LAUSANNE: This week the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) inaugurated the offices of its new Anti-Doping Division and laid the foundation stone of the building that will house the future headquarters of the CAS on the site of Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland.
From this week, the current CAS offices are spread between two separate sites in Lausanne: the main office at the Château de Béthusy and a new temporary office at 60, avenue de Rhodanie, which houses the staff in charge of the new Anti-Doping Division (CAS ADD). Since the beginning of this year, this new division has been available to sports organisations to deal with doping cases at first instance.
Such first instance procedure had already been successfully used during the Rio 2016 and Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Games, and now becomes permanent. A separate list of specialist arbitrators has been created for the purpose of the CAS ADD proceedings. So far, in addition to the IOC, seven international federations have agreed to delegate their doping matters to the CAS ADD (triathlon, archery, skiing/snowboard, shooting, luge, rowing and bobsleigh).
These two offices will be re-integrated at the Palais de Beaulieu by the end of 2021. The site is currently undergoing profound transformations and a symbolic launch was held yesterday, Thursday, 3 October 2019, during a ceremony bringing together the actors involved in the reconstruction of the south wing of the Palais de Beaulieu which will house the offices and courtrooms of the CAS, on the one hand, and the Beaulieu theatre (1,600 seats), on the other hand.
Items commemorating the activities of the two project owners were buried on the edge of the theatre and the future CAS by Philippe Leuba, Sports Minister for the Canton of Vaud, the mayor of Lausanne, Grégoire Junod, the Director of the Fondation de Beaulieu, Nicolas Gigandet and the Secretary General of the CAS, Matthieu Reeb.
Since its creation in 1984, the CAS has always been a tenant, first near the Olympic Museum, then at the Château de Béthusy, in Lausanne. The International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS), which manages the administration and finances of the CAS, wished to become the owner of its premises and set up the CAS in Lausanne on a long-term basis.
The budget for the work relating to the construction of the new CAS headquarters amounts to CHF 35 million. It will include three courtrooms and a 90-seat auditorium. CAS registers 600 arbitration procedures and organises more than 250 hearings each year. It currently has 34 employees, but this number is constantly increasing.
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