The Administrative Tribunal of Montreuil suspended by order of February 24 2017, the execution of the decision of the French Boxing Federation inflicting an amateur boxer disciplinary penalty Federal license suspension of five farms.
Suspension of a boxer, disciplinary sanction
Wishing to attend the meeting of the Board of Directors of a regional league, an amateur boxer, a former high level athlete who participated in the Olympic Games, took a license on September 22, 2016 from the French Boxing Federation (FFB).
The Regional League having refused his presence at the meeting, the boxer then requests, from September 23, 2016, the withdrawal of his license. What is carried out by the FFB.
Nevertheless, the boxer was subsequently suspended for a period of 5 years by the Disciplinary Commission of the first instance of the FFB in October 2016, for facts which took place on September 22.
Having appealed against the sanction, the boxer sees the decision confirmed by the FFB Appeal Board on November 30, 2016.
He then appealed to the French National Olympic and Sports Council, which declared itself incompetent, the applicant not being "not dismissed on the day of the pronouncement of the sanction".
The athlete then asks the Administrative Court to order the suspension of the FFB's decision.
The condition of urgency, summary proceedings before the Administrative Court
The applicant considered that "the condition of urgency is met because the sanction has the effect of depriving him of his professional activity by preventing him from being able to freely exercise any function, voluntary or remunerated, of leader, manager or trainer of a boxing club throughout the national territory".
In contrast to the FFB "the condition of urgency is not met because it is not the suspension measure and the absence of a license that prevent [the applicant] to find paid employment (…). [the applicant] has the full possibility, even without a license, to sign a new contract with the sports ministry or another employer, the taking of a license is only a fun activity".
The Administrative Tribunal deduces "which the sanction thus has the effect of significantly limiting the possibilities for [the applicant] to carry out an activity in the field of boxing".
On the lack of a sports license
The judge recalled beforehand, in application of classic case law (see in particular EC, 28.04.2014, Leonardo), A "sports federation is not empowered to pronounce a disciplinary sanction on account of facts which, regardless of the date on which they were committed, were it by a person who, on the date on which it is decided by the competent body of the federation, no longer had the quality of licensee of this federation".
Also, in this case, the boxer "no longer had the status of licensee of the French Boxing Federation"on the day of the decision. Therefore, the plea based on the incompetence of the FFB's appeal committee to pronounce a sanction against it"is such as to give rise to serious doubt as to the legality of the contested decision".
It is therefore appropriate to grant the applicant's request and to pronounce "the suspension of the execution of the decision of November 30, 2016 of the national disciplinary appeal commission of the French Boxing Federation confirming the decision of the federal disciplinary commission of first instance imposing [to the applicant] the disciplinary penalty of firm five-year federal license suspension".
As a reminder, the federations have until July 1, 2017 to adopt disciplinary regulations in accordance with the standard disciplinary regulations appended to the Decree.
