Dr Adel F. Al Mayas
Assistant Professor of Commercial Law

Dr Mohammed Al Kandari
Assistant Professor of Litigation Law

Prof Mansour Al Saeed
Professor of Commercial Law

Department of Law College of Business Studies, PAAET, State of Kuwait

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the implementation of obligations arising from professional sports contracts, leading to a dispute between the contracting parties. This required the intervention of a sports arbitrator to restore the financial balance of the contract. However, this intervention raised a problem regarding the limits of the arbitrator’s authority, which enables him to devise appropriate solutions to address the financially unstable contract, especially given the differing opinions regarding the classification of the pandemic between those who consider it a force majeure that makes it impossible to implement the mutual obligations between the contracting parties, and those who consider it an emergency circumstance that merely makes implementing these obligations burdensome, not impossible, making it completely impossible to implement the obligations included in the contract. Rather, the dispute between the contracting parties can be settled through appropriate means, including arbitration.
The current study adopts the second view, considering the pandemic an emergency circumstance that warrants resorting to sports arbitration to address the financial imbalance in the contract. The study adopted a comparative analytical approach, drawing on a set of Kuwaiti and foreign laws, rulings, and jurisprudential interpretations. It analyzed and compared these in light of the legal context of the research problem, with the goal of arriving at an understanding of the role assigned to the arbitrator.
Regarding the most important research topics, the subject was addressed in two sections. The first included basic solutions for activating the authority of the sports arbitrator in determining the fate of the contract’s implementation. The second included backup solutions for activating the authority of the sports arbitrator in determining the fate of the contract’s implementation. The research reached several conclusions, the most important of which are: The recognition by countries around the world – including the State of Kuwait – of the role of the sports arbitrator in resolving disputes of a sports nature and character.
There is a set of local laws and regulations issued by international sports bodies based on the principles of justice and fairness, according to each individual case. The sports arbitrator has exceptional discretionary power in the area of ​​contract amendment, derived from the agreement of the parties, the request of one of them, or based on an explicit mandate from the legislator to restore balance to the professional sports contract that has been disrupted as a result of an emergency.
Keywords: professional sports contract, contract enforcement, financial imbalance of the contract, obligation to negotiate, authority of the sports arbitrator, emergency circumstances, force majeure, contract modification.

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