The Court of Arbitration for Sport is not a body most fans encounter very often, but it wields power across the sporting landscape and its role and actions have been challenged by a leading sports lawyer, Dr Antoine Duval.
The far-reaching influence of the court can be seen in its wide-ranging decisions in which Manchester City avoided a two-year ban imposed by UEFA for alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play rules and Russian athletes were given a reprieve from a suspension by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in time for the Tokyo Olympics.
The court decides 'who gets to play, and under what conditions', but it operates behind closed doors, does not publish minutes of its deliberations, never releases an annual report and nobody knows what it spends or where the money comes from, says Dr Duval.