Matej Deraj

⁉️Judges with poor judgment Or corrupt to the core? 🏒 The affair surrounding CAS' reinstatement of the Russian national hockey teams is taking on new dimensions. Further to two CAS judges having travelled to Moscow prior to the ruling, Swiss reporter Thomas Renggli (Inside Paradeplatz) found out that: ❗Representatives of the Curtis law firm, which represents the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RIHF), were also present at the event with the CAS judges, at a Moscow luxury hotel. The proximity of the people and the timing raises questions. ❗The CV of Giulio Palermo, the chairman of CAS and who presided the panel in the hockey case, shows an earlier mission with the Russian led and compromised International Boxing Association (IBA). Representatives of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation's office attended the same Moscow event. None of this constitutes evidence of any influence on the recent Russian hockey ruling. However, these connections raise crucial questions. Among them: How does a (supposedly) independent sports legal body come up with assembling a court in such a one-sided (biased, tainted?) manner? For an international arbitration tribunal like CAS, it is not only crucial that it renders independent judgments. It must also take any doubts about its independence seriously. The Lausanne-based CAS needs to answer these questions. ❓Will the series of revelations force CAS to declare the Russian ruling compromised and to overturn it?