Dubai Court of Cassation (General Assembly), Appeal No. 1 of 2025, judgment of 5 November 2025
Under Federal Law No. 16 of 2016 establishing the UAE Sports Arbitration Centre and the Centre's Procedural Rules (second edition, in force from 25 October 2023), awards, decisions and orders of the Centre in sports disputes are final, carry res judicata and have the force of an executory instrument, and the arbitrator decides objections to his own jurisdiction, including the absence of an arbitration agreement. The Dubai courts therefore have no jurisdiction over an original action to annul such an award. Judicial review takes place when enforcement is sought: the execution judge, at a party's request, examines whether the award complies with the general rules of arbitration whose breach could make it void, as a substantive enforcement dispute whose outcome can be challenged up to the Court of Cassation.
A horse owner agreed that his trainer would receive 50 per cent of the proceeds of sales or prizes. After a horse was exchanged for a fully equipped stable, the trainer claimed half of it before the UAE Sports Arbitration Centre and obtained an award in February 2024. The owner sued in the Dubai Court of Appeal to annul the award, arguing that there was no arbitration agreement and the dispute was not a sports dispute. That action was dismissed; the Court of Cassation quashed the dismissal; on remand the Court of Appeal annulled the award; and the Court of Cassation dismissed the trainer's further appeal, holding that no written arbitration agreement existed.
Under Article 190(3) of the Civil Procedure Code the President of the Court referred a request to revoke both cassation judgments. The revocation panel accepted it because the second judgment applied the Centre's 2020 rules, replaced from 25 October 2023 by the 2023 rules on which the award was based, and because the tribunal's preliminary award rejecting the jurisdiction objection had become final. The chamber rehearing the appeal referred it to the General Assembly.
The Assembly reviewed Articles 1, 5, 7, 15 and 20 of Federal Law No. 16 of 2016, Articles 1, 73, 81, 88 and 106 of the 2023 Procedural Rules and Article 24 of the Centre's statute: the Centre's awards and orders are final, immediately enforceable executory instruments with res judicata, appellate-chamber awards are not open to any challenge, and arbitrators rule on their own jurisdiction. Such awards are enforced through the execution judge under Articles 207 and 212 of the Code, who may, at a party's request and before ordering enforcement, examine whether the award meets the conditions for enforcement, in a substantive enforcement dispute subject to the usual challenges. Noting that sports awards elsewhere, including those of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, remain subject to national judicial review, the Assembly held by the required majority that this review occurs at enforcement and that the Dubai courts lack jurisdiction over an original annulment action.
It quashed the judgment and declared the Court of Appeal without jurisdiction over the annulment action.
Clubs, trainers, players, agents and sponsors increasingly have disputes heard by the UAE Sports Arbitration Centre. A party unhappy with an award cannot bring an annulment action in the Dubai courts; its objections, including lack of an arbitration agreement, must be raised when the award is presented for enforcement. The case also shows the Court of Cassation using its Article 190 power to revoke its own final judgments.
| Articles 1, 5, 7, 15 and 20 of Federal Law No. 16 of 2016 establishing the UAE Sports Arbitration Centre |
| Articles 1, 73, 81, 88 and 106 of the UAE Sports Arbitration Centre Procedural Rules (second edition, 2023), and Article 24 of the Centre’s statute |
| Articles 190, 207 and 212 of Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022 (Civil Procedure Code) — text of articles 190, 207, 212 |
| Article 7 of Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 on Arbitration (applied in the revoked judgment) — text of article 7 |
| Article 20 of Dubai Law No. 13 of 2016 on the Judicial Authority in the Emirate of Dubai (referral to and majority of the General Assembly) |
“عدم اختصاص محاكم دبي بنظر دعوى مبتدأه ببطلان حكم تحكيم صادر عن مركز الإمارات للتحكيم الرياضي”Short quotation from the judgment as published by the court. The full judgment is on the court’s official service.
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