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NLJ this week: EU law trumps sports arbitration

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
07 November 2025
Issue: 8138 / Categories: Legal News , Sports law , Arbitration , International , Profession , EU , Competition , Public
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RFC Seraing v FIFA, in which the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) reaffirmed that awards by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) may be reviewed by EU courts on public-policy grounds, is under examination in this week's NLJ by Dr Estelle Ivanova of Valloni Attorneys at Law, Zurich

The case stemmed from FIFA’s ban on third-party ownership of players’ rights, challenged as anti-competitive.

Ivanova notes that the judgment upholds CAS efficiency while asserting EU law’s supremacy—competition law being central to EU public policy. Crucially, if an arbitral award has not been subject to judicial review within an EU jurisdiction, it cannot claim finality (res judicata) when EU principles are engaged.

The decision, Ivanova writes, integrates sports arbitration into the EU legal order, ensuring fundamental rights prevail even over arbitral autonomy.

Issue: 8138 / Categories: Legal News , Sports law , Arbitration , International , Profession , EU , Competition , Public
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