FC Sion's (Legal) Losing Streak Continues

FC Sion has hit upon a run of bad form on the jurisprudential pitches of Europe. Here is a round-up

• The Court of Arbitration for Sport has published its reasoning for its decision in favor of UEFA and in which it asserts its jurisdiction over the dispute (here in PDF). The reasoning is important as it lays out an argument for the delineation of the relationship of Lex Sportiva and national legislation.
• The European Club Association subsequently suspended FC Sion for their refusal to recognize the jurisdiction of the CAS.
• Swiss Civil court has ruled against FC Sion's claim that CAS lacks jurisdiction over the dispute, accepting the CAS claim to being the proper venue to resolve the dispute.
• In another Swiss court FC Sion failed to win a judgment that would have restored the 36 points that the team was docked by the Swiss Federation at the request of FIFA.

For is part, FC Sion asserts that they will press (at least some of) these issues via appeal in higher judicial settings.

FC Sion is rapidly seeing its legal options winnowed and the further it pushes its various cases up the judicial hierarchy the more authoritative and lasting will be the resulting decisions. For now, it looks pretty conclusive that the various FC Sion challenges to the authority of Lex Sportiva will have the effect of strengthening and delineating sports governance mechanisms in relation to national and European laws. They might not see it this way, but the European associations will have FC Sion to thank should the challenges to Lex Sportiva help to strengthen their mechanisms of governance.