"Is a health crisis force majeure? The answer is not clearly evident" (T. Chiron, sports lawyer)

"Is a health crisis a case of force majeure? The answer cannot be taken for granted, because it is not (legally) clearly evident. This is because up to now, all health situations have not necessarily been judged as such: Ebola, dengue fever, chikungunya virus or even H1N1 (avian flu)," explained Thierry Chiron, lawyer and co-president of the French ACE (Avocats Conseils d'Entreprises) sports law committee, to News Tank Football on 14/04/2020.

"In French law, for example, for there to be force majeure, there must be an objective event which meets three conditions: it must be beyond the control of the debtor; it must be unforeseeable at the time of the formation of the contract; and it must make it impossible to fulfill the (contractual) obligation," explained the lawyer who analyzes these legal criteria with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic which has already killed at least 120,000 people worldwide as of 14/04/2020.

Thierry Chiron spoke at a web conference on Zoom titled "The impact of Covid-19 on sports contracts", alongside Joëlle Monlouis, lawyer and co-president of the ACE…