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

FIFA and FIFPro sign landmark agreement

A six-year cooperation agreement concluded between FIFA and FIFPro on 6 November 2017 puts an end to protracted negotiations which began after the latter had filed in September 2015 a complaint with the European Commission, challenging the validity of the FIFA transfer system under EU competition law. This agreement, together with an accord reached between FIFA, FIFPro, the European Club Association, and the World Leagues Forum under the umbrella of the FIFA Football Stakeholders Committee, should help streamline dispute resolution between players and clubs, avoid abusive practices in the world of football, or contribute to the growth of professional women's football. In addition, the FIFA Football Stakeholders Committee is now expected to establish a task force to study and conduct a broader review of the transfer system. As part of the deal, FIFPro agreed to withdraw its EU competition law complaint.

FIFA strengthens its human rights commitment amid reports of journalists getting arrested in Russia

It is fair to say that human rights have been at the forefront of FIFA's agenda in 2017. Following the establishment of the Human Rights Advisory Board in March and the adoption of the Human Rights Policy in June this year, in November FIFA published the bidding regulations for the 2026 World Cup. Under these new regulations, member associations bidding to host the final tournament shall, inter alia, commit themselves to respecting all internationally recognised human rights in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights or present a human rights strategy on how they intend to honour this commitment. Importantly, the human rights strategy must include a comprehensive report that is to be complemented and informed by a study elaborated by an independent expert organisation. Moreover, on 9 November 2017, the Human Rights Advisory Board published its first report in which it outlined several recommendations for FIFA on how to further strengthen its efforts to ensure respect for human rights.

While all these attempts to enhance human rights protection are no doubt praiseworthy, they have not yet produced the desired effect as reports of gross human rights abuses linked to FIFA's activities continue to emerge. Most recently, Human Rights Watch documented how Russian police arrested a newspaper editor and a human rights defender whose work focused on exposing World Cup-related corruption and exploitation of migrant construction workers. On a more positive note, a bit of hope comes with the announcement by a diverse coalition, including FIFA, UEFA, and the International Olympic Committee, of its intention to launch a new independent Centre for Sport and Human Rights in 2018.

More than 20 Russian athletes sanctioned by the Oswald Commission for anti-doping rule violations at the Sochi Games   

November has been a busy month for the International Olympic Committee, especially for its Oswald Commission. Established in July 2016 after the first part of the McLaren Independent Investigation Report had been published, the Oswald Commission is tasked with investigating the alleged doping violations by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Its first sanctions were handed down last month. As of 30 November 2017, the Commission chaired by the IOC Member Denis Oswald sanctioned 22 athletes (see here, here, here, here, here, and here) who competed at the Sochi Olympics in the following sports: biathlon, bobsleigh, cross country skiing, skeleton, and speed skating. The Commission published its first full decision on 27 November 2017 in the case against the cross country skier Alexander Legkov, a gold and silver medallist from the Sochi Olympics, who was ultimately banned for life from attending another Olympics.

Sports Law Related Decisions

• CAS – Award delivered in the arbitration between Danis Zaripov and the International Ice Hockey Federation
• IOC – Decision of the Disciplinary Commission in the proceedings against Alexander Legkov
• Swiss Federal Tribunal – Judgment in the case between Michel Platini and FIFA (translated to English)

Official Documents and Press Releases

• Amnesty International – FIFA under pressure over handling of World Cup construction abuse
• CAS – CAS cancels two fines imposed on the Mexican Football Federation and imposes warnings in their place
• CAS – CAS rejects an application for urgent provisional measures filed by Adrien Silva
• CAS – CAS upholds the appeal of football club Real Garcilaso; decision of the Peruvian Football Federation reversed
• FIFA – Adjudicatory Chamber of the independent Ethics Committee bans former football officials
• FIFA – Circular no. 1600 re participation of clubs in the benefits of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia
• FIFA – Circular no. 1601 re professional female players in the international transfer matching system
• FIFA – FIFA and FIFPro sign landmark agreement and announce measures to enhance professional football
• FIFA – First report of the FIFA Human Rights Advisory Board
• FIFA – Guide to the bidding process for the 2026 FIFA World Cup
• FIFPro – Player unions create sexual abuse protocols
• FIFPro – Turkish football tribunal questioned
• Human Rights Watch – Russian human rights defender faces police in court
• IOC – IOC President highlights athletes' exemplary role as the UN General Assembly adopts Olympic Truce for Pyeongchang 2018 by consensus
• IOC – IOC sanctions Russian athletes Anna Nazarova and Yulia Gushchina for failing anti-doping tests at London 2012
• IOC – Oswald Commission findings with regard to Russian athletes:
• Aleksandr Kas'yanov, Aleksei Pushkarev, and Iivir Khuzin
• Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov

• Olga Stulneva, Aleksandr Zubkov, Olga Fatkulina, and Aleksander Rumyantsev
• Sergei Chudino, Aleksei Negodailo, Dmitrii Trunenkov, Yana Romanova, and Olga Vilukhina
• Yuliia Ivanova, Alexey Petukhov, Evgeniya Shapovalova, and Maksim Vylegzhanin
• IOC – Statement on IOC member Frank Fredericks
• United Nations General Assembly – Draft resolution on building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal
• WADA – Compliance Review Committee update
• WADA – Foundation Board takes important decisions that will significantly strengthen the Agency and the future of clean sport
• WADA – WADA in possession of new intelligence from Moscow Laboratory
• WADA – WADA suspends accreditation of Paris Laboratory
• WADA – WADA welcomes the IOC Oswald Commission’s first sanctions against Russian athletes identified via the Agency’s McLaren Investigation

In the news

Doping

• Rachel Axon How will World Anti-Doping Agency decision on Russia impact International Olympic Committee?
• Andy Brown Russian investigation denies WADA evidence and State doping
• Nick Butler WADA obtain key database proving Russian doping before Sochi 2014
• Govorit Moskva The honorary president of Russia’s Olympic Committee says the whistleblower who exposed Moscow’s doping program ‘should be shot, like Stalin would have done’
• Duncan Mackay South African golfer banned after failing drugs test
• Associated Press FIFA suspend Peru striker Guerrero for failing doping test
• Canadian Press Canadian powerlifter Niko Somos gets two-year sanction for anti-doping violation
• Loretta Race Austrian champion Sebastian Steffan handed 12-month doping ban
• Rebecca R. Ruiz Olympic doping diaries: Chemist's notes bolster case against Russia 

Football

• BBC News FIFA insists Isha Johansen is still Sierra Leone FA President
• BBC News Paradise Papers: Who is in control of Everton?
• David Conn FIFA urged to press Qatar on conditions for World Cup stadium workers
• David Conn How the FBI won ‘the World Cup of fraud’ as FIFA scandal arrives in court
• Simon Griver Match not over as West Bank football claim moves to court
• Josimar Interview with Miguel Maduro, former chair of FIFA’s Governance Committee
• Martha Kelner Gay fans warned holding hands at Russia World Cup will be dangerous
• Lombardi Associates The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejects Genoa CFC’s appeal against FIFA decision
• Tariq Panja As sponsors shy away, FIFA faces World Cup shortfall
• Keir Radnedge Warner secures new delay in fight against FIFAGate extradition to United States
• Barney Ronay FIFA’s World Cup debacle is not just about money – there is horror and death too
• Rebecca R. Ruiz FIFA trial: Notable moments from first four days
• Sui-Lee Wee, Ryan McMorrow and Tariq Panja China’s soccer push puts a storied team under murky ownership
• Minky Worden Time for FIFA to act on human rights

Other

• Katie Gainer 2018 Winter Olympics tickets sales could set historic low
• Tariq Panja Powerful Sheikh linked to sports corruption case resurfaces in Prague
• Reuters EU set to rule in favour of speed skaters over ISU ban threat

Academic Materials

• Leonardo de Oliveira Lex Sportiva as the Contractual Governing Law

Blogs

Asser International Sports Law Blog

•  Oytun Azkanar Illegally Obtained Evidence in Match-Fixing Cases: The Turkish Perspective

• Report from the first ISLJ Annual International Sports Law Conference – 26-27 October at the T.M.C. Asser Institute

Law in Sport

• Sarah Bruce Is bridge a sport for VAT purposes? The ECJ's decision in English Bridge Union v. HMRC
• Richard Cooke The lifecycle of an international athlete: Part 9 – Key tips on renovating or building a home
• Hamish Corner The lifecycle of an international athlete: Part 10 – Negotiating sponsorship & endorsements deals
• Ani Ghazikhanian Cycling, doping & the importance of due process: A review of the Karl Murray case
• Mathilde Groppo Defamation in sport: A comparison of the law in France, England and Australia
• Joseph Richmond Financial Fair Play: How clubs justify spending & related party transactions

Others

• Declan Hill FIFA trial: It is a mob affair

Upcoming Events

• 3-4 July 2018 – 13^th Sport & EU Annual Conference, Edge Hill University, England

2015 was a good year for international sports law. It started early in January with the Pechstein ruling, THE defining sports law case of the year (and probably in years to come) and ended in an apotheosis with the decisions rendered by the FIFA Ethics Committee against Blatter and Platini. This blog will walk you through the important sports law developments of the year and make sure that you did not miss any.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport challenged by German Courts 

The more discrete SV Wilhelmshaven ruling came first. It was not even decided in 2015, as the ruling was handed out on 30 December 2014. Yet, unless you are a sports law freak, you will not have taken notice of this case before 2015 (and our blog). It is not as well known as the Pechstein ruling, but it is challenging the whole private enforcement system put in place by FIFA (and similar systems existing in other SGBs). Indeed, the ruling foresees that before enforcing a sanction rendered by FIFA, the national (or in that case regional) federation must verify that the award underlying the sanction is compatible with EU law. The decision has been appealed to the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) and a final ruling is expected in 2016.

Later on, in January, the Oberlandesgericht München dropped its legal bomb in the Pechstein case. The court refused to recognize the CAS award sanctioning Claudia Pechstein with a doping ban, as it was deemed contrary to German antitrust rules. The reasoning used in the ruling was indirectly challenging the independence of the CAS and, if confirmed by the BGH, will trigger a necessary reform of the functioning and institutional structure of the CAS. Paradoxically, this is a giant step forward for international sports law and the CAS. The court acknowledges the need for CAS arbitration in global sport. However, justice must be delivered in a fair fashion and the legitimacy of the CAS (which relies on its independence from the Sports Governing Bodies) must be ensured (see our long article on the case here).

We will see how the BGH will deal with these cases in 2016. In any event, they constitute an important warning shot for the CAS. In short, the CAS needs to take EU law and itself seriously. If it truly addresses these challenges, it will come out way stronger.

The new World Anti-Doping Code and the Russian Doping Scandal

On the doping front, 2015 is the year in which the new World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) came into force (see our Blog Symposium). The Code introduces substantial changes in the way the anti-doping fight is led and modifies the sanction regime applicable in case of an adverse analytical finding. It is too early to predict with certainty its effects on doping prevalence in international sports. For international sports lawyers, however, it is in any event a fundamental change to the rules applicable to anti-doping disputes, which they need to get closely acquainted with.

The new World Anti-Doping Code was largely overshadowed by the massive doping scandal involving Russian sports, which was unleashed by an ARD documentary (first released in 2014) and revived by the crushing report of the Independent Commission mandated by the World Anti-Doping Agency to investigate the matter. This scandal has shaken the legitimacy of both the anti-doping system and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It has highlighted the systematic shortcomings of the anti-doping institutions in Russia, and, the weakness of the control exercised on these institutions at a transnational level, be it by IAAF or WADA.

In 2015 again, doping proved to be a scourge intimately linked with international sports. The confidence and the trust of the public, and of clean athletes, in fair sports competitions is anew put to the test. WADA, which was created in the wake of another massive doping scandal in the nineties, has shown its limits. In practice, the decentralization of the enforcement of the WADC empowers local actors, who are very difficult to control for WADA. Some decide to crackdown on Doping with criminal sanctions (see the new German law adopted in December 2015), others prefer to collaborate with their national athletes to improve their performances. The recent proposals at the IOC level aiming at shifting the testing to WADA can be perceived as a preliminary response to this problem. Yet, doing so would entail huge practical difficulties and financial costs.

EU law and sport: 20 years of Bosman and beyond

2015 was also the year in which the twentieth anniversary of Bosman was commemorated through multiple conferences and other sports law events. The ASSER International Sports Law Centre edited a special edition of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law and a book celebrating the legacy of the ruling is forthcoming with the publisher Springer. The ruling did not have the dramatic effects predicted at the time of the decision, since football is still alive and kicking. Surely, it has given way to new challenges and sharply accelerated the transnationalization of football (and sport in general). A key legacy of Bosman is that this transnationalization, which goes hand in hand with the commercialization of sport, cannot side-line an essential category of stakeholders: the athletes.

It is with this spirit in mind, and a little push of the ASSER International Sports Law Centre, that the European Commission decided to open an investigation into the rules of the International Skating Union (ISU) barring, under the threat of a life ban, speed skaters (and any other affiliate) from joining speed skating competitions which are not condoned by the ISU. Though the case is rather low profile outside of the Netherlands, this is an important step forward for the EU Commission, as it had not opened an EU competition law investigation in sporting matters in almost 15 years. Many other competition law complaints (e.g. TPO or Formula 1) involving sport are currently pending in front of the EU Commission, but it is still to decide whether it will open a formal investigation. 2015 is also the year in which we have desperately expected the release of the EU State aid decisions regarding football clubs, and amongst them Real Madrid, but in the end this will be a matter for 2016.

FIFA and the chaotic end of the Blatter reign

FIFA is not the only SGB to have put an abrupt end to the (very) long reign of its great leader (think of the messy downfall of Diack at the IAAF). Yet, when talking about FIFA and football, the resonance of a governance crisis goes well beyond any other. It is truly a global problem, discussed in nearly all news outlets. This illustrates very much how a Swiss association became a global public good, for which an Indian, Brazilian, American or European cares as much as a Swiss, who is in traditional legal terms the only one able to influence FIFA’s structure through legislation. The global outrage triggered by the progressive release by the US authorities of information documenting the corrupt behaviour of FIFA executives has led to two immediate consequences: a change of the guard and a first reform of the institution.

There are now very few FIFA Executive Committee members left who were present in 2010 for the election of Qatar as host city for the 2022 World Cup. The long-time key figures of FIFA, Blatter, Platini and Valcke, are unlikely to make a comeback any time soon. And, the upcoming February election of the new FIFA president is more uncertain than ever with five candidates remaining. Simultaneously, FIFA has announced some governance reforms, which aim at enhancing the transparency of its operation and the legitimacy of its decision-making. We are living through a marvellous time of glasnost and perestroika at FIFA. The final destination of this transformative process remains unknown. There are still some major hurdles to overcome (starting with the one association/one vote system at the FIFA congress) before FIFA is truly able to fulfil its mission in a transparent, accountable and legitimate manner. We hope it will be for 2016!

The ASSER International Sports Law Blog in 2015

Finally, a few words on our blog in 2015. In one year we have published 60 posts, our most-read-blog concerned the Pechstein ruling that was read 3054 times.

Our peak day was reached on 4 September with 621 page views (thanks to a great post on the Essendon case by @jrvkfootball).

Our readers are based all around the world, but the majority is based in the EU and the US.

We hope to be able to keep you interested and busy in 2016 and we wish you a great year!

The ASSER International Sports Law Blog Team