The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejects request for interim measures in the arbitration PFC CSKA Sofia / UEFA
Press Release
16 June 2017
The Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) has rejected an urgent request for provisional measures filed in the course of an appeal by the newly created football club PFC CSKA Sofia EAD (CSKA-Sofia) against the Union Européenne de Football Association (UEFA) regarding a decision issued by UEFA on 29 May 2017 (the Decision). In the Decision, UEFA rejected CSKASofia’s application for an exception to the “three-year rule”, i.e. the rule providing that a licence applicant must be a registered member of a UEFA member association for at least three consecutive years. As a consequence, UEFA indicated that CSKA-Sofia would not be able to apply for a UEFA licence for the UEFA club competitions in connection with seasons 2017/18 and 2018/19.
However, the club’s request for provisional measures has been rejected considering that the UEFA authorities have so far not decided to overturn the decision which was subsequently made by the Bulgarian Football Union to grant a licence to CSKA-Sofia to participate in the UEFA Europa League 2017/2018. Consequently, as of today, the Bulgarian club remains eligible to participate in the UEFA Europa League 2017/2018 and does not currently suffer any risk of irreparable harm. Consequently, the request for provisional measures to stay the UEFA Decision and to order the UEFA not to take any action to preclude or impede CSKA-Sofia from participating in the upcoming edition of the Europa League has been denied.
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