The CBMA Regulations on Sports-related Arbitration

Abstract

In 2016, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) instituted a new dispute resolution system for the Brazilian football market, upon the reform of its National Dispute Resolution Chamber (the so-called CNRD), with jurisdiction to settle disputes regarding a wide variety issues, from labor and commercial matters to disciplinary ones. Chosen to review the decisions of CNRD in appeal, the Centro Brasileiro de Mediação e Arbitragem (CBMA) – one of the most well-known and vanguardist arbitral institutions in Brazil, funcioning in commercial arbitration since 2002 – sought inspiration from the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which for more than three decades has been serving as the supreme body of the international “sports justice”, in order to draft its own Regulations on Sports-related Arbitration, the first of its kind in Brazil and one of the few in the world to deal exclusively with arbitration in matters related to sports law. In this context, this article will examine the origins of CAS and the main peculiarities of its code, explaining how its model was adapted to the reality and needs of the Brazilian market.