The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled in favor of the Pumas football club. This means former Brazilian player Dani Alves must now pay a substantial amount to the Mexican team. The club had ended his contract after Alves was arrested in Spain, accused of a serious offense involving a young woman at a nightclub.
Pumas shared the news on September 1st. They received the TAS arbitration award, which settled the contract fight between the club and Daniel Alves da Silva. The TAS decision sided completely with Pumas. It overturned an earlier ruling made by FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber on May 15, 2024.
The new TAS decision did two key things. First, it confirmed that Pumas had every right to end Alves’s contract due to just cause. Second, it ordered Mr. Alves to pay the club more money than FIFA had initially suggested. This payment is to cover the damages and losses the club suffered. Pumas did not share the exact amount of this new, larger compensation.
However, reports from the Brazilian press shed some light on the figures. Back in March of this year, when Pumas first brought this case forward, they were seeking $5 million from Dani Alves. That amount was roughly equivalent to €4.3 million at the time. The TAS ruling now requires him to pay a sum even greater than what FIFA had previously proposed.
Dani Alves was playing for Pumas when his life took a dramatic turn. In January 2023, Spanish authorities arrested him. He faced accusations of sexually assaulting a woman at a nightclub during the final days of 2022. The former Brazilian international spent time in pre-trial detention. He was later sentenced to four and a half years in prison. However, the Superior Court of Catalonia acquitted him on March 28 of this year. He is currently a free man.
