Norbert Mészáros & Vukasin Poleksic

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rendered its final decision in the arbitration between the football players Norbert Mészáros & Vukasin Poleksic and the Union Européenne de Football Association (UEFA). The CAS has partially confirmed the decision of the UEFA Appeals Body of 8 September 2010 and has ruled that the suspension of Vukasin Poleksic until 30 June 2012 is maintained and that the suspension of Norbert Mészáros (until 31 December 2011) is annulled.

Norbert Mészáros and Vukasin Poleksic were both players of Debreceni VSC (Hungary) during the season 2009-2010. On 20 October 2009, both players played in the UEFA Champions League match Debreceni VSC – AC Fiorentina in Budapest (the score was 3-4). In relation to that match, some investigations were carried out by the police authorities of Bochum (Germany) in cooperation with the UEFA Disciplinary Services, which revealed that a criminal gang was planning to manipulate the match within the framework of an organised betting fraud. As a result, the case was referred to the Control and Disciplinary Body of UEFA considering that both players were suspected of having violated the principles of loyalty and integrity by not reporting attempts of bribery and by acting in a way that was likely to exert an influence on the progress and/or result of a match in violation of the UEFA Regulations. The Control and Disciplinary Body of UEFA suspended Norbert Mészáros until 31 December 2011 and fined him EUR 7’000, and suspended Vukasin Poleksic until 30 June 2012 and fined him EUR 10’000. The sanctions were confirmed by the UEFA Appeals Body.

On 29 October 2010, both players filed an appeal with the CAS requesting the annulment of the UEFA decision (Mészáros) and the reduction of the suspension (Poleksic). The case was referred to a panel of CAS arbitrators composed of Prof. Luigi Fumagalli, Italy (President), Mr Andras Gurovits, Switzerland and Mr Christian Duve, Germany (arbitrators).

A hearing was held in Lausanne on 10 March 2011, during which the parties, their legal representatives and their witnesses were heard.

The CAS panel confirmed the UEFA decision regarding Vukasin Poleksic and concluded that it had been proven to its comfortable satisfaction that there had been contacts between the player and the members of a criminal group involved in match fixing and betting fraud and that he was obliged to have reported the said contacts to UEFA. By failing to make such a report, Poleksic had violated the principles of conduct set forth in the UEFA Regulations.

The CAS panel annulled the UEFA decision regarding Norbert Mészáros considering that the evidence submitted to the CAS was not sufficient to establish to the comfortable satisfaction of the Panel that a violation of the UEFA Regulations had been committed.

The existence of an effective manipulation concerning the Champions League match between Debreceni VSC and Fiorentina could not be established during the CAS procedure.

For further information please visit www.tas-cas.org.