Olympiacos is justified in the Kelati case
With a recent ruling, the FIBA arbitration department (BAT), completely justified Olympiacos BC in the dispute with the athlete Thomas Kelati and his agent David Maravilla.
On July 17, 2009, Thomas Kelati had signed a contract with Olympiacos BC for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons; provided he would successfully pass the physical he would undero. The medical tests showed he was suffering from an abdominal-adducts syndrome and he had to immediately undergo surgery. Under the circumstances, Olympiacos BC deemed the player had failed his medical tests and therefore the contract with him was not valid.
In July 2010, the athlete and his agent made a complaint with FIBA’s BAT against Olympiacos BC asking for 618,000 USD compensation due to unlawful annulment of the aforementioned contract. They claimed that the diagnosis of the Olympiacos doctors’ had been mistaken and that according to diagnosis offered by different doctors in the US the athlete was not suffering from the diagnosed syndrome and could therefore was able to compete at the highest professional level without being in need of surgery or any other kind of treatment.
BAT, with a ruling made on April 13, 2011 decided that the diagnosis of the Olympiacos BC medical team had been correct, that the doctor had the necessary experience and ability to reach to an unbiased conclusion using advanced medical technics aiming to the diagnosis of such ailments, that Olympiacos BC was right in judging the contract with the athlete to be void and that it was never thus in power. Also, Olympiacos BC is to be compensated for all judicial expenses.