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 

The CAS award in Hakan Çalhanoglu v. Trabzonspor FC

The dispute between the Turkish football player Hakan Çalhanoğlu and the Turkish club Trabzonspor FC dates back to April 2013, when the latter lodged a claim before the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber ('FIFA DRC') alleging that, by signing a contract with the German club Karlsruher SC, Hakan Çalhanoğlu breached the terms of his employment contract (with Trabzonspor FC) without just cause. In January 2016, the FIFA DRC upheld the claims advanced by Trabzonspor FC and imposed a four-month period of ineligibility on the Turkish international. Both the player and the club decided to appeal the FIFA DRC decision before the CAS. In its press release dated 2 February 2017, the CAS reports that it has delivered its award which confirms the four-month ban imposed on Hakan Çalhanoglu by the FIFA DRC (provisionally suspended by the CAS upon the request made by Hakan Çalhanoglu) and orders the Turkish international to pay Trabzonspor FC the sum of EUR 100,000.

The CAS award concerning Russian athlete Mariya Savinova-Farnosova

On 10 February 2017, the CAS rendered its award in the ordinary arbitration procedure between the International Association of Athletics Federations ('IAAF'), the Russian Athletics Federation and Russian 800 metres runner Mariya Savinova-Farnosova. The CAS held that, during the period between 26 July 2010 and 19 August 2013, Ms. Savinova-Farnosova was engaged in using doping, and thus violated Rule 32 (2) (b) of the IAAF Competition Rules. Consequently, the CAS imposed a four-year period of ineligibility on Ms. Savinova-Farnosova, starting from 24 August 2015. In addition, all results achieved by her in the respective period were annulled and she must now return her gold medals from the London 2012 Summer Olympics and the Daegu 2011 IAAF World Championships.

The CAS rejected the urgent requests for provisional measures filed by five Russian cross country skiers 

On 21 February 2017, the CAS refused to order provisional measures requested by five Russian cross country skiers, namely Evgeniy Belov, Alexander Legkov, Alexey Petukhov, Evgenia Shapovalova and Maxim Vylegzhanin, in the appeal arbitration procedure against the International Ski Federation ('FIS'). The athletes requested the CAS to stay the execution of the decisions adopted by the FIS Doping Panel on 25 January 2017 (Evgeniy Belov and Alexander Legkov) and on 6 February 2017 (Alexey Petukhov, Evgenia Shapovalova and Maxim Vylegzhanin) respectively. It is worth recalling that the FIS Doping Panel provisionally suspended the athletes in question on account of the evidence presented in Part II of the McLaren Independent Investigation Report, which unveiled that doping samples of several Russian medallists at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics may have been manipulated.

The International Olympic Committee modified the Host City Contract 2024 

In its press release dated 28 February 2017, the International Olympic Committee ('IOC') communicated that, as part of the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, it is making specific changes to the Host City Contract 2024 with regard to human rights, anti-corruption and sustainable development. The IOC President Thomas Bach stated that ''this latest step is another reflection of the IOC's commitment to embedding the fundamental values of Olympism in all aspects of the Olympic Games.'' Although the Host City of the 2024 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be announced only in September this year, it is now clear that, be it either Los Angeles or Paris (as Budapest has recently withdrawn its bid), the it will have to abide by additional range of human rights obligations.

Sports Law Related Decisions

• CAS – Award delivered in the arbitration between Belarus Canoe Association and Belarusian Senior Men's Canoe and Kayak team members
• CAS – Award delivered in the arbitration between the Football Association of Serbia and UEFA
• CAS – CAS imposes four-year period of ineligibility on Russian athlete Mariya Savinova-Farnosova
• CAS – CAS rejects the request for provisional measures filed by Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
• CAS – CAS rejects the urgent requests for provisional measures filed by five Russian athletes
• CAS – CAS upholds the FIFA decision to impose a 4-month ban on Hakan Çalhanoglu; grants EUR 100,000 to Trabzonspor FC as compensation for breach of contract

Official Documents and Press Releases

• CAS – Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov file appeals at the CAS
• CAS – CAS procedure between Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and the Asian Football Confederation has concluded
• CAS – Jerome Valcke files an appeal at the CAS
• CAS – Nesta Carter files an appeal at the CAS
• FIFA – CAS decision in the case involving Gordon Derrick
• FIFA – FIFA extends ban of Timor-Leste FA General Secretary
• FIFPro – Belgian ruling on minor violates human rights
• IOC – IOC strengthens its stance in favour of human rights and against corruption in new Host City Contract
• UEFA – UEFA Executive Committee endorses reforms
• WADA – Laos ratifies UNESCO Anti-Doping Convention
• WADA – WADA meets with Anti-Doping Organizations to discuss McLaren Investigation Report Part I
• WADA – WADA removes Azerbaijan and Indonesia from the World Anti-Doping Code's non-compliant list
• WADA – WADA suspends accreditation of the Bogota laboratory

In the news 

Doping

• Andy Brown Russia to miss London 2017 IAAF World Championships
• Nick Butler WADA warn against jailing doping cheats as Ethiopian faces three-year sentence
• Cycling News WADA struggling over legality of naming Operacion Puerto athletes
• Daniel Etchells Detained Kazakh biathletes all return negative doping results
• Daniel Etchells IAAF receive 16 more requests for Russians to compete as neutrals
• Bonnie D. Ford With one year until 2018 Winter Games, Russia's status murky
• Liam Morgan Savinova stripped of Olympic gold medal and given four-year doping ban by CAS
• Reuters Sample re-tests from Sochi Olympics to run to 2022: IOC
• Dan Roan WADA has 'full confidence' in McLaren Report despite 'discrepancies'
• Rebecca R. Ruiz Austrian police raid Kazakh biathletes' hotel, confiscating drugs and phones
• Rebecca R. Ruiz Clashing agendas: Anti-doping officials vs. U.S. Olympic leaders
• Rebecca R. Ruiz House panel sets hearing to scrutinize doping in international sports
• Rebecca R. Ruiz Russians implicated in doping still compete, angering other athletes
• Sputnik International IOC's negative reaction proves McLaren Report politicized – Russian Senator
• TASS Russian cross country skiers set to appeal temporary suspension with CAS

Football 

• Boxscore News Bobby Barnes leads new FIFPro talks with UEFA
• CIES Football Observatory Big-5 league clubs break transfer expenditure record
• Gerald Imray and Enock Muchinjo Beautiful game? Not for exploited soccer players in Africa
• Tariq Panja FIFA's internal investigation said to uncover more crimes
• Tariq Panja Sponsors shy away from FIFA as Russia World Cup draws near
• Tim Pryor Jersey FA get date before Court of Arbitration for sport in UEFA dispute
• Rory Smith U.S. travel restrictions would damage 2026 World Cup bid, UEFA President says
• Swissinfo.ch FIFA under scrutiny from anti-corruption body
• TASS Russia increases spending on 2018 FIFA World Cup preparations
• The Guardian Qatar spending $ 500 million a week on World Cup projects
• The Times of India FIFA seeks life ban against ex-Guatemala, Costa Rica chiefs
• The Times of India Portugal suspends bets over match-fixing fears
• Andrew Warshaw Cypriot FA rejects Karmiotissa and AEZ denials and issues EUR 50,000 match-fixing fines                                                     

Other

• Belarusian Telegraph Agency Belarus' National Olympic Committee prepares suit against International Canoe Federation
• Nick Butler Swiss Canton votes against 2026 Winter Olympic bid in referendum
• Alastair Himmer Tokyo governor warns of spiralling 2020 Olympics costs
• Reuters Kenya accepts scrapping of order to disband Olympic committee
• Reuters Kuwait minister resigns ahead of planned no-confidence vote over IOC ban
• Reuters Olympics – Hungary to withdraw 2024 summer Olympic bid – government spokesman
• Reuters Olympics: Rights groups praise IOC's revisited Games contract
•  The Guardian Rio's Olympic venues, six months on – in pictures

Books 

• Cécile Chaussard and Thierry Chiron La Lutte Contre le Dopage – L'Essentiel du Droit
• Leanne O'Leary Employment and Labour Relations Law in the Premier League, NBA and International Rugby Union

Academic Articles

• Antoine Duval Not in My Name! Claudia Pechstein and the Post-Consensual Foundations of the Court of Arbitration for Sport
• Suren Gomtsian et al. Between the Green Pitch and the Red Tape: The Private Legal Order of FIFA
• Special Issue of the Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law – 20 Years After Bosman: The New Frontiers of EU Law and Sport (Freely downloadable for the next month!)
• Antoine Duval The Court of Arbitration for Sport and EU Law: Chronicle of an Encounter
• Ben Van Rompuy The Role of EU Competition Law in Tackling Abuse of Regulatory Power by Sports Associations

Blogs

Asser International Sports Law Blog

• Emre Bilginoglu Introducing the New Legal Challenges of E-sports
• Antoine Duval Doyen vs. Sporting I: Doyen's Pyrrhic Victory at the CAS
• Tomáš Grell FIFA's Responsibility for Human Rights Abuses in Qatar – Part I: The Claims Against FIFA
• Oskar Van Maren UEFA's Financial Fair Play Regulations and the Rise of Football's 1 %
• Shervine Nafissi Doyen vs. Sporting II: The Bitter End of Sporting's Fight at the Swiss Federal Supreme Court

Law in Sport 

• Jamie Singer Ross Brown Can suspicious betting alerts prove match fixing? The case of KS Skënderbeu v UEFA
• Jake Cohen Carol Cause Case review: US Soccer Federation v. National Players Association (use of player likenesses)
• John Elphick How to structure image rights companies for international athletes working in the U.K.
• Jasser Kassab How FIFA's TMS's global player exchange is changing how football clubs conduct international transfers
• Ryan Lake NHL expansion: The formation of the Vegas Golden Knights
• Andrea Sartori KPMG analysis of football clubs and the stock exchange in 2016
• Andrew Smith Can football players unilaterally retire from international duty? The Joël Matip and & Allan Nyom cases
• Lloyd Thomas Termination of football employment contracts without just cause: A review of Hakan Çalhanoglu v Trabzonspor FC

Others

• Nick Butler: Stalling IOC are still missing the point about McLaren Report evidence
• Doug VanDerwerken, Jacek Rothert and Brice Nguelifack The impact of suspension rules on fouls in football: Case study from the Premier League
• Anna Jean Kaiser Legacy of Rio Olympics so far is series of unkept promises
• Steve Silver How Donald Trump's SCOTUS pick, Neil Gorsuch, could shape the future of sports

Upcoming Events

• 6 April – Sportaccord Convention 2017 (''Lawaccord'') – Joint Session with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Aarhus, Denmark
• 28-29 April – 2017 Macolin Anti-Doping Summit: A Fresh Look at the Science, Legal, and Policy Aspects of Anti-Doping, Swiss National Sports Centre, Macolin (Magglingen) Switzerland
• 29-30 June – Sport & EU 12^th Annual Conference, Molde University College, Molde, Norway

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

The end of governance reforms at FIFA?

The main sports governance story that surfaced in the press (see here and here) during the last month is related to significant personal changes made by the FIFA Council within the organization’s institutional structure. In particular, the FIFA Council dismissed the heads of the investigatory (Mr Cornel Borbély) and adjudicatory (Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert) chambers of the Independent Ethics Committee, as well as the Head (Mr Miguel Maduro) of the Governance and Review Committee. The decision to remove Mr Maduro was taken arguably in response to his active role in barring Mr Vitaly Mutko, a Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, from sitting on the FIFA Council due to an imminent conflict of interests. These events constitute a major setback to governance reforms initiated by the football’s world governing body in 2015. For a more detailed insight into the governance reforms at FIFA, we invite you to read the recent blog written by our senior researcher Mr Antoine Duval.

The CAS award in Real Madrid CF v. FIFA

At the end of the month, the CAS finally published its award delivered in the arbitration procedure between the Spanish club Real Madrid CF and FIFA regarding the transfer of minor football players. Mr Michele Bernasconi, sitting as a Sole Arbitrator, partially upheld the appeal filed by Real Madrid CF against the decision rendered by the FIFA Appeal Committee on 8 April 2016. The Sole Arbitrator reduced the ban (registering new players both on a national and international level) imposed on the Spanish club by the FIFA Appeal Committee from two to one entire transfer period. Moreover, Real Madrid CF is now obliged to pay CHF 240,000 instead of the original fine amounting to CHF 360,000. 

UEFA incorporates human rights and anti-corruption criteria into bidding requirements

UEFA has recently made available the Bid Dossier Template for the 2024 European Championship that will be held either in Germany or Turkey. Amongst other things, the two remaining candidates shall describe in their bid dossiers a global strategy for integrating the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in order to protect, respect and fulfil universal human rights, including child rights and the rights of workers. On this occasion, UEFA President Mr Aleksander Čeferin stated that ‘it was imperative […] to introduce specific articles on the respect and protection of human rights in the bidding requirements for all our competitions.’ By incorporating human rights criteria into bidding requirements, UEFA joins the International Olympic Committee and FIFA in their efforts to tackle human rights abuses associated with mega sporting events.

The return of Claudia Pechstein: Bundesverfassungsgericht edition

Claudia Pechstein is back! For those who have already forgotten the case, this is a dispute involving a German Speed Skater and Olympic gold medallist challenging the validity of a CAS award imposing a doping ban (for greater detail see our previous blogs here and here, and the article by Antoine Duval and Ben van Rompuy). Nothing less than the survival of the CAS, at least as we know it, is at stake. While Claudia Pechstein lost in front of the Bundesgerichtshof, the decision was harshly criticized (here and here) and she decided to challenge the ruling in front of the German Bundesverfassungsgericht (constitutional court). Since last month, we know that the Bundesverfassungsgericht will hear and decide the claim, this as such is already a sign that the judges deem the case worthy of consideration and should be cause for concern for those wishing to keep the CAS as it currently is. The silver lining for CAS might be in the Bundesverfassungsgericht’s Solange jurisprudence, which could find a new expression in this peculiar context (as suggested here), it would preserve the CAS’s existence while forcing it to change.

Sports Law Related Decisions

• CAS – Award delivered in the arbitration between Arijan Ademi and UEFA
• CAS – Award delivered in the arbitration between IAAF and All Russia Athletics Federation & Vladimir Mokhnev
• CAS – Award delivered in the arbitration between Real Madrid and FIFA
• Supreme Court of Spain – Decision concerning the Spanish cyclist Roberto Heras

Official Documents and Press Releases

• CAS – CAS maintains the temporary bans imposed on six Russian athletes until 31 October 2017, at the latest
• CAS – CAS reduces the sanctions of football players Enrique Luis Triverio and Pablo Cesar Aguilar Benitez
• European Commission – State Aid: Commission approves Slovak support of EUR 36 million for the construction of the national football stadium in Bratislava
• European Commission – The Council approves the new work plan for sport
• Federal Constitutional Court of Germany – Pechstein's constitutional complaint to be heard in 2017
• FIBA – FIBA’s mid-term congress ratifies new headgear rule
• FIFA – Circular no. 1583: Amendment to Article 78 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code
• FIFA – FIFA welcomes outcome of NCP mediation process on workers’ welfare in Qatar
•  FIFA – Member associations release reports on intermediaries
• FIFA – Outcome of second meeting of Governance Committee
• FIFA – Suspension of the Malian FA lifted
•  IOC – Joint statement following the meeting of IOC President, Professor Richard McLaren and WADA President
• Tennis Integrity Unit – Junn Mitsuhashi banned for life for match-fixing offences
• UEFA – Bid Dossier Template for EURO 2024
• WADA – WADA Foundation Board takes decisive action on the Way Forward for the Agency and for Clean Sport

In the news

Doping

• Andy Brown Russia’s National Anti-Doping Plan denies institutional doping
• Andy Brown Spanish police dismantle new sports doping ring
• Michael Pavitt Russia in danger of missing Pyeongchang 2018 as International Paralympic Committee maintain suspension
• Michael Pavitt Russian race walker Trofimov handed four-year ban
  

Football

• Murad Ahmed FIFA ousts governance chief in ‘night of long knives’
• The Associated Press FIFA says blackface in Sochi parade was ‘inappropriate’
• BBC Sport Gothenburg v AIK: ‘Match-fixing attempt’ leads to Swedish fixture postponement
• Simon Bradley FIFA chief Infantino seeks ‘absolute power’ after ousting ethics heads
• Children Win UEFA incorporates human rights and anti-corruption criteria into bidding requirements
• Simon Evans FIFA’s chief ethics investigator and ethics judge replaced
• Graham Dunbar Two more members leave FIFA governance panel
• Nizaar Kinsella The laws of the transfer market could be rewritten with landmark court case in Italy
• James Lynch FIFA’s chance to show they put people ahead of money is now
•  Francine McKenna Will PwC throw the red card on its Swiss firm over FIFA
• Liam Morgan Palestine threaten to take FIFA to CAS after ‘illegal’ postponement of vote by Infantino
• Tariq Panja and Gaspard Sebag Soccer star homes raided in money-laundering investigation

Other

• Amnesty International Qatar: Abuse of migrant workers remains widespread as World Cup stadium hosts first match
• Graham Dunbar Swim body monitoring VP’s alleged role in FIFA bribery case
• Daniel Etchells American tennis player Kryvonos given 10-year ban for match-fixing
• Richard Martin Cycling: Authorities ordered to pay Heras compensation after appeal fails
• Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff Los Angeles residents start to organize against the Olympic bid

Academic Materials

• Mark James Sports Law 3^rd edition
• Nancy Leong Against Women’s Sports

Blogs

Asser International Sports Law Blog

• Antoine Duval The Reform of FIFA: Plus ça change, moins ça change?
• Serhat Yilmaz and Antoine Duval What Pogba’s transfer tells us about the (de)regulation of intermediaries in football
• Branislav Hock Nudging, not crushing, private orders: Private ordering in sports and the role of States
• Saverio Spera Exploring the Validity of Unilateral Extension Options in Football – Part 2: The view of the DRC and the CAS

Law in Sport

• Phil Bonner Are England’s current home grown player requirements sufficient to produce an elite national team?
• William Clerk The rebalancing of power: The need for greater transparency in sports tribunals
• Daniel Geey What a hard ‘red, white and blue’ Brexit may mean for domestic football
• Philip Hutchinson and Tiran Gunawardena Betting in football: Was the FA’s decision on Joey Barton a fair one?
• Stephen Ridgway The 4 key issues facing sports media rights lawyers in 2017: From Head Counsel, Sky Sports
• Lucien Valloni and Stéphanie Oneyser Player contracts: How contractual stability can override a liquidated damages clause
  

Others

• Andy Brown Pressure builds to secure fair athlete rights and representation
• Matt Hart ‘This does not sound legal’: Inside Nike’s Oregon project
• Bonita Mersiades The past is not another country for FIFA
• Léonard Stoyanov Switzerland to become more attractive for international arbitration

Upcoming Events

• 29-30 June – Sport & EU 12^th Annual Conference, Molde University College, Molde, Norway
• 31 August-1 September – EU Sports Law and Policy Summer School, Business and Law Building, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, the United Kingdom
• 26-27 October – ISLJ Annual Conference on International Sports Law, T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague, the Netherlands (Registration is now open here!)
• 26-30 November – Play the Game 2017: Riding Waves of Change, Eindhoven, the Netherlands