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Sports Justice in Belgium 

October, 2013 - Sven Demeulemeester and Wouter Lambrecht

SUMMARY: 1. Principles of Belgian Sports justice – 2. The relationship between ordinary justice and Sports justice – 3. The relevant NOC regulations and NOC judicial body – 4. The relevant football regulations and RBFA judicial bodies – 5. Other sports judicial bodies – 6. Clubs’ and players’ rights and obligations – 7. Dispute settlement – 8. ADR and interim relief – Conclusion

Abstract:

This article aims at providing an overview of sports justice in Belgium. More precisely, it sets out the basic principles in which sports justice in Belgium operates, provides input as to the interaction between sports justice and ordinary justice and deals with the main judicial bodies operating within the sports justice system. Specific attention is paid to the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport and the judicial bodies of the Royal Belgian Football Association. Case law is cited on numerous occasions in order to clarify the interaction between sports justice and ordinary justice and a specific title is dedicated to different kinds of disputes that can arise. Finally, it is also worth mentioning that this article deals with relevant questions such as the consent to arbitrate a dispute, be it at national or international level, the power of sports federations to issue disciplinary sanctions without a contractual relationship between a sports federation and an affiliated athlete and the issue of arbitrability of employment related disputes, and this according to Belgian law.