New chapter in the case of the disqualification of Elena Congost that deprived him of winning his well-deserved bronze medal in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. OKDIARIO has learned that the Spanish athlete has placed herself in the hands of Jean-Louis Dupontprestigious lawyer who changed European football with case bosmanto recover its metal. The Belgian lawyer is also a defender of the creation of the Super Leaguethe alternative club competition that proposes Florentino Perez.
Elena Congost lost her bronze medal on September 9 due to an act of good faith that ended up disqualifying her from the championship. The athlete of Castelldefelswho suffers from visual impairment, was three minutes ahead of his rival when he let go of his guide rope just a few meters from crossing the finish line. The gesture of help from the Spanish woman that prevented her from winning the medal was due to severe cramps from the man accompanying her.
Congost, who said she had been disqualified for “being a person,” devastated her emotionally and, full of tears, denounced the decision, stating that it had been a reflex act of pure humanity and that it only lasted a second. Now, two weeks later, as this newspaper has been able to confirm, she has put the case in the hands of Dupont, the same one who on December 15, 1995 revolutionized soccer in Europe with the resolution of Bosman case. The jurist already referred to the event of the Spanish athlete in a statement that made his position clear: “This regulatory stupidity undoubtedly deserves the gold medal for injustice.”
Former Belgian footballer Jean-Marc Bosman sued the Liègeto the Federation Belgian football now UEFA before him Court of Justice of the European Union for limiting his freedom of action as a citizen of the EU at the end of his contract with his club, forcing the Union of European Football Associations to change several of its standards so that they comply with European legislation.
The sentence of Bosman case
The Court of Justice of the EU based in Luxembourg issued a ruling declaring transfer compensation and foreigner quotas illegal when applied to EU citizens, understanding that such rules de facto prevented the free contracting of players and contradicted EU labor and commercial regulations.
The defense of Jean-Marc Bosman, led by Dupont, who from this moment will take charge of Elena Congost’s case, proposed that the Title III of the Treaty of Rome of March 25, 1957. This treaty establishes the free movement of European workers within the EU countries, which would prohibit national and international sports associations or federations from establishing, in their respective regulations, rules that limit the access of European citizens to tournaments organized within the EU.
In addition, it would prohibit football clubs from demanding the payment of an amount of money upon the hiring of one of their players by a new employer club when the original contract had already expired. In both cases, Bosman’s legal position was that the rules of the Belgian Football Federation and UEFA prejudiced his rights as a worker to freedom of contract and his right to work.
The paths of Elena Congost and the eminence that is Dupont have come together to beat nothing more and nothing less than the International Olympic Committeewhich with that controversial rule prevented the Catalan from winning the bronze. «The next athlete was three minutes away from me. “There has been no type of help or benefit,” said the athlete in a later appearance.
The controversial rule that prevented Elena Congost from winning bronze
In this way, Congost called his disqualification “unfair” and assured that he had already been “a mountain of kilometers” going “little by little” because his guide could no longer lower his personal best to 3 hours and 48 seconds. Article 7.9.5 of the standard stipulates disqualification for releasing the strap, at any time, and that is what Dupont and Dupont now want to dismantle.
