Winston & Strawn

This Practice Note discusses the ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which was created for the arbitration of disputes that arise during major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, and must be finally settled within a 24-hour time limit. It covers its structure, the usage of the CAS ad hoc Rules, basic principles, jurisdiction, seat and language, and the arbitral procedure under the ad hoc Rules.

This Practice Note provides an overview of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), also referred to in French as the Tribunal Arbitral du Sport (TAS). It describes the CAS’s divisions, past challenges to its independence and impartiality, and sports arbitration procedures conducted under the CAS Arbitration Procedural Rules 2020 (contained in the CAS Code of Sports-related Arbitration or the Code), which apply to proceedings commenced as of 1 July 2020.

This Practice Note provides an introduction to how arbitration is conducted in the sports industry. It sets out the structural organisation of sports, introducing the key bodies and the types of disputes that may arise. The Practice Note covers the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) (the Tribunal Arbitral du Sport) and describes illustrative examples of internal dispute resolution mechanisms at the national and international level in certain sports, including: the FIFA dispute resolution procedures; the NBA and FIBA dispute resolution procedures; and, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) dispute resolution procedures. This topic may be referred to as: international sports disputes; international sports arbitration; and, sports cases.

This Practice Note examines arbitration in the context of internal sports proceedings of a sports federation or other regulating body and appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), focusing on its advantages and disadvantages, including privacy and speed on the plus side and lack of transparency and concerns about due process on the negative side. It also considers when internal sports proceedings may stand as arbitrations and gives some practical pointers for determining whether internal proceedings are arbitral.