Football and the High Court

I read in the papers over the weekend that Man U were thinking of taking a civil case against the FA over Rio Ferdinands name being leaked to the press when he skipped a drugs test.

Man U were stopped though because apparently FIFA rules say that no club can take a case to the courts, they have to use the dispute mechanisims available to them inside their own FA, and can appeal to the international court of sport arbitration if they are still unhappy.

The paper said that FIFA had interveaned in the past so stop clubs from taking each other or their FA to court. Does anyone know anything more about this? A lot of eL clubs have gone to the high court in the last few seasons.

Well obviously no one in the LoI reads their rulebook!!
It would be interesting if this was true. I actually think
it would be the right way to do things.

One well known LoI club spends more time in the High Court than on the pitch. :D :D :D

ooops I might be sued. :D :D

I looked this up again on the internet. If anyone wants to look it up it's in section 13, artical 63 of the FIFA rulebook. It says:


Recourse to ordinary courts of law is prohibited, unless specifically provided for in FIFA Regulations.

The national associations shall, in order to give effect to the foregoing, insert a clause in their statutes by which their clubs and members shall not be permitted to take a dispute to courts of law but shall be required to submit any disagreement to the jurisdiction of the association or to TAF.



... TAF by the way is the FIFA established Arbitration Tribunal for Football