1. Before a party has a right of appeal there must be an operative decision or award. Whether a procedural order is a decision or an “award” from which an appeal may be brought within the meaning of the USADA Protocol and determined in accordance with the CAS Code is a question which must be decided as a matter of substance and not form. The fact that the procedural order was issued as a “procedural order” and not an “award” is not decisive.

2. If a procedural order is not final and binding in any relevant substantive way and does not dispose of any part of the disputes between the parties, but only constitutes a procedural ruling to continue to hear the case and reserving all questions of substance to be dealt with by the panel in its final award, it is not an “award”, a “final award” or a “partial, interim or non-final award” within the USADA Protocol or the Appeal Rules of the CAS Code. CAS has therefore no jurisdiction to hear an appeal against such procedural order.