Swiss Arbitration Decisions

The case involved a sports arbitration in Lausanne, in which two Argentinean agents had been entrusted with negotiating the transfer of a player to the Spanish club Real Madrid. The transfer was not completed due to a negative medical report. The agents filed a claim with FIFA for fees, which was rejected. On February 29, 2008, the Court of Arbitration for Sports (“CAS”) upheld the dismissal of the claim. The CAS arbitral tribunal was chaired by Prof. Massimo Coccia with Mr. D.

Dodô v. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), to which Hansjörg Stutzer referred in his criticism of the Busch decision, involved the Brazilian player Ricardo Dodô . He tested positive after a random doping check in June 2007 and was suspended for 120 days by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).

The opinion issued the Federal Tribunal issued on January 20, 2010 regards the jurisdictional issues in connection with the case of Essam El Hadary v. Al-Ahly Sporting Club and FC Sion.

The case involves a jurisdictional award of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) issued on October 7, 2009. The CAS was composed of Ulrich Haas, Olivier Carrard (a partner at ZPG), and Massimo Coccia as Chairman.

The matter of the well-known German speed skater Claudia Pechstein was already the subject of a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) award of November 25, 2009, which was appealed to the Federal Tribunal. The appeal was rejected. Please refer to

This is the third decision in the Essam El Hadary's matter, which was issued on January 12, 2011.

This decision dated June 18, 2012 is of limited interest and should really be read only if you are actively involved in sport arbitration.

A young Polish karting driver took part in a competition in Germany in July 2010. He was 12 years old at the time but tested positive for Nikethamide, an illicit substance. The medical panel of the Anti-Doping Committee of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile banned him from competition for two years and annulled his results.

In a dispute between an Italian football club and an English company based on the acquisition by the English company of the economic rights of an Argentine professional football player, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) accepted jurisdiction and its Panel (chairman Ricardo de Buen, with arbitrators José Juan Pinto and Massimo Coccia) awarded the English company an amount of EUR 9’400’000, which was then challenged in the Federal Tribunal by way of a Civil law appeal.