A Sports Arbitration Award Is Final and Cannot Be Annulled Before the Courts — So How Do You Challenge It?

1. The UAE Sports Arbitration Centre and Its Exclusive Jurisdiction

The UAE Sports Arbitration Centre was established under Federal Law No. 16 of 2016, and it has exclusive jurisdiction over the arbitration of sports disputes. The legislator dedicated a special law to it that removed these disputes from the courts' jurisdiction and vested jurisdiction over them in the Centre alone. The following are the most prominent matters within its jurisdiction:

The Centre's jurisdiction is general and covers all sports; it is not limited to a particular game. Football is included, along with disputes between foreign players and clubs and contract-related disputes. However, football has a special character at the international level, as it is subject to the framework of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). Disputes of an international character — such as international transfers and decisions of FIFA bodies — may fall under FIFA's framework and be appealed before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), while domestic disputes are heard before the Centre.

2. The Facts of the Case That Established the Principle

The dispute arose between a horse trainer and a stable owner over the division of a sale price. The trainer brought an arbitration case before the Centre, which issued an award ordering the stable owner to pay certain sums. The latter then filed a lawsuit to annul the arbitration award before the Dubai Court of Appeal. The case went through a multi-stage litigation journey before reaching the General Assembly:

3. The Principle Established by the General Assembly

The General Assembly held that the awards and decisions issued by the UAE Sports Arbitration Centre — including arbitration and conciliation awards and the awards of the appellate chambers — are final, subject to expedited enforcement, and carry the force of an executive instrument and the authority of res judicata, and are not subject to appeal before the courts by any means of recourse. Accordingly, the Dubai courts lack jurisdiction to hear an initial lawsuit to annul an arbitration award issued by this Centre, given that the legislator dedicated a special law to it that vested jurisdiction over sports disputes in the Centre alone.

4. The Only Route to Object: The Substantive Enforcement Dispute

Since the Centre's awards are executive instruments, their enforcement takes place before the competent execution judge under the Civil Procedure Law. A party may object to the award when it is submitted for enforcement, as a substantive enforcement dispute that involves resolving a prior question that must be present before the enforcement order is issued — namely, whether the award qualifies as an executive instrument and meets its conditions. The execution judge may address this question before enforcement, and the judge's decision is appealable by cassation:

5. What Changed? Before and After the Principle

This principle clarifies the correct place to object to the Centre's award, shifting it from an initial annulment lawsuit before the Court of Appeal to a substantive dispute before the execution judge:

6. Effective Judicial Oversight and Practical Impact

This principle does not mean that the Centre's award is entirely beyond judicial oversight, as effective, in-depth oversight remains available at the enforcement stage before the competent execution judge — consistent with the comparative approach adopted by the Court of Justice of the European Union and by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland and its international council, whose awards are subject to review by the Swiss Federal Tribunal. In practice, a party who obtains an award from the Centre enforces it directly as an executive instrument, while a party who wishes to object waits for the enforcement stage and files a substantive dispute before the execution judge instead of an initial annulment lawsuit that will not be admitted.

7. The Lawyer's Role

The lawyer helps the client follow the correct path in light of this principle. For a party in whose favour the award was issued, the lawyer submits the award directly for enforcement before the execution judge as an executive instrument and pursues its procedures. For a party who wishes to object, the lawyer drafts the substantive enforcement dispute and builds the pleas on the prior question concerning the award's qualification as an executive instrument and the fulfilment of its conditions, then appeals the execution judge's decision by cassation where appropriate, avoiding an inadmissible initial annulment lawsuit that wastes time and costs.

8. Legal References

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