Football's Bad Governance in the Dock: The Court of Arbitration for Sport and FIFA's Policing of Football Officials

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known as FIFA, has been through turbulent times in recent years. The infamous pictures of early morning arrests in a luxurious Zurich Hotel in May 2015 are still in people’s mind and Sepp Blatter’s tenure at the helm of the organization is forever tainted by the decimation of FIFA’s Executive Committee (reborn since then as FIFA Council) by the United States Department of Justice. This chapter aims to take a look at how the CAS has dealt with FIFA’s attempts at policing the misbehaviour of its administrators and those of its affiliates. Since 2010, we have witnessed a growing wave of inquiries being launched and sanctions being issued by FIFA against football administrators for failing to comply with its FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE). In turn, this activation of FIFA’s internal policing capacity led almost mechanically to an increasing number of challenges at the CAS, which is the sole competent judicial authority to review FIFA’s decisions. The holdings of the CAS in these cases have a crucial impact on the scope and modalities of FIFA’s investigations and disciplinary processes by defining their procedural and substantial boundaries. This chapter aims to provide a first overview of the (publicly available) CAS awards involving the review of FIFA decisions grounded in the FCE and focused on governance matters.