Recognition and enforcement of a CAS award in Greece

Recognition and enforcement of a CAS award in Greece

AP Sports Law Office successfully represented a foreign football agent before the National Civil Courts, in a dispute with a football player in relation to the recognition and enforcement of a CAS award in Greece, which awarded him outstanding service fees, arbitration costs and legal fees.

The parties had signed an “Exclusive Mandate”, whereby the Player authorised the Agent to be his exclusive representative and intermediary for all issues concerning his potential transfer to clubs from a specific country and/or the extension of his contract.

The Player negotiated, and eventually signed, a contract with a Club from that country, without using the services of the Agent.

The Agent submitted a claim to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). CAS held that under a strict interpretation of the signed “Exclusive Mandate”, the participation of the Agent in the negotiations and the conclusion of the Agreement was in order for the Agent to be entitled to his agency fee, as the parties were bound by their agreement under the principle of pacta sunt servanda. In any event, he played an important role in completing the transfer, having previously recommended the Player to the Club.

In the application for the recognition and enforcement of the CAS Award in Greece that we filed, the Court held:

1. In relation to the Player’s arguments:

  1. The authority of the national Court is limited to finding whether the conditions for declaring the foreign arbitral award enforceable are met. The determinations of CAS on the merits of the case exceed the scope of examination of the Civil Court concerning their legal and substantial correctness.
  2. In any case, if the foreign arbitral award was affected by legal and/or substantive errors under foreign law, these errors could be remedied by appealing the CAS award before the competent foreign court.
  3. The amounts awarded as a contractual penalty are not contrary to Greek public policy, since in Greek law the contractual penalties are not contrary to the fundamental moral, social and economic perceptions that prevail in Greece. On the contrary, contractual penalties against the debtor in case of culpable breach of contract on his part (Art.404 et seq. Greek Civil Code) are permitted. The only case in which a penalty clause is not tolerated by the Greek public policy is when it is excessive. The Court held that the monetary “penalty” awarded to the Agent is not excessive, but tolerable, considering the following:

 

Α. The level and extent of the Player’s liability for the breach of his contractual obligation.

Β. The financial interests of the two parties were affected since the Agent had played a significant role in the transfer (even if this was not necessary to establish).

C. The moral status of the parties, since they had close friendly and professional relations.

D. The financial situation of the parties, finding that the Player’s financial status and conditions demonstrated that the penalty was not excessive.

2. According to the declaration of enforceability of a foreign arbitration award.

The Court held that the arbitral award under consideration fulfilled the requirements of the articles of the Greek Law which ratified the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. Namely:

    1. It is a foreign award according to the territorial requirement of Art.1(a) of the New York Convention.
    2. It relates to a dispute arising from the enforcement of an agency contract and contains a counterclaim (enforcement is not permitted in non-contested judgments).
    3. The matter of the dispute (agency services for a football player) could be resolved through arbitration, as per Greek legislation.
    4. The declaration of enforceability of the foreign arbitral award does not violate Greek public policy.