With the effect from October 1, 2021, the FIFA Football Tribunal was presented to the world of football. The main objective of this concept is then to unify the system of dispute resolution under the FIFA's umbrella. The following brief text therefore aims to briefly describe the composition of this decision-making body and to provide information on the changes that came into force with its creation.
Firstly it must be mentioned that the FIFA Football Tribunal newly includes three deciding bodies - FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber, FIFA Players' Status Chamber and Agents' Chamber. The last-mentioned then hasn't started its activities yet when it all depends on the new agent's regulations - which should see the light of the day in January 2022.
And what will the above-mentioned bodies actually deal with in their decision-making practice? As far as the jurisdiction of the decision-making bodies is concerned, there is not a big difference compared to the previous arrangement.
The FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber [1] will thus still settle disputes between players and clubs, as well as disputes concerning training compensation and solidarity contributions. In the case of the FIFA Players' Status Chamber [2], the coaches can file actions against their clubs - and vice versa, and at the same time the FIFA PSC will resolve disputes between clubs concerning player transfers, the international transfer system and the eligibility of players to operate within their national teams. Last but not least the FIFA Agents'Chamber must be mentioned, when its jurisdiction logically covers activities of football agents and as mentioned in the previous paragraph, it will start with its activities only with the validity of the new FIFA rules governing the activities of agents.
Along with the above described merger of the three chambers, new Procedural Rules governing the activities of the FIFA Football Tribunal [3] were issued when several changes compared to the previous procedural rules can be found within this document as well:
proceedings now will be free of charge if at least one party to the dispute is a natural person (player, agent, coach);
the deadline for paying the fee (if there is an obligation to pay it) is 10 days. The obligation of the fee then remains for the cases of request for a statement of reasons for the decision; when the notice will be mad only to the party requesting the statement of reasons;
the expedite preliminary procedural decision-making process has been put in place: if the FIFA Secretary General considers that the Chamber clearly lacks jurisdiction or the claim is clearly time-bared, it may refer the matter for a decision before the start of an actual proceedings;
the parties to the proceedings may be offered the possibility of voluntary and free mediation, within which they may conclude an agreement which will be considered final and binding.
Finally it shall be mentioned that FIFA estimates that FIFA DRC will rule on around 3,500 decisions on annual basis, when FIFA PSC will decide on just about 700 decisions and 6,000 regulatory applications per year.[4]
Resources:
[1] Article 24, FIFA RSTP
[2] Article 23, FIFA RSTP
[3] https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/29982feff2d2c0a9/original/Procedural-Rules-Governing-the-Football-Tribunal-EN-01-10.pdf