The Jurisprudence of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber

Mr. Frans M. de Weger (1978) is senior legal counsel and in this regard working for the Dutch Employer’s Organisation for Professional Football Clubs (“FBO”), which is an associate member of the European Professional Football Leagues (“EPFL”), since 2010. On 1 January 2015, Frans de Weger is appointed on the proposal of the European Club Association (ECA) as an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for the period 2015-2018. As a legal counsel and a CAS arbitrator he is involved in several national and international football related legal disputes.  As a legal counsel of the FBO, Frans de Weger regularly acts as a legal representative on behalf of the Dutch professional football clubs in national and international legal disputes. In this respect, he gained a wide experience with legal procedures before the national arbitrational court of the Royal Netherlands Football Association (“KNVB”), the disciplinary courts of the KNVB and FIFA,the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (“DRC”) and the Players’ Status Committee (“PSC”) and in appeal before the CAS. In his capacity as a legal representative, he is, on a yearly base, responsible for the settlement and treatment of minimum 40-50 cases before the mentioned courts. Further to this, De Weger provides the Dutch football clubs with legal advise regarding among other (national and international) employment related matters, players’ contracts, national and international transfers and with respect to matters related to training compensation and solidarity mechanism.  Before joining the FBO, De Weger worked as a legal trainee for the KNVB, was an attorney at law registered at the bar in Amsterdam for four years and in the past had a FIFA-license for players’ agent. Frans de Weger is author of the book “The Jurisprudence of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber”, published under the editorship of the T.M.C. Asser Institute, Centre ofInternational and European Law. In this book he discussed the most relevant procedural aspects, such as the jurisdiction of the DRC, its composition, applicable law, the procedural costs, the manner of enforcement of the DRC decisions and the appeal procedure before the CAS. In his book De Weger analysed all published DRC decisions and classified the decisions into various subjects and discussed the well-established jurisprudence of the DRC, such as the existence of various types of just causes, the unilateral extension option, the compensation to be paid in conformity with Article 17 of the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players, the imposition of sporting sanctions and disputes related to training compensation and solidarity mechanism. Currently he is working on the second edition of this book, to be published in August 2016, which edition contains all relevant decisions of the DRC (and the CAS) until 2015. De Weger is also co-author of the book “CAS and Football: landmark-cases”.  In line with the aforementioned DRC book, in 2009 Frans de Weger initiated (and is editor of) an online database (www.drcdatabase.com) with all the published jurisprudence of the FIFA DRC. In this database all decisions are classified and can be found by its members with a search engine. The database contains extracts of all published DRC decisions and also commentaries on the relevant ones. Several professional football clubs, scientists, lawyers and law firms, CAS and FIFA arbitrators, players’ agents, football organizations, such as national associations, employee and employer organizations, on a worldwide scale, are registered member and make use of DRC Database. Frans de Weger published several articles in the field of international football law, among other in the International Sports Law Journal regarding the just cause in international football law, the unilateral extension option, training compensation disputes before theFIFA DRC and CAS, and leading “Article 17-cases” before FIFA DRC and CAS, such as the cases “Webster”, “Matuzalem” and “De Sanctis” and the most relevant aspects regarding training compensation and solidarity contribution.  Frans de Weger holds several lectures in the field of international football law. During the last years, he gave lectures for the Asser Institute Sports Law Centre regarding the Webster-case in 2007, regarding the Bernard-case of the European Court of Justice in 2010 and in May 2013 regarding the FIFA DRC, more specifically with regards to the existence, the procedural aspects and the well-established jurisprudence. Further to this, Frans de Weger is teacher in courses organized by the Royal Netherlands Football Association, for example regarding “legal disputes and international transfers” and the Dutch Intermediaries’ Organization Pro Agent regarding disputes between professional football clubs and players’ agents. Next to this, he is guest teacher for several Dutch universities, such as the Erasmus University, Amsterdam University and Tilburg University. Since 2014 he is teacher for the Sports Law Summer Programme of Asser International Sports Law Institute. Each year he leads Asser’s Lunch and Learn discussing the latest international football jurisprudence. 

Background Dispute Resolution Chamber.- Procedural aspects Dispute Resolution Chamber.- Introduction classification of decisions.-Medical examination.-Visa and work permit.- Employment contract.- Unilateral extension option.- Termination.- Compensation.- Sporting Sanctions.- Training compensation.- Solidarity mechanism.- Final conclusions.