TPO: Courts deal Doyen Sports Investments another huge blow
The Brussels Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by Doyen Sport Investments, Belgian-Second Division club Seraing United and the Spanish Liga (LFP) seeking to suspend the ban on third-part ownerships (TPO) imposed by FIFA in December 2014. Doyen Sports Investment’s appeal was based on the ‘absence of conditions ensuring free competition’.
Nelio Lucas’ group had already made an attempt to lift the ban last summer, but their request was dismissed too. As the FIFA official website points out, this time their appeal was not only rejected, but the Brussels Court of Appeal has also emphasized “the lack of transparency of TPO, the absence of control by governing bodies, the significance of this worldwide phenomenon and of the amounts of money involved, as well as the environment which is prone to corruption and other fraudulent practices.”
Despite the defeat, DSI are somehow trying to spin the Belgian court's ruling in their favour, an anonymous source from the group telling Portuguese press agency Lusa that the decision is very important because it sustains arguments in favor of TPOs.
It would take quite the imagination to find those in the ruling, and it's not as if CEO Nelio Lucas came off well (according to reports) while attending a conference TPOs at the Sport Intergroup of the European Parliament, held on January 28th.
There is also a written common declaration dated back to the 11th on November 2015 and signed by some MEPs - including the Italian Antonio Tajani - which unequivocally condemn TPO’s models.
The only verdict in favor of Doyen Sports Investments was made by the Court of Arbitration for Sport this past December. The court ruled in favor of Doyen, against Sporting Clube de Portugal which had sued the Investment fund for allegedly forcing them to sell Marcos Rojo to Manchester United.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport’s sentence says a lot about the logic of their decision-making. They are an institution which only base their verdicts on contract violations, but they don’t care about the circumstances under which a certain contract was signed. The economy of world football has been changing a lot recently and I believe a more adequate institution should take care of these kind of decisions.
Pippo Russo (@pippoevai), translated by Lorenzo Bettoni (@lorebetto)
