Lechia Gdansk v. Kevin Friesenbichler & FIFA

Austrian forward Kevin Friesenbichler signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Polish club Lechia Gdansk on 12 January 2023, transferring for a fee from Latvian side RFS Riga and running to 30 June 2025. He made only 12 appearances for Lechia that season without scoring, as the club fought and ultimately lost its battle to stay in Poland's top-flight Ekstraklasa, being relegated to I liga at the end of the 2022/23 season. On 1 July 2023 — the same point at which that relegation took effect — Friesenbichler left Lechia on a free transfer to DSV Leoben, a club in Austria's second-tier 2. Liga, despite roughly two years still remaining on his contract. That early, fee-free departure from a contract with substantial time left is itself consistent with the case having been resolved by negotiation rather than played out to a contested finish.

Lechia Gdansk withdrew its CAS appeal against Friesenbichler after the parties reached their own settlement of the underlying dispute.

The only matter left for CAS to decide was costs, and the parties had themselves agreed how those should be allocated as part of their settlement — the club would bear the procedural costs of the arbitration.

CAS terminated the appeal on those agreed terms, illustrating a straightforward but useful point: where the parties settle and agree costs themselves, CAS will generally give effect to that agreement rather than impose its own default allocation.