Data

Date:: 06-07-2004
Country:: Arbitral Award
Number:: 2002/A/593
Court:: Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)
Parties:: Football Association of Wales (FAW) v. Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA)

Keywords

DISPUTE BETWEEN THE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF WALES AND THE UNION OF EUROPEAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATIONS (UEFA) - CONTRA PROFERENTEM RULE - GENERAL PRINCIPLE OF LEX SPORTIVA - REFERENCE TO ARTICLE 4.6 UNIDROIT PRINCIPLES

Abstract

In a dispute between the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and the Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA), resulting from the latter’s refusal to penalise the Russian Football Association for not having suspended one of its players found guilty of doping, the UEFA challenged the competence of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on the ground that the decision in question was a purely sporting matter and did not involve economic interests. In interpreting the relevant provisions of the UEFA Statute in a sense favourable to FAW and against the UEFA, the Arbitral Tribunal invoked the contra proferentem rule according to which contract terms should in case of doubt be interpreted against the party who has supplied them. According to the Arbitral Tribunal this rule represents a general principle of interpretation of the lex sportiva and in this context it expressly referred to Article 4.6 of the UNIDROIT Principles.

Fulltext

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Source

D. Hascher and E. Loquin, Tribunal Arbitral du Sport, Chronique des sentances arbitrales, in Journal du droit international, 2005, pp. 1301-1305.}}