how Belgium will shake world football in 2022

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Elders Hissel and Dupont are not, and it is an understatement, not the most talkative lawyers around when it comes to addressing the media.

It is generally the topicality which is responsible for hoisting the two Lieges to the “One”, as was the case, last May, when they obtained for their three clients – FC Barcelona, ​​Juventus Turin and the Real Madrid – that preliminary questions be put to the European Court about the Super League, which had aroused collective ire and sanctions (in the meantime suspended) from UEFA.

The case raises a question which comes up often, and which was again pinned last November by the court of first instance concerning the ban on exercising pronounced against Dejan Veljkovic: can the football authorities be neutral when ‘they are at the same time regulating and organizing events?

Maître Hissel, is arbitration a kind of private justice?

A private justice faster than the “classic” justice, which the judicial code organizes and supervises. We find arbitration in air transport, construction, tourism … In sport, arbitration was the subject of a big promotion after the Bosman ruling. The Federations realized that in front of real judges, they could take a lot of money! The impact was international, and it is from there that the CAS (Editor’s note: Court of Arbitration for Sport, created in the early 1980s), the CBAS (Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport) emerged …

►► A problem of independence in sports bodies: “There is an economic dependence of the CAS on the world of football,” says Maître Hissel

►► The Refaelov file about locally trained players, a possible “Bosman bis”? “Very clearly”, according to the Belgian lawyer.

►► Seraing, Virton, Lior Refaelov, Dejan Veljkovic, Super League: here are the five cases to watch closely in 2022!