The Werder Bremen board of directors are continuing to legally fight their corner in light of the decision made in the debate on the release of players for the football tournament at the Olympic Games and will uphold their appeal suit with the CAS against the finding of FIFA judge Slim Aloulou (Tunisia) from Wednesday, 30.07.2008. The judgement was passed that clubs must release all players under the age of 23.
On scrutiny of the written reasons for the decision of the single judge involved in the Player’s Status Commission, the Werder Bremen board of directors came to the conclusion that nothing had been changed in the facts of the case. Similar to the circular letter sent by FIFA president Blatter a fortnight ago, the finding of the judge is in no manner in keeping with current statutes, which clearly state under which circumstances a club is obliged to release players. Adjudication met by the FIFA Emergency Committee, relating to an exceptional regulation in such cases, was not proven by the judge.
The CAS has set the date for the hearing and subsequent decision on the matter for Tuesday, 05.08.2008 at the latest.
Further proceedings from Werder Bremen and FC Schalke 04 with the CAS against the IOC and the Brazilian NOC will not be decided upon by the CAS, which means that further proceedings in those particular cases will not settled.