October 2024

In a decision that marks a new success in the wide-ranging legal dispute between Asociația Suporter Club UTA, the UTA Supporter Club Association (SCU) and Asociația Fotbal Club UTA, the UTA Football Club Association (AFC UTA), BACIU PARTNERS’ lawyers have achieved a significant victory before the Court of Appeal of Timișoara: the court admitted the second appeal filed by SCU against the decision to suspend the litigation seeking AFC UTA to be ordered to allow access to the financial information and documents of the UTA football club.

The decision is crucial for clarifying the situation between the two entities and reinforces SCU’s stance in this series of complex disputes. By admitting the second appeal, the court acknowledged the validity of the arguments presented by SCU, represented by BACIU PARTNERS team and implicitly established that the suspension of the trial would have seriously compromised our client’s interests and rights.

The conflict started in 2022, when SCU, a member of AFC UTA, was overlooked despite multiple requests for access to the football club’s financial statements. Consequently, SCU took legal action against AFC UTA and won before the Arad Tribunal, which ordered AFC UTA to provide SCU with all the club’s financial information requested.

To avoid making available to SCU the information mandated by the court, AFC UTA adopted a decision during the Extraordinary General Meeting to exclude SCU from the association.

In addition, in the appeal against the judgement by which the Arad Tribunal obliged AFC UTA to provide SCU with all the club’s financial information, AFC UTA requested the suspension of the proceedings until the final resolution of the dispute regarding the annulment of the exclusion decision. While the Arad Tribunal initially granted the suspension, the Court of Appeal of Timișoara later overturned this decision, leading to the resumption of the trial before Arad Tribunal.

Complementary, the BACIU PARTNERS team secured a definitive preliminary injunction that suspended the effects of the illegally adopted exclusion decision from the association. We also achieved the annulment of AFC UTA’s decision to exclude SCU, receiving a favorable ruling in the first instance.

The string of litigations initiated by SCU have generated an intense debate among the fans of the UTA ARAD football team, and the decisions pronounced so far by the courts have had a significant impact on reaffirming the role of supporters in the life of a football team.

Asociația Suporter Club UTA, the UTA Supporter Club Association was founded in 2007 with the scope of protecting the identity and image of the UTA brand, representing a distinct and of significant value brand in the Romanian football landscape, as well as an inestimable value for the city of Arad. SCU has been a member of all the entities that managed the activity of the football team in Arad since 2008.

The BACIU PARTNERS team involved in resolving this series of disputes is comprised of Iunia Radu, Senior Associate and Bogdan Cheran, Senior Associate, with the coordination, from a strategy perspective, by Ana-Maria Baciu, Managing Partner.

Details  about BACIU PARTNERS DISPUTE RESOLUTION practice are available HERE.