⚖️ The FIFA Jurisdiction Blind Spot: Pacta Sunt Servanda and the Crisis of Legal Recognition in the West
Why Member Associations across North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Guianas are breaching obligations they don’t fully understand — and what that means for football law.
Why does FIFA get to dictate legal rules to Canada, The United States, Mexico, Nicaragua, Suriname, Aruba, St. Vincent, and Trinidad?
This is the question critics, especially domestic legal professionals, often raise when FIFA steps in — to block a civil court ruling, sanction a federation, or enforce a training compensation claim. The common assumption is that FIFA’s authority is symbolic at best — or intrusive at worst.
But here’s is the breakdown:
FIFA’s legal power is real, recognized, and binding — grounded in international treaty law, protected by Swiss legal personality, and enforceable through sport-specific legal mechanisms.
As someone trained in international and European commercial law, I didn’t enter sports law through a traditional national bar. I arrived by studying how transnational organizations, like the UN and FIFA operate, how they govern disputes, and how they regulate global markets — including our beloved football.
And yet, across the entire Northwestern Hemisphere, there’s no legal structure that formally recognizes this niche expertise. Like much of the world, we treat bar admission as the only path to legal credibility. What sets other regions apart is their recognition of sports law — particularly football law — not only as a legitimate legal discipline, but as one grounded in global best practices with substantial economic impact.
That’s why I created Pitchside Sports Consulting (PSC): to fill that void. Not just by providing answers, but by reshaping the conversation around law, sport, and jurisdiction. I view the Florida State Bar’s approval of FIFA’s Chief Legal & Compliance Officer as Authorized House Counsel as a meaningful precedent — one that quietly affirms the need to formally recognize football law in practice. In a system that often overlooks international specialization, that kind of regulatory fluency in this particular region is no longer optional — it’s essential.
⚽ Sport Specificity ≠ Legal Sovereignty
The concept of sport specificity protects football from being treated like ordinary commerce. Due to the specific nature of sport, eligibility rules, integrity systems, and internal governance practices that differ from labor law or contract doctrine, are legally justified.
But sport specificity doesn’t mean sovereignty.
When a national football association joins FIFA, it voluntarily consents to a legal framework — and that framework has consequences:
FIFA Statutes, Article 57(1):
FIFA recognizes the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as the final dispute resolution forum for all stakeholders.FIFA Statutes, Article 58(3):
“The decision of the CAS shall be final and binding and no appeal shall be lodged to any other jurisdictional body.”FIFA Statutes, Article 14(1)(i):
Members must prevent “third-party interference,” including by civil courts or governments.FIFA Statutes, Article 19(1):
Associations must manage their affairs “independently and without undue influence from third parties.”
In short: FIFA’s legal system is not optional. It is a binding framework rooted in mutual recognition (e.g., FIFA-Member Association).
📜 Pacta Sunt Servanda: Agreements Must Be Kept
In opening the discussion on mutual recognition under international law, it’s essential to underscore the foundational role of pacta sunt servanda. Under Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations (1986):
“Every treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith.”
While FIFA’s Statutes are not treaties in the strictest legal sense, they function as treaty-like instruments between an international organization and its members. They establish binding obligations, define jurisdiction, and are formally accepted by all Member Associations.
That is pacta sunt servanda, in action.
This principle — which I explored extensively during my LLB studies in international commercial law — forms the backbone of modern transnational governance. Whether it’s the WTO, WEC, WHO, WLA, The World Bank, the United Nations, or FIFA, once obligations are freely entered into by parties, they must be respected — in letter and in practice.
🌍 Erga Omnes: Obligations to the Global Game
Under Article 48 of the ILC’s Articles on State Responsibility (ARSIWA), erga omnes obligations are duties owed to the entire international community, not just to a specific party.
While not directly binding on international organizations, the principle of erga omnes helps explain why, in football law:
A CAS ruling rendered in one country must be respected by all
FIFA may intervene globally, even when a federation’s conduct appears purely domestic
Regulatory consistency is a legal necessity — not merely a matter of administrative preference
FIFA’s regulatory framework is not designed to settle isolated disputes — it exists to safeguard the integrity and uniformity of the global football economy. This is why treating FIFA’s decisions as “optional” is not only a misunderstanding — it is a systemic legal conundrum in the west.
🇨🇭 Swiss Law: Why FIFA’s Legal Personality Exists
My undergraduate thesis focused on how FIFA, UEFA, and CONCACAF operate legally from their base in Switzerland. Here’s what I found:
Under Swiss Civil Code, FIFA is recognized as a legal association with full internal autonomy and capacity to regulate.
The Host State Act provides tax exemptions and privileges to FIFA and similar international entities, which makes Switzerland an attractive host for similar International Organizations.
The Swiss Federal Code on the Promotion of Sport allows direct financial contributions from the Swiss government to promote sports and physical activity.
The Swiss Criminal Code has limited scope over associations, allowing FIFA to self-regulate, unless external legal complaints trigger prosecution.
This legal architecture enables FIFA, but most other international sports organizations (e.g., IOC, FIBA, FIA, WADA) to operate globally with little state interference — but once FIFA establishes obligations, those rules take on the force of global law.
🚫 The Legal Gap in North America
Despite the legal clarity, Member Associations in the West — particularly in Canada and the Caribbean — often:
Invite civil courts to interfere in internal football matters,
Fail to enforce CAS decisions,
Remain out of sync with FIFA's Clearing House, Training Compensation, and Agent Regulations.
The core issue?
Despite the growing complexity of football’s legal framework, professionals with international sports law expertise often fall outside formal recognition structures — simply because their credentials don’t pass through domestic bar systems. In North America, legal authority continues to be gatekept by bar admission, even in domains that require deep transnational understanding.
Meanwhile, those who do hold bar licenses — but lack sport-specific regulatory experience — are often tasked with navigating a system they were never trained for.
This is the capacity gap that Pitchside Sports Consulting was specifically built to close.
🧩 My Role — and Why PSC Exists
I studied international commercial law in the City of International Peace and Justice, because I believed in the power of transnational regulation over domestic law. That belief led me first to the United Nations, then to FIFA, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and eventually to resolving domestic labour conditions for Canadian footballers — all while advising on live disputes involving players, clubs, and federations across multiple jurisdictions. I later became the first lawyer at the World Leagues Association, providing legal services under a Swiss labour framework — a role that deepened my understanding of how international sports law operates in practice.
Yet across North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, recognition of this expertise continues to rely on national bar admission — even in areas governed not by domestic law, but by FIFA statutes, CAS jurisprudence, and international regulatory standards. That disconnect has left many stakeholders in our region exposed, underrepresented, or simply unaware of the legal systems that actually govern the global game.
My work has involved advising on FIFA disputes, supporting football stakeholders on regulatory compliance, and navigating the Swiss legal foundations that give FIFA its global authority. This isn’t theoretical. It’s legal fluency, grounded in lived experience.
PSC wasn’t built to compete with traditional firms. It was created because no one else is covering this space — and because the football economy in our region can no longer afford to misunderstand the legal frameworks it’s supposed to follow.
📚 Recommended Reading
FIFA Statutes (2024) – Articles 14, 19, 57, 58
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties with International Organizations (1986) – Article 26
ILC Articles on State Responsibility (2001) – Article 48
ICJ – Barcelona Traction Case (1970)
Swiss Civil Code – Article 60 ff.
📣 Final Word
FIFA is not just a sports brand — it's a legally empowered organization. When Member Associations accept its Statutes, they also accept its jurisdiction. And under international law, that cannot be walked back.
📍 In the West, the longer we delay alignment, the more opportunities we forfeit.
📩 Want your club, league, or federation to align with FIFA’s legal regime?
→ Connect on our Linkedin Page and lets book a consultation!