided to file an appeal against the ruling at the Swiss Federal Tribunal. For
the time being, this appears to be a good move since the tribunal ordered the
IAAF at the beginning of June to suspend the application
of the challenged regulations to Ms Semenya with immediate effect, which means that Ms Semenya for now continues to run
medication-free.
Champions League ban looms on Manchester City
On 18 May 2019,
Manchester City completed a historic domestic treble after defeating Watford
6-0 in the FA Cup Final. And yet there is a good reason to believe that the
club’s executives did not celebrate as much as they would under normal
circumstances. This is because only two days before the FA Cup Final the news broke that the chief investigator of the UEFA Club
Financial Control Body (CFCB) had decided to refer
Manchester City’s case
concerning allegations of financial fair play irregularities to the CFCB
adjudicatory chamber for a final decision. Thus, the chief investigator most
likely found that Manchester City had indeed misled UEFA over the real value of
its sponsorship income from the state-owned airline Etihad and other companies
based in Abu Dhabi, as the leaked internal emails and other documents published
by the German magazine Der Spiegel suggested. The chief investigator is also
thought to have recommended that a ban on participation in the Champions League
for at least one season be imposed on the English club. The club’s
representatives responded to the news with fury and disbelief, insisting that
the CFCB investigatory chamber had failed to take into account a comprehensive
body of irrefutable evidence it had been provided with. They eventually decided
not to wait for the decision of the CFCB adjudicatory chamber, which is yet to
be adopted, and meanwhile took the case to the CAS, filing an appeal against the chief investigator’s referral.
The Brussels Court of Appeal dismisses Striani’s
appeal on jurisdictional grounds
The player agent
Daniele Striani failed to convince the Brussels Court of Appeal that it had jurisdiction
to entertain his case targeting UEFA’s financial fair play regulations. On 11
April 2019, the respective court dismissed his appeal against the judgment of
the first-instance court without pronouncing itself on the question of
compatibility of UEFA’s financial fair play regulations with EU law. The court
held that it was not competent to hear the case because the link between the
regulations and their effect on Mr Striani as a player agent, as well as the
link between the regulations and the role of the Royal Belgian Football
Association in their adoption and enforcement, was too remote (for a more
detailed analysis of the decision, see Antoine’s blog here). The Brussels Court of Appeal thus joined the
European Court of Justice and the European Commission as both these
institutions had likewise rejected to assess the case on its merits in the
past.
Sports Law Related Decisions
Official Documents and Press Releases
CAS
FIFA
IOC
UEFA
WADA
Other
In the news
Doping
Football
- Associated
Press FIFA bans
South Sudanese official for taking soccer money
- BBC Sport Mino Raiola:
Paul Pogba’s agent banned for three months by FIFA
- Andy
Brown Bulgaria
relegates FC Vereya on receipt of UEFA match-fixing information
- David
Conn 2022 World
Cup in Qatar to remain as a 32-team tournament, FIFA announces
- David
Conn Manchester
City accuse UEFA of leaks amid Champions League ban threat
- David
Conn Manchester
City furious after UEFA investigation is sent for final judgment
- David
Conn Premier
League clubs’ record £4.8 billion revenues widens gap to rest of Europe
- David
Conn Premier
League finances: The full club-by-club breakdown and verdict
- David
Conn Promotion and
relegation part of explosive Champions League plans
- Marina
Hyde UEFA’s
‘parking ticket’ fines will not rein in football’s maverick clubs
- Sean
Ingle Manchester
City and PSG should be thrown out of Europe, says La Liga president
- Amy
Lawrence and Sean Ingle Arsenal’s
Henrikh Mkhitaryan to miss Europa League final over safety fears
- Liam
Morgan Sierra Leone
could be welcomed back by FIFA after president and secretary general cleared of
corruption
- Tariq
Panja A trove of
FIFA secrets, locked inside a New Jersey storage locker
- Tariq
Panja Bundesliga’s
chief executive isn’t keen to join Premier League
- Tariq
Panja China’s
soccer push takes a new tack: Naturalizing foreign players
- Tariq
Panja FIFA drops
plan for 48-team World Cup in 2022
- Tariq
Panja For Europe’s
soccer chief, the outrage arrives in waves
- Tariq
Panja In Europe, a
bitter battle between clubs and leagues is taking shape
- Tariq
Panja In soccer’s
biggest elections, accusations are common but challengers are not
- Tariq
Panja Powerful
Sheikh linked to bribe scheme is still a soccer power
- Tariq
Panja Proposal to
restructure Champions League leaves out most of Europe
- Tariq
Panja Sepp Blatter,
who departed FIFA in scandal, wants the watches he left at the office
- Tariq
Panja She has
friends at FIFA. At home, it’s mostly critics.
- Tariq
Panja UEFA
investigators set to seek Manchester City’s ban from Champions League
- Martyn
Ziegler Europa League
final: Azerbaijan, the host country where journalist Rasim Aliyev was killed
for criticising Azerbaijan midfielder Javid Huseynov
Other
Academic Materials
Books
International Sports Law Journal
Other
Blog
Asser International Sports Law Blog
Law in Sport
Other
Upcoming Events
- 30 June
-14 July – CLS Summer
School 2019: Global Law of Sport, Patejdlova Bouda, Giant Mountains, Czech Republic
- 30-31
August – Third EU
Sports Law and Policy Summer School, Edge Hill University, UK
- 12-13
September – Understand
the Rules of the Game 2019: LawInSport Annual Conference, London, UK
- 27-28
September – 8th
International Congress on Football Law, Madrid, Spain
- 13-16
October – Play the Game
2019: Athlete Power on the Rise, Colorado Springs, USA
- 24-25
October – Third Annual
International Sports Law Conference of the International Sports Law Journal, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, Netherlands
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
Official Documents and Press Releases
In the news
Doping
Football
Other
Academic Materials
International Sports Law Journal
Other
Blog
Law in Sport
Other
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 – 14th
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: In the coming days we will introduce the supporters of our upcoming ISLJ Annual International Sports Law Conference 2018 (also known as #ISLJConf18). To do so, we have sent them a tailored questionnaire aimed at reflecting both their activities and their expectations for the conference. It is a good opportunity for us to thank them for their enthusiastic support and commitment to international sports law research. We are very happy to finish this series of interviews with Sven Demeulemeester from Altius, a Belgian law firm based in Brussels with a very fine (and academically-minded!) sports law team.
1. Can you explain to our readers the work of Altius in international sports law?
Across different sports’ sectors, Altius’ sports law practice advises and assists some of the world’s most high-profile sports governing bodies, clubs and athletes, at both the national and the international level. The team has 6 fully-dedicated sports lawyers and adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, which guarantees a broad range of legal expertise for handling specific cases or wider issues related to the sports industry. We are proud to be independent but, in cross-border matters, are able to tap into a worldwide network.
2. How is it to be an international sports lawyer? What are the advantages and challenges of the job?
Sports law goes beyond one specific field of law. The multiplicity of legal angles keeps the work interesting, even after years of practising, and ensures that a sports lawyer rarely has a dull moment. The main downside is that the sports industry is fairly conservative and sometimes ‘political’. While the law is one thing, what happens in practice is often another. Bringing about change is not always easy.
3. What are the burning issues in international sports law that you would like to see discussed at the conference?
The much-anticipated overhaul of the football transfer system is eagerly anticipated and is worth a thorough debate, also in terms of possible, viable alternatives. The impact of EU law - both internal market rules, competition law and fundamental rights – can hardly be underestimated. Also, dispute resolution mechanisms within the realm of sports - and an accessible, transparent, independent and impartial sports arbitration in particular - will remain a ‘hot’ topic in the sector for years to come. Furthermore, ethics and integrity issues should remain top of the agenda, as is being demonstrated by the current money-laundering and match-fixing allegations in Belgium. Finally, in a sector in which the use of data is rife, the newly-adopted GDPR’s impact remains somewhat ‘under the radar’.
4. Why did you decide to support the ISLJ Annual International Sports Law Conference?
The ISLJ Annual International Sports Law Conference is refreshing, both in terms of its topics and participants. The academic and content-driven approach is a welcome addition to other sports law conferences in which the networking aspect often predominates.
Editor's note: In the coming days we will introduce the supporters of our upcoming ISLJ Annual International Sports Law Conference 2018 (also known as #ISLJConf18). To do so, we have sent them a tailored questionnaire aimed at reflecting both their activities and their expectations for the conference. It is a good opportunity for us to thank them for their enthusiastic support and commitment to international sports law research. We are very proud to start this series of interviews with Women in Sports Law, an association launched in 2016 and which has already done so much to promote and advance the role of women in international sports law (many thanks to Despina Mavromati for kindly responding to our questions on behalf of WISLaw).
1. Can you explain to our readers what WISLaw is
about?
Women In Sports Law (WISLaw, www.wislaw.co) is an international association based in Lausanne that unites more
than 300 women from 50 countries specializing in sports law. It is a
professional network that aims at increasing the visibility of women working in
the sector, through a detailed members’ directory and various small-scale talks
and events held in different countries around the world. These small-scale
events give the opportunity to include everyone in the discussion and enhance the
members’ network. Men from the sector and numerous arbitral institutions,
conference organizers and universities have come to actively support our
initiative.
2. What are the challenges and opportunities for
women getting involved in international sports law?
Women used to be invisible in this sector. All-male
panels were typical at conferences and nobody seemed to notice this flagrant
lack of diversity. WISLaw created this much-needed platform to increase
visibility through the members’ directory and through a series of small-scale
events where all members, independent of their status or seniority, can attend
and be speakers.
Another difficulty is that European football (soccer)
is traditionally considered to be a “male-dominated” sport, despite the fact
that there are so many great female football teams around the world. The same misperception
applies to sports lawyers!
Last, there is a huge number of women lawyers
working as in-house counsel and as sports administrators. There is a glass
ceiling for many of those women, and the WISLaw annual evaluation of the
participation of women in those positions attempts to target their issues and
shed more light into this specific problem.
3. What are the burning issues in international
sports law that you would like to see discussed at the conference?
The ISLJ Annual Conference has already set up a
great lineup of topics combining academic and more practical discussions in
the most recent issues in international sports law.
4. Why did you decide to support the ISLJ Annual
International Sports Law Conference?
The Asser
International Sports Law Centre has promoted and supported WISLaw since the
very beginning. The ISLJ Annual International Sports Law Conference was the
first big conference to officially include a WISLaw lunch talk in its program,
allowing thus the conference attendees to be part of a wider informal
discussion on a specific topical issue and raise their questions with respect
to WISLaw. Another important reason why WISLaw supports this conference is
because the conference organizers are making sincere efforts to have increased
diversity in the panels : this year’s ISLJ Annual International Sports Law
Conference is probably the first sports law conference to come close to a full gender
balance in its panels, with 40% of the speakers being women !
Dear all,
Last year we decided to launch the 'ISLJ Annual International Sports Law Conference' in order to give a public platform to the academic discussions on international sports law featured in the ISLJ. The first edition of the conference was a great success (don't take my word for it, just check out #ISLJConf17 on twitter), featuring outstanding speakers and lively discussions with the room. We were very happy to see people from some many different parts of the world congregating at the Institute to discuss the burning issues of their field of practice and research.
This year, on 25 and 26 October, we are hosting the second edition and we are again welcoming well-known academics and practitioners in the field. The discussions will turn around the notion of lex sportiva, the role of Swiss law in international sports law, the latest ISU decision of the European Commission, the Mutu/Pechstein ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, or the reform proposal of the FIFA Regulations on the Transfer and Status of Players. It should be, it will be, an exciting two days!
You will find below the final programme of the conference, please feel free to circulate it within your networks. We have still some seats left, so don't hesitate to register (here) and to join us.
Looking forward to seeing you and meeting you there!
Antoine
Call for papers: Annual International Sports Law Conference of the International Sports Law Journal
Asser Institute, The Hague
25 and 26 October 2018
The editorial board of the International Sports Law Journal (ISLJ) is inviting you to submit abstracts for its second ISLJ Annual Conference on International Sports Law, which will take place on 25 and 26 October at the Asser Institute in The Hague. The ISLJ published by Springer in collaboration with Asser Press is the leading academic publication in the field of international sports law. Its readership includes academics and many practitioners active in the field. This call is open to researchers as well as practitioners.
We are also delighted to announce that Prof. Franck Latty (Université Paris Nanterre), Prof. Margareta Baddeley (Université de Genève), and Silvia Schenk (member of FIFA’s Human Rights Advisory Board) have confirmed their participation as keynote speakers.
Abstracts could, for example, tackle questions linked to the following international sports law subjects:
- The interaction between EU law and sport
- Antitrust and sports regulation
- International sports arbitration (CAS, BAT, etc.)
- The functioning of the world anti-doping system (WADA, WADC, etc.)
- The global governance of sports
- The regulation of mega sporting events (Olympics, FIFA World Cup, etc.)
- The transnational regulation of football (e.g. the operation of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players or the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations)
- The global fight against corruption in sport
- Comparative sports law
- Human rights in sport
Please send your abstract (no more than 300 words) and CV no later than 30 April 2018 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 2018. All papers presented at the conference are eligible for publication in a special edition of the ISLJ. To be considered for inclusion in the conference edition of the journal, the final draft must be submitted for review by 15 December 2018. 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. 300€). If you wish to be considered for a grant please justify your request in your submission.
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
Anti-doping whereabouts requirements declared
compatible with the athletes' right to privacy and family life
On 18 January 2018,
the European Court of Human Rights rendered a judgment with important consequences for the world of sport in
general and the anti-doping regime in particular. The Strasbourg-based court
was called upon to decide whether the anti-doping whereabouts system – which requires that a limited number of top elite
athletes provide their National Anti-Doping Organisation or International
Federation with regular information about their location, including identifying
for each day one specific 60-minute time slot where the athlete will be
available for testing at a pre-determined location – is compatible with the
athletes' right to private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and their freedom of movement pursuant to Article 2
Protocol No. 4 of the Convention. The case was brought by the French cyclist
Jeannie Longo and five French athlete unions that had filed their application
on behalf of 99 professional handball, football, rugby, and basketball players.
While acknowledging
that the whereabouts requirements clash with the athletes' right to private and
family life, the judges took the view that such a restriction is necessary in
order to protect the health of athletes and ensure a level playing field in
sports competitions. They held that ''the
reduction or removal of the relevant obligations would lead to an increase in
the dangers of doping for the health of sports professionals and of all those
who practise sports, and would be at odds with the European and international
consensus on the need for unannounced testing as part of doping control''. Accordingly,
the judges found no violation of Article 8 of the Convention and, in a similar
vein, ruled that Article 2 Protocol No. 4 of the Convention was not applicable
to the case.
Football stakeholders preparing to crack down on
agents' excessive fees
It has been a
record-breaking January transfer window with Premier League clubs having spent
an eye-watering £430 million on signing new acquisitions. These spiralling
transfer fees enable football agents, nowadays also called intermediaries, to
charge impressive sums for their services. However, this might soon no longer
be the case as the main stakeholders in European football are preparing to take
action. UEFA, FIFPro, the European Club Association and the European
Professional Football Leagues acknowledge in their joint resolution that the 2015 FIFA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries failed to address serious concerns in relation to the
activities of intermediaries/agents. They recognise in broad terms that a more
effective regulatory framework is needed and call among other things for a
reasonable and proportionate cap on fees for intermediaries/agents, enhanced
transparency and accountability, or stronger provisions to protect minors.
The CAS award in Joseph Odartei Lamptey v. FIFA
On 15 January 2018,
FIFA published on its website an arbitral award delivered on 4 August 2017 by the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the dispute between the
Ghanian football referee Joseph Odartei Lamptey and FIFA. The CAS sided with
FIFA and dismissed the appeal filed by Mr Lamptey against an earlier decision
of the FIFA Appeal Committee which (i) found him to have violated Article 69(1)
of the FIFA Disciplinary Code as he unlawfully influenced the 2018 World Cup
qualifying match between South Africa and Senegal that took place on 12
November 2016; (ii) as a consequence, banned him for life from taking part in
any football-related activity; and (iii) ordered the match in question to be
replayed. In reaching its conclusion, the CAS relied heavily on multiple
reports of irregular betting activities that significantly deviated from usual
market developments. More...