Appealing an arbitration decision in the field of international sports competitions represents a big challenge for clubs. The FIFA Disciplinary Code establishes that the decisions taken by the referee on the field of play are final and may not be reviewed by the FIFA judicial bodies, unless we are faced with one of the cases listed in the Code itself.

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Possibilities for challenging refereeing decisions in international sporting competitions

Protest an arbitral decision is a matter that, both at the national and international levels, entails a significant degree of complexity, and unfortunately for the interests of clubs and players, most of the time it is unsuccessful.

When we talk about protest an arbitration decision in the field of international sports competitions, we must keep in mind what the FIFA Disciplinary Code establishes. Specifically, its article 9 establishes that ‘‘decision taken by the referee on the field of play are final and may not be reviewed by the FIFA judicial bodies’’. However, the second point of the aforementioned article tells us that ‘‘in cases where a decision by the referee involves an obvious error, the FIFA judicial bodies may only review the disciplinary consequences of that decision’’. That is the challenge for the clubs, to be able to prove the existence of an obvious error that allows the decision made by the referee on the field of play to be left without disciplinary effects.

An interesting point regarding the possibility of protesting against a referee's decision can be found in article 9.3 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, which reads as follows: ‘‘a protest against caution or a sending-off from the field of play after two cautions is admissible only if the referee’s error was to mistake the identity of the player’’. As we can see, this article considerably limits the actions of the clubs when they want to protest a decision of this nature because, unless the referee was confused when he shows the caution to the player who actually committed the action, something truly unlikely since we have the VAR, they can’t make any protest to try to reverse the disciplinary consequences.

Articles 14 et seq. of the FIFA Disciplinary Code regulate infringements during matches or competitions. Specifically, article 14 refers to ‘‘misconduct of players and officials’’, sanctioning actions such as: denying the opposing team a goal, dissent by word or action, deliberately receiving a yellow or red card, serious foul play, provoking spectators, assaults, threats, etc. The severity of the sanction imposed will be contingent upon the gravity of the player's or official's conduct.

Article 18 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code provides that associations and their clubs are entailed to lodge protests. Protests must reach the Disciplinary Committee within 24 hours of the end of the match in question. With regard to protests against referees’ decisions, these are admissible only if they are aimed to prove ‘‘an obvious error by the referee as defined in article 9 of this Code, in which case the protest may be directed only at the disciplinary consequences of the referee’s obvious error’’.

The FIFA judicial bodies (Disciplinary Committee and Appeal Committee) are responsible for determining the nature and extent of the disciplinary measures to be imposed based on the objective and subjective elements of the offence, taking into account the specific circumstances of each case.

If the Disciplinary Committee imposes a sanction on a player as a result of a referee's decision, the player's club has the right to appeal to the Appeal Committee, which is ‘‘competent to decide on appeals against any of the Disciplinary Committee’s decisions that FIFA regulations do not declare as final’’. Article 57.3 of the FIFA Statutes states that CAS shall not deal with matters relating to ‘‘violations of the Laws of the Game’’ and ‘‘suspensions of up to four matches or up to three months, with the exception of doping decision’’.

Conclusion

In short, we can see that the chances of achieving a favorable decision when challenging a refereeing decision in the field of international sports competitions are practically a chimera. It is very difficult for clubs to prove the existence of a manifest error of fact, which even in some cases is limited to the possibility of claiming an error in determining the identity of the player.