The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejects further requests for interim measures filed by PFC CSKA Sofia

Press Release

26 June 2017

The Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) has rejected two further requests for interim measures filed by the Bulgarian football club PFC CSKA Sofia EAD (CSKA-Sofia) in the course of its appeals against decisions issued by the Union Européenne de Football Association (UEFA) on 29 May 2017 and 19 June 2017.

In the First Decision of 29 May 2017, UEFA rejected CSKA-Sofia’s application for an exception to the “three-year rule”, i.e. the rule providing that a licence applicant must be a registered member of a UEFA member association for at least three consecutive years. As a consequence, UEFA indicated that CSKA-Sofia would not be able to apply for a UEFA licence for the UEFA club competitions in connection with seasons 2017/18 and 2018/19.

On 16 June 2017, CAS rejected the club’s request to stay the execution of the First Decision as the UEFA authorities had not overturned the decision which was subsequently made by the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) to grant a licence to CSKA-Sofia to participate in the UEFA Europa League 2017/2018. As a result, at that time, the Bulgarian club remained eligible to participate in the UEFA Europa League 2017/2018 and did not suffer any risk of irreparable harm.

However, on 19 June 2017, UEFA wrote to the BFU informing it that CSKA-Sofia could not be admitted to the UEFA Club Competitions 2017/2018 due to the “three-year rule” (the Second Decision).

On 19 June 2017 CSKA–Sofia filed a second request for interim measures, seeking a stay of execution of the Second Decision pending the outcome of the CAS proceedings. This request was dismissed by the CAS today.

On 23 June 2017, CSKA Sofia filed a further appeal at the CAS, against the Second Decision, but this time against both UEFA and Dunav Ruse, the Bulgarian club admitted by UEFA in the Europa League 2017/18 in place of CSKA-Sofia. The appeal was accompanied by a third request for interim measures requesting a stay of the execution of the Second Decision pending the outcome of the CAS proceedings. This request was also dismissed by the CAS today.

As a consequence and for the time being, CSKA-Sofia remains ineligible to participate in the UEFA Europa League 2017/18.

The two CAS arbitration procedures will continue and a final decision will be issued at a later date.

Tuesday, 27 June 2017