Editor's note: This report compiles the most relevant legal news, events and materials on International and European Sports Law based on the daily coverage provided on our twitter feed @Sportslaw_asser. 

The Headlines

International Sports Law Journal (ISLJ) Conference 2019

The T.M.C. Asser Institute and the Asser International Sports Law Centre held the third International Sports Law Journal (ISLJ) Conference on October 24-25. The Conference created a forum for academics and practitioners to discuss, debate and share knowledge on the latest developments of sports law. It featured six uniquely themed panels, which included topics such as ‘Transfer systems in international sports’ and ‘Revisiting the (in)dependence and transparency of the CAS’ to ‘The future of sports: sports law of the future’. The ISLJ Conference was also honored to have two exceptional keynote speakers: Moya Dodd and Ulrich Haas. To kick off the conference, Moya Dodd shared her experiences from an athlete’s perspective in the various boardrooms of FIFA. The second day was then launched by Ulrich Haas, who gave an incredibly thorough and insightful lecture on the importance, function and legal basis of association tribunals in international sport. For a detailed overview of this year’s ISLJ Conference, click here for the official conference report.

The Asser International Sports Law Centre was delighted to have been able to host another great edition of the ISLJ Conference and is thankful to all the participants and speakers who made this edition such a success.

Moving towards greater transparency: Launch of FIFA’s Legal Portal

On October 31, FIFA announced that it was introducing a new legal portal on its website that will give greater access to numerous documents that previously were kept private. FIFA explains that this is in order to help increase its transparency, which was one of the key ‘Guiding Principles’ highlighted in FIFA 2.0: The Vision for the Future released in 2016. This development comes as many sport governing bodies face increasing criticism for the opacity of its judicial bodies’ decisions, which can have tremendous economic and societal impacts. The newly available documents will include: ‘decisions rendered on the merits by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee and the FIFA Appeal Committee (notified as of 1 January 2019); decisions rendered on the merits by the FIFA Ethics Committee (notified since 1 January 2019); decisions rendered on the merits by the FIFA Players’ Status Committee and the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber; non-confidential CAS awards in proceedings to which FIFA is a party (notified since 1 January 2019); list of CAS arbitrators proposed by FIFA for appointment by ICAS, and the number of times they have been nominated in CAS proceedings’. The list of decisions from all the aforementioned bodies are updated every four months, according to their respective webpages. However, time will ultimately tell how consistently decisions are published. Nevertheless, this move is a major milestone in FIFA’s journey towards increasing its transparency.

Hong Kong Protests, Human Rights and (e)Sports Law: The Blizzard and NBA controversies

Both Blizzard, a major video game developer, and the NBA received a flurry of criticism for their responses to persons expressing support for the Hong Kong protests over the past month. On October 8, Blizzard sanctioned Blitzchung, a professional Hearthstone player who expressed support of the Hong Kong protest during a post-match interview, by eliminating the prize money he had won and suspending him for one year from any Hearthstone tournament. Additionally, Blizzard will cease to work with the casters who conducted the interview. With mounting disapproval over the sanctions,  J. Allen Brack, the president of Blizzard, restored the prize money and reduced the period of ineligibility to 6 months.

The NBA controversy started when Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted his support for the protests in Hong Kong. The tweet garnered much attention, especially in China where it received a lot of backlash, including an announcement from CCTV, the official state broadcaster in China, that it was suspending all broadcasts of the NBA preseason games. In attempts to appease its Chinese audience, which is a highly profitable market for the NBA, Morey deleted the tweet and posted an apology, and the NBA responded by saying that the initial tweet was ‘regrettable’. Many scolded these actions and accused the NBA of censorship to which the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, responded that the NBA remains committed to freedom of expression.

Both cases highlighted how (e)sport organizations may be faced with competing interests to either guarantee greater protection of human rights or to pursue interests that perhaps have certain financial motivations.

Major International Sports Law Decisions

• Bundeskartellamt - Decision pursuant to Section 32b GWB (English version)

Official Documents and Press Releases

CAS

• CAS – The CAS expands
• CAS - The hearing in the CAS arbitration procedure between WADA, Sun Yang and FINA to be held in public on 15 November 2019
• CAS - IBU joins CAS Anti-Doping Division

FIFA

• FIFA - FIFA announces latest disciplinary sanctions for incidents during FIFA World Cup™ qualifying
• FIFA - FIFA Council meeting agenda now available
• FIFA - FIFA Council unanimously appoints China PR as hosts of new Club World Cup in 2021
• FIFA - FIFA launches new legal portal

IAAF

• IAAF – New IAAF Athletes' Commission members announced

IOC

• IOC - IOC to Propose Long-term Storage of Samples to Supplement the Pre-games Anti-doping Testing Programme for Tokyo 2020
• IOC - IOC Adapts to a Changing Landscape and Streamlines Its Operations
• IOC – Solidarity and Political Neutrality Vital to the Universality of the Olympic Games, President Bach Tells ANOC General Assembly
• IOC – United Against Manipulation of Competitions: IOC Welcomes a String of New Measures at the International Forum for Sports Integrity

UEFA

• UEFA - UEFA Emergency Panel decision on Kosovo/Russia

WADA

• WADA - WADA suspends accreditation of Athens Laboratory
• WADA - WADA publishes three new Technical Letters
• WADA - WADA update regarding RUSADA Code Compliance
• WADA - WADA declares the International Taekwon-Do Federation non-compliant with World Anti-Doping Code
•  WADA - WADA shares outcomes from National Anti-Doping Organization Advisory Group Meeting
• WADA - WADA publishes proposed drafts of the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards
• WADA - WADA publishes Independent Observer Team Report from 2019 European Games
• WADA - WADA publishes amended Technical Document for Sport Specific Analysis
• WADA – WADA removes Mauritius National Anti-Doping Organization from non-compliance list
• WADA - WADA Compliance Review Committee update
• WADA - WADA update regarding RUSADA Code Compliance
• WADA - WADA and Fonds de Recherche du Québec to fund three projects researching the use of artificial intelligence for anti-doping

Other

• AthletesCAN - Open Letter to IOC President Thomas Bach
• Human Rights Watch - Marathoners Wilt in Qatar’s Oppressive Heat
• Human Rights Watch - Iran: Stadium Seating Cap Endangers Women
• Human Rights Watch – For NBA's Quandary over China, Stand with Human Rights
• International Judo Federation - Final Suspension for Iran Judo Federation
• International Shooting Sport Federation - CAS confirm seven International Federations have signed up to Anti-Doping Division
•  International Shooting Sport Federation - Decisions of the ISSF Executive Committee
•  International Table Tennis Federation - World Table Tennis, Governance and Sustainability key topics at recent ITTF Executive Committee meeting.
• Team GB - BOA and Athletes' Commission publishes Tokyo 2020 Rule 40 Guidelines
• TIU (Tennis Integrity Unit) - CAS Upholds Sanction in the Case of Patricio Heras
• UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) - UCI Statement on Kristijan Koren and Borut Bozic
• UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) – The UCI explores new avenues in bid to step up fight against doping in cycling
• US Olympic Committee - U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Updates Domestic Athlete Marketing Guidance For Olympic And Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020
• World Archery Federation - Communication of Sanctions: Jonathan Giocondi of France

In the News

Football

• Tariq Panja - Iranian Women Allowed to Attend Soccer Game for First Time Since 1981
• Maryam Shojaei - FIFA Must Pressure Iran to Let Women Attend Soccer Matches
• Keith Bradsher and Tariq Panja - In China, FIFA’s Focus Is Soccer, Not Human Rights

Doping

• Tariq Panja - Russian Doping Chief Says Thousands of Drug Tests Were Manipulated
• Nicole Perlroth and Tariq Panja - Microsoft Says Russians Hacked Antidoping Agency Computers
• Sara Germano and Joshua Robinson - Nike CEO Mark Parker Was Briefed by Banned Coach on Doping Efforts
• Barney Ronay - Sebastian Coe’s stance on Salazar displays a very British hypocrisy

Other

• Stephen Farrand - Velon starts legal battle with UCI via European Commission anti-trust complaint
• Annie Kelly, Niamh McIntyre and Pete Pattisson - Revealed: hundreds of migrant workers dying of heat stress in Qatar each year
• Steve Menary - Mega-events and human rights: Where do we draw the line?
• John Branch  - N.B.A.-China Spat Shows Sports Isn’t (and Shouldn’t Be) Just About Games
• Daniel Victor - Blizzard Sets Off Backlash for Penalizing Hearthstone Gamer in Hong Kong

Academic Materials

International Sports Law Journal

• Marjolaine Viret - Using interdisciplinary tools to improve anti-doping: Utopia or necessity?

SSRN

• Johan Lindholm - The Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Nordics
• Gina Warren - Mega Sports Events Have Mega Environmental and Social Consequences

Blog

Law in Sport

• Ashley Cukier - How did Liverpool FC escape league cup expulsion for fielding an ineligible player?
• Tiran Gunawardena and Rustam Sethna - An overview of FIFA’s ‘Phase 2’ reforms – agents, loans and clearing house
• Guo Cai - Why understanding diplomacy is the No.1 rule for navigating the Chinese sports market (a Chinese perspective on the Rockets/NBA fallout)
• Philip Hutchinson - Meat contamination and what it means for athletes: A review of Badminton World Federation v Ratchanok Intanon
• Julian Moore - Protecting exclusivity in sports data rights: are courtsiding spotters a step too far for UK football fans?

Upcoming Events

• 22 November - Centre for Sports Law Research and Policing Research Unit - Policing Football Event, Ormskirk, UK
• 26 November - Seminar on EU Sport Diplomacy: Perspectives of Cooperation with International Organisations, Strasbourg, France
•  28 November - CIArb Kenya Annual Lecture - Promoting Sports Arbitration in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
• 26-27 March 2020 – 14^th Conference of the PSA Sport & Politics Group, Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
• 18-19 June 2020 – Sport & EU 2020 Annual Conference

Editor's note: This report compiles all relevant news, events and materials on International and European Sports Law based on the daily coverage provided on our twitter feed @Sportslaw_asser. You are invited to complete this survey via the comments section below, feel free to add links to important cases, documents and articles we might have overlooked.

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.

Sports Law Related Decisions

• CAS – Award delivered in the arbitration between Drug Free Sport New Zealand and Karl Murray
• European Commission – State Aid decision on the construction of a multi-purpose arena in Tampere, Finland
• IOC – Decision of the Disciplinary Commission in the proceedings against Aleksandr Tretiakov
• IOC – Decision of the Disciplinary Commission in the proceedings against Evgeniy Belov
• IOC – Decision to ban Russian athletes from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang

Official Documents and Press Releases

• CAS – 22 Russian athletes file appeals
• CAS – 3 additional Russian athletes file appeals
• CAS – American bobsledder Ryan Bailey sanctioned with a two-year period of ineligibility
• CAS – José Enrique Angulo Caicedo sanctioned with four-year period of ineligibility
• CAS – The appeals filed by Artur Taimazov and Tatyana Chernova are dismissed
• Council of Europe – Good football governance
• Council of Europe – Working towards a framework for modern sports governance
• European Commission – An evaluation of the anti-doping laws and practices in the EU Member States in light of the General Data Protection Regulation
• European Commission – International Skating Union's restrictive penalties on athletes breach EU competition rules
• FIFA – Appeal Committee reduces the sanction imposed on Paolo Guerrero to a six-month suspension
• FIFA – Circular no. 1603 re amendments to the Rules Governing the Procedures of the Players' Status Committee and the Dispute Resolution Chamber and to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players
• FIFA – Circular no. 1605 re 2018 World Cup Russia Media and Marketing Regulations
• FIFA – Normalisation committee appointed for the Malian FA
• FIFA – Suspension of the Kuwait Football Association lifted
•  IOC – IOC and international partners establish taskforces to tackle corruption in sport
• IOC – IOC sanctions one athlete for failing anti-doping tests at Vancouver 2010
• IOC – IOC suspends Russian NOC and creates a path for clean individual athletes to compete in Pyeongchang 2018 under the Olympic flag
• IOC – Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) Invitation Review Panel discusses objectives and methodology
• IOC – Oswald Commission's findings with regard to Russian athletes:
•  Yulia Chekaleva, Anastasia Dotsenko, and Olga Zaytseva
• Inna Dyubanok, Ekaterina Lebedeva, Ekaterina Pashkevich, Anna Shibanova, Ekaterina Smolentseva, and Galina Skiba
• Ivan Skobrev, Artem Kuznetcov, Tatyana Ivanova, Albert Demchenko, Nikita Kryukov, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Natalia Matveeva, Liudmila Udobkina, Maxim Belugin, Tatiana Burina, and Anna Shchukina
• Alexey Voevoda
•  IOC – Schmid Commission's report to the IOC Executive Board
• Tennis Integrity Unit – CAS rejects appeal for lifetime ban on Nick Lindahl but upholds existing seven-year sanction
• Tennis Integrity Unit – Piotr Gadomski disciplined for breach of seven-year corruption ban
• WADA – Statement from WADA Athlete Committee regarding the IOC's decision on Russia
• WADA – Statement regarding the IOC's decision concerning Russia
•  WADA – WADA launches first phase of 2021 World Anti-Doping Code review process
•  WADA – WADA meets with International Federations and provides intelligence from Moscow's Laboratory Information Management System Database
• World Players Association – Universal Declaration of Player Rights

In the news

Doping

• Associated Press Suspension lifted on French anti-doping lab

• Associated Press UCI bans Italian cyclist Nicola Ruffoni for doping
•  Rachel Axon Lifetime bans for Russian athletes are unlikely to stands, experts say
• Cycling News Chris Froome hires former Bruyneel and Contador lawyer for salbutamol case
• Sean Ingle British Olympians back IOC's decision to ban Russia from Pyeongchang 2018
• Sean Ingle and Martha Kelner Chris Froome fights to save career after failed drugs test result
• Chijioke Jannah Over 100 Nigerian athletes tested positive for doping since 2002
•  Meduza Russia indicts doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov on trafficking charges
• Sky Sports Russia claim whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov's doping diaries are fake

Football

• AS FIFA threaten Spain's place in World Cup 2018 over 'Villar Case'

• Associated Press FIFA bribery trial jury set to begin deliberations in New York
• David Conn FIFA trial leaves questions over 2022 Qatar World Cup
• David Conn FIFA's desperate dependence on Russia exposed in flimsy response to IOC ban
• David Conn Trabzonspor challenge puts Gianni Infantino's stint at UEFA under scrutiny
• Sean Ingle Vitaly Mutko in spotlight but IOC and FIFA want to escape to shadows
• Martha Kelner 2022 World Cup migrant workers 'systematically' exploited, Amnesty says
• Martha Kelner Vitaly Mutko steps down as head of Russia World Cup organising committee
• Reuters Brazilian football boss Del Nero banned for 90 days
• Rebecca R. Ruiz FIFA trial ends: ''They have a theory that everyone in soccer is dirty''

Other

•  Associated Press Kuwait parliament passes law addressing IOC, FIFA bans

• Nick Butler European Commission order International Skating Union to change competition rules in landmark legal ruling
• Graham Dunbar European lawmakers slam FIFA, IOC for leadership issues

Academic Materials

• Antonio Rigozzi, Emily Wisnosky and Brianna Quinn The Proceedings of the 2017 Macolin Anti-Doping Summit: A Fresh Look at the Science, Legal and Policy Aspects of Anti-Doping
• Brendan Schwab ''When We Know Better, We Do Better.'' Embedding the Human Rights of Players as a Prerequisite to the Legitimacy of Lex Sportiva and Sport's Justice System

Blog

Asser International Sports Law Blog

•  Ryan Gauthier A Good Governance Approach to Stadium Subsidies in North America

•  Tomáš Grell Human Rights as Selection Criteria in Bidding Regulations for Mega-Sporting Events – Part I: IOC and UEFA
• Ben Van Rompuy and Antoine Duval Statement on the European Commission's ISU Decision

Law in Sport

•  Sean Cottrell The evolution of athlete rights with Brendan Schwab of the World Players Association

• Henry Goldschmidt Football's greatest threat: Why technology and stakeholder collaboration are key to combating global match-fixing
• Chris Hurlston and Neerali Madhvani A review of the current inquiries and investigations into abuse in UK football
• Viktoria Tsvetanova Why sports federations are under increasing scrutiny from competition authorities
• John Wolohan Sports betting in the United States: Supreme Court begins hearing Christie v. NCAA

Others

• Jack Anderson Russia's humiliating ban from the Winter Olympics is the right move to protect integrity in sport
• Nick Butler Russian compromises and European Commission precedents in another nice easy week for the IOC
• Borja García A historic decision: The European Union curtails the power of international federations
•  Nicholas McGeehan The men behind Man City: A documentary not coming soon to a cinema near to you
• David Owen A trawl through the latest ISU financial report reveals a rich store of assets, while pointing to an uncertain future
• Navi Pillay Miguel Maduro and Joseph Weiler Our sin? We appeared to take our task at FIFA too seriously
• Rebecca R. Ruiz Why Russia tried to cheat its way to glory
• Giles Tremlett Manchester City's plan for global domination

Upcoming Events

• 16 March – Sports Law & Business Conference, Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England
• 3-4 July – 13^th Sport & EU Annual Conference, Edge Hill University, England