Court of Arbitration for Sport confirms it will continue hearing cases from governing bodies
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has clarified a recent quote in La Gazzetta dello Sport by UCI President Pat McQuaid, which stated that CAS will not be open to governing body appeals from 2012 onwards.
“There must have been a misunderstanding because the statement related to CAS procedures is not correct,” its Secretary General Matthieu Reeb told VeloNation today, referring to a quote attributed to McQuaid by the Italian paper.
In that piece, published by La Gazzetta dello Sport on Sunday, McQuaid spoke about plans to introduce a change to how things are currently being run. Currently when a rider tests positive, his national federation handles the case and decides whether or not to sanction the individual.
While this saves time and expense on the UCI’s part, controversial decisions such as those relating to Spanish rider Alberto Contador and Russian competitor Alexandr Kolobnev have led to CAS appeals. Some commentators have suggested that a lack of objectivity has led to both riders being given minimal sanctions (Kolobnev) or no penalties at all (Contador).
“The UCI needs a new system, a court like CAS, but at the lower level, which would consider all doping cases,” McQuaid explained on Sunday. “If a rider wants to appeal, he can do so to CAS.
“It would be the best solution, especially as there are wide disparities in trials with different national federations. Some have an interest in protecting their riders,” he said.
While the idea seems to make sense, particularly if the first court is truly independent of the federations and the UCI itself, there seems to be confusion about why it would happen. “CAS said that from next year appeals from International Federations will no longer be allowed,” stated McQuaid in the interview.
It is this statement which CAS has clarified today. It states that it plans a change to the costing but that it won’t stop taking appeals.
“The CAS will continue to hear appeals filed by International Federations,” stated Reeb to VeloNation. “The only change in the CAS Rules is that when the appeals by the IFs are directed against decisions made by national federations, the CAS will no longer bear the arbitration costs and such costs will be at the charge of the parties.
“Such change will be effective as of 1 January 2012.”
Reeb said that CAS will clarify the modified process in the near future.