The disputes arising from sport relations are very particular
and because of that - most often settled in specialized courts of
sport arbitration. For an arbitral award to be enforceable in
Lithuania it has to be recognized by the national courts. Normally,
the non-recognition of a foreign arbitration award is rare both in
Lithuania and internationally. However, a recent decision adopted
by the Lithuanian Court of Appeal in 2010 painted a picture that in
Lithuania the arbitration awards regarding a dispute arising
between a professional sportsman and a sport club will not be
recognized and enforced at all.
Qualification of sports relation
In the mentioned decision (case No 2T-164/2010) the Court of
Appeal ruled that a dispute which arose from a claim by the
basketball player to a sport club to pay remuneration should be
qualified as a labour dispute. According to the Lithuanian Law on
Commercial Arbitration, labour related disputes are non-arbitrable
i.e. cannot be
