A now retired international football player, Waris Majeed, played for the Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta FC for two years. Anorthosis failed to pay Majeed agreed wages in full over the span of Majeed’s two-season contract with the club.
Majeed brought a claim against Anorthosis before FIFA’s Dispute Resolutions Chamber (“DRC”) for €164,550 in unpaid wages, plus interest. Anorthosis did not respond to the claim. However, the DRC decided to award Majeed only €69,650 plus interest.
Majeed appealed the DRC decision before the “Supreme Court” of sports law: the Court of Arbitration for Sport (the “CAS”). Anorthosis contested the bulk of the appeal by (1) asserting that the appeal was “ultra petita” i.e. the remedy sought on appeal went further than the remedy claimed before the DRC and, therefore, the CAS did not have jurisdiction to determine the appeal, and (2) that the appeal was predicated on new evidence and Majeed should not be permitted to rely on the new evidence.
In his CAS award, Nicolas Cottier (the sole arbitrator) largely dismissed Anorthosis’ jurisdictional and procedural challenges. In doing so, he set aside the DRC decision and awarded Majeed €153,583.70 plus interest.
Joel Wallace represented Majeed in the CAS and was instructed by Livida Sport.
The CAS award is published here.
