Senegal-Morocco CAN 2025 final dispute: meet the three CAS arbitrators

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hear Senegal, Morocco and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Thursday as it considers the dispute surrounding the final of CAN 2025.

The highly publicised case will be decided by a three-person panel chaired by French arbitrator Gerald Simon. Italian lawyer Luigi Fumagalli and German professor Ulrich Haas complete the tribunal.

All three are legal academics with extensive experience of sports disputes and international arbitration, and face one of the most closely watched decisions in recent African football.

Gerald Simon

Simon is emeritus professor at the University of Burgundy-Franche-Comte and a recognised specialist in sports law. He previously headed the university’s Sports Law Laboratory, with his research including the regulatory powers of sports federations and the autonomy of the sports movement.

He has been a CAS arbitrator for more than two decades. In 2006, he sat on a CAS panel hearing the case involving Le Havre, FIFA, Newcastle and Charles N’Zogbia. That dispute included the consequences of the young French player’s move to Newcastle.

Luigi Fumagalli

Fumagalli is a professor at the University of Milan and a practising lawyer. He has been a member of CAS for 24 years and regularly takes part in sports arbitration proceedings.

The Italian has also served as an appeal judge for Euroleague Basketball and as president of the second division of the Italian anti-doping tribunal.

In 2019, Fumagalli chaired a CAS panel in the case involving Kazakhstan player Etzaz Hussain, FC Astana and FIFA. He has also served on CAS ad hoc divisions at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, Sochi in 2014, Tokyo in 2020 and, most recently, Milan-Cortina 2026.

Ulrich Haas

Haas, a German, is professor of civil law and civil procedure at the University of Zurich. His specialist areas include international civil procedure, arbitration and sports law.

According to the University of Zurich, he has taken part, either as a president or as an arbitrator appointed by one of the parties, in more than 200 sports-related arbitration tribunals. Many of those cases were heard by CAS panels.

He was also involved in the 2014 Fenerbahce-UEFA case, which concerned the sanctions imposed on the Turkish club in relation to the match-fixing allegations.

The three arbitrators will now examine the legal dispute surrounding the CAN 2025 final, a case that has generated differing interpretations of the relevant rules and legal arguments.