Let law rule

In August 2022, Dutch professional soccer player Donny van Iperen suffered a severe traumatic brain injury after a collision during a match for FC Zimbru Chișinău in Moldova. He fought for his life, was in a coma for weeks, and underwent an intensive rehabilitation program. Despite the progress he has made, Donny still struggles with lasting physical and cognitive impairments. His injury brought his professional soccer career to an abrupt end and changed his life forever.  On October 16, 2026, after years of legal proceedings and a disappointing ruling by the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC), the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in Donny’s favor. The CAS found that FC Zimbru had breached several contractual obligations, including the obligation to obtain insurance coverage. The CAS awarded Donny substantial compensation for back pay, loss of earning capacity, medical expenses, and non-pecuniary damages.  Reactions to the ruling Donny van Iperen himself offered the following response: I could never have imagined that soccer would change my life in this way. Soccer was my passion and my future, and in a matter of seconds, everything changed.  The past four years have been incredibly difficult, not only for me but also for my family and the people around me. I’ve worked very hard on my recovery, but I still feel the effects of my injury every day. I’m very happy and relieved by the CAS ruling. At the same time, it remains sad what happened and everything I’ve lost as a result. Unfortunately, we can’t turn back time. This ruling can’t give me my old life back, but it does mean a great deal to me. I hope that I can now finally look to the future with more certainty. The Dutch players’ union VVCS, which supported Donny throughout the entire proceedings, emphasizes the broader significance of the ruling: This ruling serves as an important reminder of the fundamental responsibility that soccer clubs have toward their players.  Every time professional soccer players step onto the field, they put their health and their careers on the line. They must be able to trust that their clubs will honor the contractual agreements intended to protect them in the event of a serious injury.  Donny’s case illustrates the devastating consequences that can arise when that protection is lacking. A serious injury can end a player’s career in an instant and leave him with lifelong physical, mental, and financial consequences.  The VVCS has supported Donny throughout this entire process and welcomes the CAS ruling as an important outcome, both for Donny personally and for the protection of professional soccer players more broadly.  We stand behind Donny and expect the CAS ruling to be respected and enforced. The next step: As Donny van Iperen’s attorney, I am very pleased with the outcome of the proceedings before the CAS. The tribunal has issued a careful and well-reasoned ruling, which clearly highlights both the club’s contractual obligations and the significant consequences that the club’s failure to fulfill them has had for Donny. This ruling marks an important

The Dutch term “Q fever” is derived from the English “Query fever,” which can be loosely translated as “fever with a question mark.” The term dates back to 1937, when a mysterious feverish illness broke out among slaughterhouse workers in the Australian city of Brisbane. Researchers initially did not know what was causing it. After intensive research, microbiologists Macfarlane Burnet and Herald Cox discovered the bacterium that caused the disease. That bacterium has since been named Coxiella burnetii. How do you become infected? Q fever is what’s known as a zoonosis: a disease that spreads from animals to humans. In the Netherlands, goats and sheep are the main sources of infection for humans. The bacterium spreads through the air. People become infected by inhaling it in the vicinity of infected animals.   Infected animals shed the bacterium through the placenta and amniotic fluid, as well as through urine, feces, and milk. The bacterium can survive for months to years in dried-out material and is resistant to heat and many disinfectants. Most infections occur between February and May, when goats and sheep give birth. Q fever is extremely contagious; even a small amount of bacteria is enough to cause illness. What are the symptoms? After infection, it can take two to three weeks for symptoms to appear. This happens in about 40% of those infected; the rest show no symptoms. At first, the symptoms resemble those of severe flu: high fever, headache, joint pain, and severe fatigue. Many people recover afterward.   Some people develop complications, including pneumonia, liver inflammation (hepatitis), and meningitis. Older adults, pregnant women, and people with a weakened immune system or a heart valve defect are at higher risk of a severe or fatal course of the disease. The mortality rate from acute Q fever ranges from 1 to 2%.   In approximately 2% of patients, the bacterium remains in the body. This is known as chronic Q fever. In such cases, the bacterium can cause life-threatening infections of heart valves, vascular prostheses, and joint prostheses. The mortality rate for chronic Q fever is high: according to the Dutch database maintained since the outbreak between 2007 and 2010, 29% of patients with chronic Q fever die. Q-Fever Fatigue Syndrome A distinct and common complication is Q-fever fatigue syndrome, abbreviated as QFS. Approximately one in five people who have had an acute Q-fever infection develop this syndrome.    In QFS, no live bacteria can be detected, but the immune system remains overactive. The symptoms are severe: extreme fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain, concentration and memory problems, sleep disturbances, headaches, blurred vision, night sweats, shortness of breath, irritability, depressive symptoms, and reduced exercise tolerance. Daily life, work, and social interactions come under severe strain. QVS shares many similarities with other conditions and infections, such as long COVID, Lyme disease, and mononucleosis. It is not yet known whether a complete recovery is possible.   The Dutch Outbreak The largest Q fever outbreak ever occurred in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2010. Officially, more than 4,000 cases of infection were confirmed through laboratory testing. Researchers at the RIVM estimate that the actual number of infections was between 40,000 and 50,000. Many of these people continue to experience symptoms to this day

Early in my career, my publications listed “works as a lawyer at Beer advocaten.” It was a ritual: the editors would remove “works as,” and I would put it back. I wasn’t a lawyer—that was just my job. A few years later, I had the opportunity to assist a doctor who, due to a brain injury, could no longer work full-time. He told me that being a doctor, just like being a lawyer, is considered an ‘ego profession.’ You put your heart and soul into your work, and you lose a part of yourself when you have to stop doing it. I realized then: that applies to me, too. I am a lawyer. When, a few years later, I was asked more and more often why I didn’t become a mediator, I thought about my “ego profession.” Can you be a lawyer and work as a mediator at the same time? My colleague Josée van de Laar, the first mediator in our field, said that this combination has practical drawbacks. The party that must trust in your neutrality in your role as a mediator encounters you the very next day in your role as a partisan lawyer. Josée van de Laar was also the one who arranged for the lawyers at our firm, together with the claims adjusters from Fortis, to take the Harvard Negotiation course. The goal of Harvard-style negotiation is to facilitate a win-win solution, rather than fighting over positions. In doing so, you are firm on the substance and gentle with the person. For me, that is the essence of the modern lawyer. In my view, Harvard-style negotiation as a lawyer is not far removed from the work of a mediator. In both roles, you succeed best when you can clearly define the positions of both parties and then bring them together through constructive dialogue. That’s why I can now say: I am a lawyer and work as an MfN-certified mediator.