CAS Arbitration Award Confirmed by a Court in a Third State

Reflections on the Royal Football Club Seraing Case

Abstract

In the judgment in RFC Seraing (CJEU, 1 Aug 2025, C-600/23), the Court accepts sports arbitration but stresses that, when sport functions as an economic
activity, the right to effective judicial protection (Arts 19 TEU and 47 of the Charter) requires effective judicial review of the award before according it res judicata status or probative value vis-à-vis third parties. Hence the need for a “second look” at foreign awards (such as CAS awards seated in Switzerland) and the rejection of insulating them from scrutiny without a review that covers the relevant questions of fact and law, in line with Eco Swiss and with the projection of such control beyond sport strictly so-called. On that basis, the applicable standard is not a merely formal “limited review” but a searching one, especially where mandatory rules of EU law are at stake, and it reaches both compulsory and voluntary arbitration. The practical impact is twofold: it reconfigures the
FIFA-CAS-ordinary courts balance (and, by extension, international arbitration with effects in the EU) and compels adjustments to sports regulations if they are to retain internal effectiveness; at the same time, it foreshadows increased litigation and workload for the courts, straining arbitration’s promise of speed.