The CAS Award 2017/A/5205 “FC Koper v. Football Association of Slovenia (NZS – Nogometna zveza Slovenije)” concerning denial of club license to particpate in the first domestic professional football league due to insolvency risks got published on the website of the Court of Arbitration for Sport: jurisprudence.tas-cas.org/Shared%20Documents/Forms/NewDecisions.aspx recently.
The NZS is a member of UEFA as well as FIFA. The sporting results would have qualified FC Koper for the first division in the competitive season of 2017/2018.
Several procedural issues had to be solved amongst others:
- a request for relief to be reinstated in such competition was missing (Appellant requested only a license for participation in the first domestic professional football league),
- the scope of the appeal and standing to be sued, the absence of the club that could potentially be replaced in the competition (as it was not name as an additional respondent),
- prohibition to file new evidence being necessary to treat all clubs applying for licenses equally
- and several issues concerning Art R57 of the CAS Code.
Besides factual issues, new creditors, new contracts and different views on audit reports and accounting practices another issue to deal with was the discretion of the licensing authority of the National Football Federation, which might allow considerable leeway.
Just have a look for the CAS number 5205 in this databae of selected, recent, interesting and formerly not published decisions. Or try this direct URL: jurisprudence.tas-cas.org/Shared%20Documents/5205.pdf
The three members of the panel appointed to render this CAS decision were: Ms Svenja Geissmar (United Kingdom), Mr Rui Botica Santos (Portugal) and Dr Dominik Kocholl (Austria).
April 2018: Racing Austrian Offshore Championships as Bowmann in Slovenian waters (Portoroz – Piran):
