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- Title
The Regulatory and Disciplinary Authority of International Sports Federations.
- Authors
CORNELIUS, STEVE; BADENHORST, DANIEL
- Abstract
With the possible exception of the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency, international sports federations (IFs) do not enjoy any special legal status in international or national laws. Sports federations are merely associations composed of members and the constitution and regulations of any sports federation is consequently in general also only binding on the members of that federation. This was the basis for the judgment of the German Federal Court in the 'SV Wilhelmshaven case' (BGH, 20.09.2016 - II ZR 25/15), when it ruled that the North-German Football League and the German Football Association acted inappropriately when it enforced decisions of the FIFA disciplinary chamber against SV Wilhelmshaven. [A similar ruling was made in the South African case of 'Herbex (Pty) Ltd v Advertising Standards Authority' 2016 5 SA 557 (GJ)]. This has important regulatory implications for IFs. It effectively means that any rules, regulations or codes of conduct adopted by an IF will only bind the national federations that are members of the IF. It will not automatically bind any leagues, clubs or athletes that are affiliated to national federations merely because they are members of a national federation affiliated with the IF. This poses some interesting dilemmas. For instance, if the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players only binds national federations and not clubs, it would bring the entire football transfer system crashing down. And at least some clubs that have complied with the obligations to pay training compensation and who were not legally obliged to do so, may then be entitled to recover such payments. Furthermore, as the 'Wilhelmshaven case' also illustrated, it means that IFs do not necessarily have disciplinary jurisdiction over clubs or leagues that are affiliated to its members. IFs may therefore lack any direct enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance with their regulations and may have to rely on indirect enforcement through national federations. The purpose of the paper is to reflect on this dilemma and to propose some simple solutions that can address the problems that may arise.
- Subjects
SPORTS law; INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee (IOC); WORLD Anti-Doping Agency; LEGAL status of sports officials; LEGAL judgments
- Publication
Rassegna di diritto ed Economia dello Sport, 2017, Vol 12, Issue 2, p284
- ISSN
1970-5611
- Publication type
Article