Football Tribunal
The Football Tribunal is the body that decides football disputes and regulatory applications, through three chambers: the Dispute Resolution Chamber, the Players’ Status Chamber and the Agents Chamber.
The Dispute Resolution Chamber handles employment-related disputes and training rewards. The Players’ Status Chamber handles the categories the regulations assign to it, including disputes between clubs. The Agents Chamber is the one that hears matters involving football agents.
Its powers are real. The Tribunal may pronounce the sanctions set out in the Statutes and the Disciplinary Code on associations, clubs, officials, players, football agents and match agents.
There is a time limit it applies to itself, and it is short. The Tribunal will not hear a case under the transfer regulations if more than two years have passed since the event that gave rise to the dispute, and it examines that ex officio in every case rather than waiting for anyone to raise it. A claim nobody got round to filing is not a weak claim; after two years it is not a claim.
Where a decision orders payment, the consequences of not paying on time are written into the decision itself: for a club, a registration ban until the amount is paid, up to three entire and consecutive registration periods; for a player, a restriction on playing official matches until it is paid, up to six months.
Worked example
An agency realises during a file review that a commission from twenty-six months ago was never paid and never claimed.
The Tribunal will not hear it, and will say so of its own motion. The merits were never reached.
Related terms
- Agents ChamberThe Agents Chamber is the chamber of the Football Tribunal that decides disputes involving football agents.
- Court of Arbitration for SportCAS is the independent arbitration body in Lausanne that hears appeals against final FIFA decisions, including decisions involving football agents.
- Limitation periodA limitation period is the time after which a matter can no longer be pursued, regardless of what happened, and football runs several of different lengths.