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Time after time, legal opinions in sports cases fall before official decisions, which opens the door to questions about the qualifications and capabilities of the vast majority of jurists and lawyers in Saudi clubs.

And recently, Al-Nasr lost his protest against the legality of Muhammad Kanno’s participation with his team, Al-Hilal, in the confrontation that brought them together last December and ended 2-2, so that the Sports Arbitration Center approved the Disciplinary Committee’s decision to reject the protest.

The Sports Arbitration Center is considered the highest stage of litigation in sports matters in Saudi Arabia, and it is a center that falls under the umbrella of the Saudi Olympic Committee, and it is the supreme and exclusive authority for adjudicating sports disputes and disputes related to sports through arbitration or mediation.

Al-Nasr resorted to litigation at the Saudi Sports Arbitration Center after his protest was rejected in the Disciplinary Committee and the Appeals Committee supported the disciplinary decision, so that the capital team requested expedited arbitration in the case related to the path to achieving the Saudi Professional League title.

On Friday evening, the Saudi Sports Arbitration Center issued a decision rejecting Al-Nasr’s protest unanimously by the arbitrators, and the decision of the Disciplinary and Appeal Committees of the Saudi Football Association was approved regarding the player’s participation.

Muhammad Kno was subjected to a four-month suspension from the Dispute Resolution Chamber for signing two contracts with Al-Nasr and Al-Hilal, while Azraq Al-Asimah was punished for two periods of registration.

Muhammad Kanno participated with the Saudi national team last November (November) in the World Cup finals, which were held in Qatar, before returning to participate with his team, Al Hilal, starting in December last year.

The Saudi Sports Arbitration Center based its decision on the application of the professionalism regulations and the conditions of the players, and that the player’s participation was correct after calculating the days of punishment according to the regulations “professional regulations.” The decision also confirmed the arbitrators’ consensus on the ruling.

There were conflicting legal opinions regarding the case of the player Muhammad Kno, and it sparked controversy in the Saudi sports street, especially amid the assurances of some jurists that the case would be won by victory and that the match points would be added to his score.

This ongoing controversy brings us back to the importance of jurists familiarizing themselves with sports regulations and laws in Saudi Arabia in general and not only in football, especially with the great development witnessed by sports and the multiplication of the number of federations under the banner of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

Certainly, specializing in sports law will be an addition to any of the two laws in the arena, but the most important thing is to constantly familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations and keep abreast of the continuous changes in the regulations of professionalism and discipline in the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) as well as the local federations.

Saudi clubs usually lose many cases of international disputes in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (Al-Kass), which is the highest degree of litigation in sports cases with an international dimension.

The consequences of this loss of cases burden the clubs with millions of riyals, and perhaps the deprivation of registration or contracts, due to the poor reading of the legal scene sometimes and the clubs committing lapses that cannot be amended, especially when terminating contracts or breaching the terms of contracts related to the payment of salaries and bonuses.

In front of the unlimited support for sports clubs in Saudi Arabia, the “support strategy”, the matter has become necessary to reconsider the legal departments of the clubs and raise the level and mechanism for selecting the legal professionals who work in them, especially with the increase in the number of foreign professionals and the increase in the games included in the clubs, which means an increase in the number of professional players whose contracts will be Need to review and see all its points.

The Saudi arena abounds with a number of skilled jurists in their fields, the last of whom was Ahmed Al-Sheikhi, who succeeded in reading the entire scene in the case of the player Muhammad Kno since the beginning of the contractual dispute between the two parties, when he confirmed the imposition of punishment on the Al-Hilal team before stressing the invalidity of Al-Nasr’s recent protest.

Al-Sheikhi addressed, through his Twitter account, after the end of the dispute in the last case, a number of matters that contribute to the correct reading of the legal scene in sports cases, stressing: “Academic legal foundation and the practice of law in practice internally and externally, in addition to teaching and academic research, and the English language that appoints To understand and assimilate the texts and rulings and to come up with sound conclusions, a neutral mathematical background and to consider issues objectively and away from any tendencies (blinds our insight) ».

Many Saudi legal names appear in the list of accredited arbitrators at the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (Al-Kass), where the last of these names was the young Ahmed bin Musaed Al-Osaimi, who raised the number of Saudi legalists in the list to seven names, as accredited arbitrators in the “Al-Kass” court, which It is concerned with the roles of settling disputes related to sports activities.

The list of arbitrators published on the “Cass” website includes Sultan Aba Al-Ela, Ahmed Abu Amara, Saeed Al-Zahrani, Bandar Al-Hamidani, Sultan Al-Samel and Majid bin Khathila.

According to the biography published next to each arbitrator, Sultan bin Fayhan Aba Al-Ela holds a master’s degree in law from Indiana University in the United States of America, and is president of the Faculty of Law at King Abdulaziz University. He is a founding member of the Arab Union for International Arbitration «Saudi Arabia – Egypt».

As for the arbitrator, Ahmed Issa Abu Amara, he holds a master’s degree in law from Southern Methodist University in Dallas – Texas, USA. He worked as head of legal affairs in the Saudi Olympic Committee, head of the appeal committee in the Saudi Marine Sports Federation, and head of the appeal committee in the Arab Federation. to swim.

Saeed Al-Zahrani is a member of the Saudi Bar Association, Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the Saudi Shooting Federation and a member of the Elections Committee of the Saudi Football Federation, and he worked as a sports arbitrator at the Saudi Sports Arbitration Center.

As for Bandar Al-Humaidani, he holds a master’s degree in sports law. He worked as chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the Saudi Football Association, a member of the Legal Committee of the Arab Gulf Federation, and an arbitrator at the Saudi Sports Arbitration Center.

Sultan Al-Samel has been considered a certified arbitrator at the Saudi Sports Arbitration Center since 2017, and he worked as head of the Legal Affairs Department of the Saudi Credit Information Company “SIMAH”.

Majid bin Khathila, who worked as executive director of the legal department in the Saudi Olympic Committee, a member of the Legal Committee of the Olympic Council of Asia, and Secretary General of the Saudi Center for Sports Arbitration, also stands out.