Ribery and Bayern Munchen go to CAS

On April 21st, while Bayern and Lyon were disputing the UEFA Champions League (UCL) Semifinal  1^st Leg, the french player Frank Ribery, received a straight red card for a rough tackle against his similar Lisandro Lopez from Olympique de Lyonnais. That action meant to Ribery a three-match suspension imposed by the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body on April 28^th. Last week, the UEFA Appeals Body, upheld the decision taken by the first instance body, therefore confirming the three-match suspension ban. It is UEFA’s decision that Ribery is not eligible in the Champions League final on May 22th at Bernabeu Stadium.

However, Bayern lodged an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), as article 62 of UEFA’s regulations stays that “Any decision taken by a UEFA organ may be disputed exclusively before the CAS in its capacity as an appeals arbitration body, to the exclusion of any ordinary court or any other court of arbitration”. As all internal federative procedures and remedies have been exhausted under UEFA’s Regulations, it is the right of the parties involved to effectively appeal the decision before CAS.

Whether the decision is going to be upheld or set aside is another issue, and a matter of personal appreciation of the arbitrators that will be integrating the panel. Not very deep legal arguments can be brought up, when certainly the foul was committed by the player, and the referee did have plenty observation of the situation. However, procedures involving CAS are always open to surprises, more over when this arbitral tribunal decides on a case by case basis. We will see then if Ribery becomes eligible to play the UCL final.

For the moment, I just intend to express the importance of CAS jurisdiction in matters related to sports disputes. No other procedure would be able to dispose all means to guarantee an independent judicial procedure in order to discuss the validity of a decision taken by a sportive organization, in such a short time, considering that the UCL final will take place, as said before, on May 22th 2010. CAS has previously rendered decision in very short times, considering the importance and necessity of a final conclusion of sportive cases, i.e. the award CAS 2008/A/1622 2008/A/1623 2008/A/1624, involving FC Barcelona, SV Werder Bremen, FC Shalke 04 against FIFA, where CAS had to decide about the eligibility of Messi, Diego, and Rafinha for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. In this last case, CAS had to decide in a period of 6 days. If the decision is not rendered before the Olympic Games, it would not have any material effect.

Alejandro Zorrilla Pujana.

LLM International Sports Law