Frans de Weger, once again included in the list of the world's leading sports lawyers by the authoritative magazine Lexology Index (formerly Who's Who Legal) in 2026, has been working in the legal sports world for almost twenty years. He has extensive experience in sports litigation, particularly in national and international professional Football, including with the KNVB, UEFA, FIFA, and the highest international arbitration court in sports, CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), both in arbitration and disciplinary committees. In total, he has acted in more than hundreds of proceedings.
In 2015, Frans was appointed as a CAS arbitrator on the recommendation of the European Club Association (ECA). This appointment made him the youngest Dutch CAS arbitrator ever and also the second youngest CAS arbitrator worldwide. Most of the international disputes in which Frans is involved concern labor law-related appeals in international professional Football, including those relating to the legality of the termination of contracts, transfers, arrears, resale clauses, training fees, solidarity contributions and sporting sanctions imposed (including transfer bans).
In 2021, Frans was appointed for four years as president of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC), the dispute resolution body that adjudicates international labor and transfer-related disputes between players and clubs, and in 2023, Frans was reappointed again for a four-year term as an arbitrator at the CAS.
Frans is also the author of several books, including "The Jurisprudence of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber. This book provides a very detailed overview of all sports law jurisprudence published as of year 2001. This book contains an analysis of all published FIFA DRC cases. Special attention is paid herein to the composition of this dispute resolution chamber, its relationship to national law, admissibility, jurisdiction and the possibilities of enforcement of these judgments, and the relevant legal aspects of the CAS appeal process and related case law.
Frans registered the following area of law in the Register of Jurisdictions of the Dutch Bar Association:
By virtue of this registration, he is required to obtain ten training credits in this registered principal area of law each calendar year according to the standards of the Dutch Bar Association.
After his studies, Frans spent several months as an intern at the Royal Dutch Footballl Association (KNVB), worked as a licensed player agent, and was associated with the Federation of Professional Footballl Organizations (FBO) for almost 8 years. At the FBO he was able to further specialize in national and international Football law and regularly advised on various legal issues, including player contracts, representation contracts, national and international transfers and training fees. Over the years, Frans has successfully assisted many Dutch professional Football clubs and professional Football players in national and international proceedings.
Due to his specialist knowledge and extensive experience in dispute resolution in sports, and the legal aspects and pitfalls of Football transfers, as well as the fact that Frans is more than happy to immerse himself in the files, he is regularly engaged as a lawyer by professional Football organizations, players, agents and umbrella interest groups within national and international Football. Frans also regularly gives lectures, such as at the Academie voor de Rechtspraktijk, he is a regular guest lecturer at various universities, including the University of Amsterdam, and in the Professional Footballl Management Course of the KNVB.
Would you like to know more about our services? Feel free to contact us by phone (without any obligation) or read more on our website.
The cookies we use are necessary for the technical operation of the website and your ease of use.
