CAS IMPLEMENTS NEW GUIDELINES ON LEGAL AID

Lausanne, 27 January 2023 – The International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS), the governing body of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), has established a new specific legal aid fund for football-related disputes: the Football Legal Aid Fund (FLAF).
The FLAF is financed directly by FIFA and will be available to natural persons, including agents with a FIFA licence, without sufficient financial means to otherwise proceed at the CAS. The FLAF may also be exceptionally granted to football clubs affiliated to a member association of FIFA which are in a difficult financial situation, under specific conditions (to be set in the ICAS Guidelines for Legal Aid) and not more than once a year, and only in disputes between clubs or between clubs and federations exclusively. Legal aid cannot be granted to clubs under judicial administration (due to insolvency/bankruptcy).
The general ICAS legal aid fund will continue to exist to provide assistance to natural persons from all other Olympic sports. All requests for legal aid will be handled by the four members of ICAS constituting the ICAS Athletes’ Commission (formerly the Legal Aid Commission).
The revised Guidelines on Legal Aid will be published on the CAS website on 31 January 2023. They will be applicable to any CAS arbitration procedure initiated from 1 February 2023.