Il principio di lealtà nell'ordinamento sportivo

Abstract

Within the sports legal order, the principle of loyalty is not merely a moral norm but a genuine legal principle that underpins the validity of the entire system, in line with the Olympic Charter, the European Sports Charter, and other internal sources (CONI and the national sports federations). In the sports sanctions framework, alongside specifically defined offenses, open-ended clauses operate that allow the repression of unfair conduct, that are not foreseeable ex ante; a breach of the duty of loyalty can therefore be actionable on an independent basis, especially when it affects the integrity of competition. While recalling the category of general clauses, the author distinguishes loyalty: it does not refer back to extra-legal standards, because it is considered an internal and structural principle of the sports legal order – while noting that the sports judge's interpretation must remain within the bounds of reasonableness, proportionality, and the duty to give reasons. On the subjective side, the duty binds all persons "in any way relevant" to the federal order; on the objective side, its extension to the extra-sporting sphere remains controversial, at most confined to cases of final criminal convictions for particularly serious offenses. In conclusion, loyalty takes the form of an "open" typicity that remains compatible with procedural safeguards; its centrality is justified by the autonomy of the sports legal order, further reinforced by the recent constitutionalization of sport in the Italian Constitution.