THE new Ferrari sits in the driveway.

It is the sign of a new year. Christian Constantin has been described as volatile, unpredictable. But the 54-year-old president and owner of FC Sion is a slave to one ritual. Every year he buys the latest Ferrari.

It is not just a luxury for the most controversial man in Swiss sport but also an indication of how the wealthy architect seeks constant change while demanding the highest standards.

Constantin has made his fortune building properties in and around the wealthy region of Valois and in the Emirates. He is now attacking the foundations of world football.

It is impossible to talk to anyone about Constantin without reference to rows, controversies and loud, vehement protests. “He argues with coaches, with the football authorities, with other presidents, with the courts, with agents, with players,” says Florin Claluena, who has watched the rise of Constantin in his role as a journalist for the NZZ newspaper in Zurich.

The recent history of Swiss football bristles with the Constantin factor. This is a president who has despatched 23 coaches and once briefly managed the side after he sacked Uli Stielike. Constantin, who bought the club in 2003, is wilful, driven and obsessed with bringing Sion to the very top of European football. “He spends a lot on players and every year Sion are tipped to be a force,” says Claluena, “but then they under-perform.” Three Swiss Cups are the only return.

His recruitment of players, though, is not merely an issue for his competitors in Switzerland. It has formed the central part of a dispute that could result in Sion being heavily punished by the football authorities and Switzerland banned from international football. It could also, of course, end in vindication for Constantin and strike at the very heart of the football establishment.

The case follows the signing of five players -- former Hearts defender Jose Goncalves, Mario Mutsch, Billy Ketkeophomphone, Gabri and Pascal Feindouno -- and their inclusion in the squad to face Celtic. FIFA insists this is in direct contravention of a transfer embargo placed on the club after the improper signing of Essam El-Hadary from Al-Ahly. Sion has taken their case against this stricture to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which will rule later this month.

Both FIFA and UEFA have said this week that Sion and the Swiss FA face sanctions. However, Constantin seems untroubled. He took the Swiss league to court when it threatened not to allow the recruits to play in domestic matches. A judge ruled in his favour.

It is not the first time he has gone outside football to seek justice. In 2003, Sion were ordered to play in the third tier of the Swiss league after the club lost its licence over financial problems. Constantin took the authorities to court and Sion were placed in the second division.

It is this dogged persistence and his disinclination to bow before the authorities that makes Constantin such a threatening figure for both FIFA and UEFA. Football is run by rules, particularly on transfers, that would not survive scrutiny in civil courts. It also arranges league competitions that could be seen to promote a restraint of trade.

Increasingly, leading clubs have become disenchanted by how UEFA and FIFA issue directives that are seen as unhelpful and also how the bodies take a hefty slice of the vast incomes pouring into top-class football.

The barrier for change has been the reluctance to take the authorities to civil courts over restraint of trade, restrictive recruitment practices and sanctions on expenditure. These are all perceived to run contrary to the operation of a free market but an individual club tilting at FIFA or UEFA faces the prospect of being ostracised.

This threat has caused many a chairman or president to reflect rather than act on legal advice claiming that the football authorities could be successfully challenged in an open court. Constantin, for the moment, is exercising no such restraint.

After FIFA and UEFA issued a joint statement warning the club and the Swiss FA, Sion’s owner replied: “There is nothing to fear and the desperate action of FIFA shows it believes football is above the law. It is not.”

Is he bluffing or will he take the football authorities beyond the Court for Arbitation for Sport if a judgment goes against him?

“Constantin is not a man who walks away from a fight,” said Claluena. “He has shown he is not afraid to take on authority. He has already persuaded local judges twice that the football authorities were in the wrong.”

The battle against UEFA and FIFA will be stiffer than the one against the Swiss FA but if Constantin takes it on and prevails then the repercussions could be extraordinary.

The focus in Glasgow tomorrow night will be on the resolution of who goes through to the group stages of the Europa League. Off-stage a more unusual fight is developing that could have implications beyond the tie. “All players have been qualified by the Swiss Federation and are now authorised to play,” Nicolas Pillet, head of communications for Sion, told Herald Sport last night.

It may not have a declaration of war but it was a sign that Constantin is in no mood to surrender.