Football and Arbitration: a topsy-turvy game

Presentation

The Deloitte Disputes team hosted a roundtable discussion on sports and arbitration, with a focus on football.

The panel comprised of Carmen Nuñez-Lagos, Pierfilippo Capello, and Battine Edwards, facilitated by Xavier Metaireau, addressed why in sports disputes you can’t simply default to the usual forum, applicable rules, enforcement approach … or financial methodology.

We provided:
- A mapping of stakeholders (clubs, agents, players) in the football industry and of the corresponding contractual web;
- An overview of the types of football related disputes;
- An insight into disputes heard by CAS (disputes relating to the execution of contracts, such as those relating to sponsorship, television rights, player transfers and relations between players and clubs and/or agents, as well as disciplinary cases and doping-related cases);
- The various dispute resolution fora, including the interplay between CAS with FIFA’s dispute resolution mechanism; and
- An overview of the market approach to valuation and how it is implemented in a football club valuation context.

We addressed:
- How do transfers of players actually work from a legal and from a financial perspective?
- What are the specificities of arbitration proceedings in a sport context, focusing on football (from jurisdiction to enforcement)?
- What makes up the value of a football club?
- Why is DCF ill-suited to assessing the value of a football club?
- What are the methodology to be applied and the potential challenges to be faced, when assessing the value of a football club?

Thank you to all participants who joined this exciting event.

Let’s meet in 2025 at the upcoming Paris Arbitration Week!

Learn more on Deloitte Disputes here 👉🏻https://lnkd.in/e8r8y5Tz