Coaches vs. football clubs: positions of CAS, FIFA and Dispute Resolution Chamber

The Law Firm "YUST", with the traditional support of AON Company, held a seminar for sports lawyers. The disputes between coaches and football clubs, positions of CAS, FIFA and Dispute Resolution Chamber were this year’s subjects. The Russian Agency of legal and judicial information (RAPSI/RIA Novosti) was the chief information partner of the event.

Fabio Capello, Head Coach of the Russian national football team; Lucio Colantuoni, CAS Arbitrator, professor of sports law, member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Italian football Premier League (FIGC); Victor Blazheev, Rector of the Oleg Kutafin Moscow State Academy of Law; Yury Zaytsev, Deputy Chairman of the Legal Section of the “Russia 2018” Organization Committee, General Dir4ector of Legal Sport LLC; Denis Rogachev, Adviser to the President of RFU, Legal Consultant to the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation; Mikhail Prokopets, Head of Sports Law Group of the Law Firm "YUST"; Alexey Vladimirsky, Head of Practice of Insurance of sports and mass events of AON; Pierfilippo Capello, Associate of Guardamagna e Associati; Georgi Gradev, match agent of UEFA, sports lawyer et al. took part in the discussion.

The experts discussed the most significant disputes and the decisions on those passed by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber and CAS in 2012 – 2013, test cases of the Russian Dispute Resolution Chamber and Players’ Status Committee in 2011 – 2013, legal details of executing agreements with coaches, trends in the sphere of the coaches’ insurance.

Russian lawyers also concluded that compulsory payment of the tax for a foreign coach to the Russian Football Union is not discrimination, but that said provision requires legislative foundation, since it does not comply with Russian or international law in its current form (see here for more details).

See the special report by RAPSI on the opinion reached by the experts on the matter of what is more important: image or money, and whether legal limitations of “golden parachutes” will affect coaches.

For information: presentations of speeches:

• International legal status of football coaches; 
• decisions by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber and CAS in 2012 – 2013;  
• discrimination against foreign coaches in Russia (English  and Russian   versions);
• Status of football coaches in the legislation of Russia and the RFU documents.