Editor's note: This report compiles all relevant news, events and
materials on International and European Sports Law based on the daily coverage
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are invited to complete this survey via the comments section below, feel free
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The Headlines
The International Skating Union's eligibility rules
declared incompatible with EU competition law
On 8 December 2017,
the European Commission announced that it had rendered a decision in the case against
the International Skating Union (ISU). The Commission upheld the
complaint lodged in October 2015 by two Dutch professional speed skaters Mark Tuitert and Niels Kerstholt, represented in this case by Ben Van Rompuy and Antoine Duval (you can read their joint statement here), and ruled that the ISU's eligibility rules
preventing athletes from participating in speed skating competitions not
approved by the ISU under the threat of severe penalties are in violation of EU
competition law. In particular, the Commission held that these rules restrict
the commercial freedom of (i) athletes who may be deprived of additional source
of income as they are not allowed to participate in speed skating competitions
other than those authorised by the ISU; and (ii) independent organisers who are
unable to attract top athletes. And while the Commission recognised that
sporting rules with restrictive effects might be compatible with EU law if they
pursue a legitimate objective such as the protection of athletes' health and
safety or the protection of the integrity and proper conduct of sport, it found
that the ISU's eligibility rules pursue only its own commercial interests to
the detriment of athletes and independent organisers of speed skating
competitions. The ISU eventually escaped financial sanctions, but it must
modify or abolish its eligibility rules within 90 days; otherwise it would be
liable for non-compliance payments of up to 5% of its average daily turnover. For
more information on this topic, we invite you to read our recent blog written by Professor Stefano Bastianon.
The International Olympic Committee bans Russia from
the upcoming Winter Olympic Games
The world has been
waiting impatiently for the International Olympic Committee's (IOC)
decision on the participation of Russian athletes in the
upcoming 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. This was finally communicated on 5 December 2017. Having deliberated on the findings of
the Schmid Commission, the
IOC Executive Board decided to suspend the Russian Olympic Committee with immediate
effect, meaning that only those Russian athletes who demonstrate that they had
not benefited from the state-sponsored doping programme will be able to
participate in the Games. Such clean athletes will be allowed to compete under
the Olympic Flag, bearing the name 'Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR)' on their
uniforms. Further to this, the IOC Executive Board sanctioned several officials
implicated in the manipulation of the anti-doping system in Russia, including Mr
Vitaly Mutko, currently the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and formerly the
Minister of Sport. Mounting public pressure subsequently forced Mr Mutko to step down as head of the Local Organising Committee for the
2018 FIFA World Cup.
Meanwhile, 21
individual Russian athletes were sanctioned (see here, here, here, and here) in December (in addition to 22 athletes in November)
by the IOC Oswald Commission that is tasked with investigating the alleged
doping violations by Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in
Sochi. The Oswald Commission also published two full decisions in the cases
against Evgeny Belov and Aleksandr
Tretiakov who were both banned
from all future editions of the Games. It is now clear that the Court of
Arbitration for Sport will have quite some work in the coming weeks as the
banned athletes are turning to this Swiss-based arbitral tribunal to have their
sanctions reviewed (see here and here).
Universal Declaration of Player Rights
14 December 2017
was a great day for athletes all over the globe. On this day, representatives
of the world's leading player associations met in Washington D.C. to unveil the
Universal
Declaration of Player Rights, a landmark document developed under the aegis of the
World Players
Association that
strives to protect athletes from ongoing and systemic human rights violations
in global sport. The World Players Association's Executive Director Brendan
Schwab emphasised that
the current system of sports governance ''lacks
legitimacy and fails to protect the very people who sit at the heart of sport''
and stated that ''athlete rights can no
longer be ignored''. Among other rights, the Declaration recognises the
right of athletes to equality of opportunity, fair and just working conditions,
privacy and the protection of personal data, due process, or effective remedy.
Chris Froome failed a doping test during the last
year's Vuelta a España
The world of
cycling suffered yet another blow when it transpired that one of its superstars
Chris Froome had failed a
doping test during
the last year's Vuelta a España, a race he had eventually
emerged victorious from for the first time in his career. His urine sample
collected on 7 September 2017 contained twice the amount of salbutamol, a
medication used to treat asthma, than permissible under the World Anti-Doping
Agency's 2017 Prohibited List. Kenyan-born Froome has now hired a team of medical
and legal experts to put forward a convincing explanation for the abnormal
levels of salbutamol in his urine and thus to avoid sanctions being imposed on
him. More...