Ecuadorian professional football and the mandatory subordination to the Court of Arbitration for Sport

Abstract

This legal essay has the purpose of carrying out a national, international, and doctrinal normative analysis, regarding how the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has the power to resolve controversies in sports matters for Ecuadorian professional soccer teams. This submission to arbitration arises from the compulsory and imposed consent, thanks to the power of international professional football regulatory bodies. For this reason, this type of sports arbitration has been involved in criticism, having lost one of the essential elements for arbitration, consent. This deformation of consent causes the parties to question the powers of the CAS, legal security and even its impartiality. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how an alternative justice has become the only path to access justice in controversies related to football. Consequently, a distorted arbitration is the result, maintaining only its procedural form, but losing its essence.