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Just Sport Ireland hands down first arbitration
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08-08-2008 2:36pm#1Unpleasantly, disputes between individuals, clubs and associations in our sport (and every other sport) are a fact of life, and those who've seen the messy side of them will tell you happily that only solicitors and barristers profit from such disputes in the long term. The amount of money paid out by NGBs like Athletics or Boxing on High Court actions is frankly obscene (especially when it's usually public money). To counter this, the Federation of Irish Sports proposed an arbitration and mediation body called Just Sport Ireland a few years back. The idea was to get something like the GAA's dispute resolution panel (or the IRFU's version) up and running on a national level, linked back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.
And now it's done and up and running and just handed down it's first verdict, in a fraction of the time and for a fraction of the money that a high court case would have cost. Hopefully a good step forward...
From the FIS website:Just Sport Ireland (“JSI”), the specialist independent dispute resolution service for Irish sporting disputes established in October 2007, has issued its first arbitration decision in a dispute involving Basketball Ireland & St. Paul’s Basketball Club, Killarney (“St. Paul’s”). The entire process which involved an initial mediation before progressing to arbitration lasted less than 10 weeks with the arbitration process which is final & binding on both parties costing less than €1,500.
The dispute between the two parties centred on the decision by the Super League Management Board (“SMLB”), a body established by Basketball Ireland to administer the annual Super League competition, not to grant St. Paul’s a licence to compete in the 2008/2009 Super League.
St. Paul’s having utilised all of Basketball Ireland’s own internal mechanisms for challenging the decision of the SMLB not to grant them a licence took the matter to JSI for final resolution in accordance with Basketball Ireland’s governing rules.
The dispute between Basketball Ireland and St. Paul’s first went to mediation with JSI. The mediation process failed to produce a negotiated settlement and the matter was referred to arbitration on June 10th. The Arbitration Panel, made up of Solicitor Liam Keane (also Secretary to the GAA’s Dispute Resolution Authority), Mr. Joe Revington S.C. & Mr. George Spotswood (formerly Discipline Officer to the IRFU), held an oral hearing on Friday July 11th at Sport HQ and handed down their decision ten days later on July 21st with only the issue of costs outstanding.
The Panel upheld the decision of the Super League Men’s Board not to grant a licence to St. Paul’s. In making their decision the Panel noted that it was not unreasonable for the SLMB to refuse to award a licence to St. Paul’s as a result of the club’s failure to meet the scoring criteria.
Following consideration of submissions by the parties in relation to costs, the Arbitration Panel held on Friday (1st August) that each party would be responsible for their own costs incurred in connection with the arbitration and the costs of the arbitration totalling less than €1,500 would be split evenly between them.
JSI was set up to offer a fast & cost-effective alternative to the courts for the resolution of sporting disputes. Sarah O’Connor, Registrar of Just Sport Ireland speaking on the first decision stated:
“We firmly believed when establishing Just Sport Ireland that there was a need for a specialised fast and cost-effective mechanism for the resolution of sporting disputes other than recourse to the courts. No one likes to see disputes arising in sport but unfortunately the reality is that they do occur and recently there has been an increasing trend to have to the courts in an effort to resolve them. We feel that this first decision is a vindication of the need for JSI as an alternative to formal litigation and we are delighted that a final and binding decision was handed down within 10 weeks of first notification of the dispute and that arbitration costs were kept below €1500. While we are conscious that this sum is not inconsiderable to sporting organisations it is very favourable when compared to the costs that would have been incurred had the matter ended up in the courts.”
Basketball Ireland was one of the first National Governing Bodies of Sport (“NGBs”) to make provision within its rules for referral to JSI as a mechanism of final appeal in the event that its own internal procedures failed to resolve a dispute to the satisfaction of all parties.
A number of other NGBs have since followed suit including the Irish Hockey Association & Special Olympics Ireland whilst a number of other sports such as Irish Gymnastics, Irish Squash, Swim Ireland & the Irish Sailing Association are in the process of adopting JSI.
A full copy of the decision is available from the JSI website www.justsport.ie or from Sarah O’Connor at 01 625 1155.0
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Re the Just Sport Ireland, do they look after the shooting sports.
Michael O'Connor
Secretary to Dublin Target Sports Club0 -
Will some supers be on for joining it:rolleyes:0
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No, they do all sports (at all levels, club to international) except for the GAA and IRFU, who have their own arbitration systems.
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Just Sport Ireland, what powers do they have, can you explain how it operates and who are they.
Michael O'Connor
Secretary to Dublin Target Sports Club
aka Sikamick0 -
Just Sport Ireland, what powers do they have, can you explain how it operates and who are they.
They're a mediation and arbitration body. From a quick skim of their website I've gathered the following:- They only deal with disputes when one of the following is true:
- The rules of the sporting organisation involved allow for recourse to JSI
- The rules of a contract involved in a dispute allow for recourse to JSI
- The parties in the dispute agree in writing to use JSI instead of the courts.
- They have two processes:
- Mediation - Where they help two parties negotiate with each other.
- Arbitration - Where they settle an argument by deciding who is right/wrong in a dispute. It's more like court proceedings.
- They expect to mostly deal with:
- Selection Disputes;
- Registration Issues
- Inter National Governing Body, Branch, Club Disputes;
- Disputes arising under a sponsorship agreement;
- Disputes relating to the administration of discipline in sport for example, an appeal against the imposition of a suspension.
- Their decisions are legally binding.
- Their decisions can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.
- Advantages: Quicker and cheaper than going to court, and the proceedings are confidential.
- Disadvantages: With regard to shooting, many/most of the matters currently requiring court cases will not be transferable to JSI since they're to do with application of the Firearms Acts, not inter-/intra-sport disputes.
Overall, it looks like an excellent forum for settling arguments properly without bankrupting the parties involved.
See the website for more details: http://www.justsport.ie/0 - They only deal with disputes when one of the following is true:
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Its great that the first case went smoothly, but to be honest. It seamed a little open ans shut, they didn't make the grade, they don't quailify. When I competed at national level, in a different sport. The grades were targets, if you missed, tough. Would of never appealed0
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You'd be surprised how rare a thing a clear selection procedure is Mellor. Until fairly recently, the NTSA selection criteria were pretty much a recipe for a high court case if anyone got ticked off enough (happily, that's since changed to a much more transparent system). But selection procedures are legendary sources of fights and disputes in sport. We've seen such disputes in here even in the last few years. And in other sports, they're even worse.
Plus, while JSI is aimed at NGBs initially, they do also have resolving club-level disputes in mind as well. And we have seen far more club-level and NGB-level sporting disputes in recent years which have been taken to the High Court. It's not like there's so much money in our sport to begin with that we can afford to be going to court with ourselves like that. So JSI represents a very positive step forwards in an area that, much as we'd like it to, probably won't ever go away.0 -
Again I ask what powers do they have. Even if you could get two parties to agree to try and settle a dispute through JSI.
Do they have the power to give a life time ban or to stop the loosing party being involved in NGB'S or Governing bodies.?
Do they have the power to demand documentary evidence from NGB'S.?
Michael O'Connor
Secretary to Dublin Target Sports Club0 -
Again I ask what powers do they have. Even if you could get two parties to agree to try and settle a dispute through JSI.
Do they have the power to give a life time ban or to stop the loosing party being involved in NGB'S or Governing bodies.?
Do they have the power to demand documentary evidence from NGB'S.?
From the Arbitration Rules (my emphasis added):The Panel shall have the powers set out in the Irish Arbitration Acts, 1954-1998 or any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof (the “Arbitration Acts”).The Panel shall have the power:- to allow any Party to amend its written submissions and/or to submit further evidence;
- to make a declaration on any matter to be determined in the proceedings;
- to order a Party to do or refrain from doing something;
- to conduct enquiries;
- to order any Party to make any document or other property under its control available for inspection by the Panel or another Party;
- to decide which rules of evidence, including rules regarding admissibility, relevance and weight, shall apply;
- to take into account applicable principles of legal privilege, such as those involving the confidentiality of communications between a lawyer and client;
- to proceed with the arbitration in the event of the absence, or failure to attend where due notice has been given, of one or more of the Parties, or a failure by one or more of the Parties to comply with these Arbitration Rules or the directions of the Panel;
- to consolidate proceedings, subject to the consent in writing of all the parties concerned;
- to join any other party to the proceedings on the application of a Party, subject to the consent in writing of such third party;
- to order on an interim basis, subject to determination in the final award, any relief or remedy which the Panel would have the power to grant in a final award, including a stay of execution of the decision being appealed against.
The Panel may not issue an interim order or grant provisional relief unless and until the Notice of Appeal has been filed; - to make recommendations when issuing the final award;
- to interpret and apply these Arbitration Rules insofar as they relate to its powers and duties. The Registrar shall interpret and apply the remaining Arbitration Rules.
To get the full coverage of what they may or may not do you'll need to read their full rules at the link above and you'll need to read and understand the Arbitration Acts. The text of those acts is available on www.irishstatutebook.ie.0 -
As IRLConor pointed out more thoroughly, it's a "Yes, But". In this case the "But" is that both parties have to have wired the JSI into their procedures *before* they need it, if they try to use it when they need it with no prior prep work done, then they have to get both sides to agree on the JSI as the arbitration body - and that's not always going to happen. Some folks do have genuine difficulties that require outside arbitration and they'll be willing to abide by that if they are assured of fairness (which JSI's structure provides); other folks, well, I'm convinced they just want to fight from sheer boredom. Sport's got little or nothing to do with the issue of the latter group, and JSI wouldn't be much help there unless it was already wired into the rules.Again I ask what powers do they have. Even if you could get two parties to agree to try and settle a dispute through JSI.
Do they have the power to give a life time ban or to stop the loosing party being involved in NGB'S or Governing bodies.?
Do they have the power to demand documentary evidence from NGB'S.?0 -
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