Member news

The Confederation of African Football represented by Tarek Badawy of Shahid law firm defeats request for interim relief

Shahid Law Firm is pleased to announce that it has successfully represented the African Football Association (“CAF”) in defeating an ICC emergency arbitration claim initiated by Lagardere Sports, a leading French sports and entertainment company. The dispute related to CAF’s termination of a USD 1 Billion contract for the commercialization of CAF media and marketing rights following the Egyptian Competition Authority’s finding that the contract breached Egyptian law, which resulted in two criminal courts imposing heavy financial penalties on CAF’s former President and Secretary General, and triggered further investigations by the COMESA Competition Commission. The ICC Emergency Arbitrator found that the harm alleged by Lagardere Sports as a result of CAF’s termination of the contract did not warrant the issuance of an emergency order pending the constitution of a full tribunal under the ICC rules.

CAF was represented by Shahid Law Firm’s Tarek Badawy and Salma Abdelaziz (Cairo), Levy Kaufmann-Kohler’s Antonio Rigozzi (Geneva), and Ashurst’s Denis Waelbroeck and Donald Slater (Brussels).