ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Maurizio Marullo, Giorgio Vagnoni and Francesco Amoresano, LAWP Studio legale e tributario
For disputes concerning labour and/or economic rela - tionships between sports individuals and entities, in general the parties may apply to ordinary courts or refer the dispute resolution to arbitration. However, note that most collective agreements provide an exclusive arbitration venue for the resolution of said disputes (see 6.2 ADR Mechanisms ). For criminal offences, two separate disputes – one before the ordinary court and one before the sport justice bodies – proceed in parallel, and said dupli - cation of disputes can sometimes lead to conflicting decisions (see 1.1 Anti-Doping Regimes ). 6.2 ADR Mechanisms Arbitration courts can be used in labour and/or eco - nomic disputes in accordance with Article 806 of the Italian Code of Civil Proceedings and Article 4.3 of the CONI Sports Justice Code. Arbitration for labour and/or economic matters is com - monplace in Italian professional sports, as collective agreements stipulated by the players’, coaches’ and sports directors’ unions with federations and leagues, as well as professional contracts, all include arbitra - tion clauses as an exclusive remedy. Competent panels generally issue arbitration awards that are binding between the parties. Arbitration awards can only be challenged for invalidity under the Code of Civil Proceedings, subject to certain specific grounds and limitations. 6.3 Sanctions, Remedies and Challenges Enforcement of Sports Sanctions Federations have the power to impose sanctions on affiliates and members, since accepting sports law and justice ‒ including sanctions ‒ is an affiliation/ membership requirement. Sports justice provides a wide range of sanctions, the extent of which depends on their recipients (eg, athletes or clubs) and the type and seriousness of the violation. Examples of sanctions on clubs are warnings, fines, points deductions, transfer bans, relegation and exclusion from competition. Examples of sanctions on individuals are warnings, fines, temporary disqualifica -
tion/ineligibility, bans from federation body activities and lifetime bans. Also, mitigating and/or aggravating circumstances, unlawful association and recidivist conduct may be taken into account whenever they are provided by Sports Justice Regulations. Sports justice decisions are binding on the parties and failure to observe them could lead to additional and more severe sanctions. To verify compliance with federation rules, federations can be supported by internal supervisory bodies. For example, the FIGC and FIP are respectively supported by CoViSoC and ComTec, committees with ongoing monitoring, supervisory and control functions over professional clubs, especially in relation to the obser - vance of economic and financial parameters. Challenging Sports Justice Decisions Only decisions concerning economic and adminis - trative disputes can be challenged before ordinary/ administrative courts. In particular, economic arbi - tration awards may be challenged before ordinary courts in accordance with the Code of Civil Proceed - ings. Administrative decisions may be challenged ‒ after exhausting sports justice dispute resolution mechanisms ‒ before the Lazio Regional Administra - tive Court. Decisions relevant to the Italian legal sys - tem can be challenged, and said relevance shall be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Please see 6.1 Role of National Court Systems . 7. Employment Contracts and Rights 7.1 Sports-Related Employment Contracts Professional and Amateur Sports before the “Sports Reform” Historically, relationships between sports organisa - tions and athletes depended entirely on their profes - sional or amateur status. According to former Law No 91/1981, only professional athletes were employees and subject to specific provisions, such as deroga - tions from labour law (eg, the inapplicability of certain provisions of the “Workers’ Charter”, such as the pro - hibition on using audio-visual equipment and control
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