Mădălina Diaconu: “T.R.A.S. is and will be in the future a very useful tool in the Romanian sports movement”

PRESS RELEASE

At the launch event of the Romanian Court of Arbitration for Sport, prof. univ. dr. av. Mădălina Diaconu, explained why T.R.A.S. is and will be in the future a very useful tool in the Romanian sports movement.

“Many interesting things have already been said and will continue to be said about this Tribunal. What I would like to mention from the perspective of a practitioner is one fundamental point. From my point of view, TRAS is and will be in the future a very useful tool in the Romanian sports movement. In any field of activity, including sports, disputes eventually arise. And these disputes cost. Resolving disputes costs time, energy, and money. Currently, if we look at the solutions available in the sports field, we see judicial courts, which we know are already overloaded and not specialized in sports. We have the alternative of the internal jurisdictional bodies of sports federations, those that have created such bodies. And we also have the great alternative, which is the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. This is the court I know best and will continue to speak about it, as I have practiced before the CAS for almost 20 years, since I settled there.

Therefore, from the perspective of this Tribunal, which I dare to compare with our new Tribunal, my message would be that unlike CAS, T.R.A.S. has three major advantages. First, it is a faster tribunal. Second, it is a tribunal closer to home, and this has implications on all levels, including the use of the Romanian language as the language of procedure. It is a tribunal that is much more accessible. When I refer to accessibility, I mean especially from a financial point of view. I don’t know how familiar you are with the court costs at CAS, but in 20 years, I have not seen costs for a case being less than 20,000 euros for the simplest cases requiring a single arbitrator. A simple case requiring three arbitrators, the costs rise to at least 45-50,000 euros. Just from this perspective, you can understand the difference in accessibility between CAS and T.R.A.S.

Mr. lawyer Sabin Gherdan spoke about the T.R.A.S. website, where you can find all the useful information and especially all the financial information regarding the costs of these procedures. If you compare them with the examples I have given, you will see that this comparison cannot exist. The difference is abysmal between the two. In the case of T.R.A.S., simple cases, for example, require global costs of 100, 200, 300 euros. These are the minimum fees listed on the site. Compare this with the 20,000 euros I mentioned earlier at CAS. Strictly from this financial point of view, we see that T.R.A.S. is a tool that is much more accessible than any other similar tool. Therefore, I am convinced, even for this reason alone, that this tool will be useful to the entire Romanian sports movement, and I trust that more and more federations will know how to make use of this tool that was created for you.”