The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ruled to dismiss the appeal of President of the Argentinian Handball Confederation and former President of the Pan American Team Handball Federation Mario Moccia against the IHF Arbitration Tribunal decision made in August 2019. The ruling includes dismissal of all further motions and relief, bringing the proceedings to a conclusive end.
 
The proceedings originated in 2018, when the IHF Ethics Commission determined that Moccia had violated the Good Governance principle in Article 5 of the Ethics Code and subsequently banned him from participation in IHF Congress, official meetings and events convened by the IHF in 2019. Moccia appealed to the IHF Arbitration Tribunal and after the ban was upheld, to the CAS.
 
The IHF Executive Committee originally made the request to the IHF Ethics Commission to examine the case related to the conduct of Mr Mario Moccia on 19 July 2018, following the IHF Council meeting held in Zagreb, Croatia on 14 January 2018. The decision of the IHF Ethics Commission for the ban of IHF convened events in 2019 was made on 16 April 2019.
 
Moccia subsequently appealed to the IHF Arbitration Tribunal, on 29 May 2019, and the IHF Arbitration Tribunal decided on 28 July 2019 that Moccia should be imposed the ban from participation in all IHF events until 31 October 2019.
 
The CAS Arbitral Award was rendered on 16 April 2020, following a hearing held at the CAS Court Office in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 14 January 2020.
 
The complete ruling from CAS dismisses the appeal filed by Moccia against the IHF and the Arbitration Tribunal on 19 August 2019, and confirms the decision issued by the Arbitration Tribunal of the IHF on 29 July 2019. In addition, CAS ruled that all further motions and requests for relief are dismissed.
 
In their Arbitral Award, CAS reasoned as follows:
 
“Overall, the Sole Arbitrator has no doubt that these public statements [made by Mr Moccia] have openly and personally attacked Mr. Moustafa’s dignity, and certainly affected negatively the reputation of the IHF and of handball, before a wide audience, composed of International Federations and National Olympic Committees.
 
“The Sole Arbitrator, therefore, concludes that the Appellant’s statements constitute clear breaches of the provisions of article V of the IHF Ethics Code regarding dignity as these were ad hominem attacks against the personality of the President of the IHF, integrity, and good governance.”