Sports lawyer, barrister and arbitrator, John Mehrzad KC discusses his recent move to Fountain Court Chambers, and what this means for the potential for increased competition in sports law, and improved representation in the sports law market. John shares his view on the value of sports clients (international federations, governing bodies, clubs, athletes, coaches, etc) having a range of expertise available at them. and the wider trend of global disputes in sport. Key Points • John discusses...

Brendan Schwab has spent his career helping, and leading, players and sports organisation to be better prepared to face the challenges they face. In this episode, Brendan reflects on his career to date and provides a fascinating insight into sport, law, industrial relations, human rights and leadership. In this interview Brendan talks about: How and why he started working in sport. The biggest challenge to players when he first started representing players and helped establish the...

Massimo Coccia is founding partner of Coccia De Angelis & Associati law firm. He holds a J.D. degree cum laude from the Law School of the University of Rome Sapienza (1981) and a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) from the University of Michigan Law School (1984), which he attended with a Fulbright fellowship. It is universally recognized that Mr. Coccia has an extensive experience of, and is an authority in, sports law and in commercial arbitration at international and national level, both...

In July 2022, after a delay due the pandemic, the CAF Executive Committee adopted a new regulatory framework for the CAF Club Licensing System and Stadiums framework. The new regulations are the first major reform of CAF's club licensing system and stadiums since first introduced in 2012, which include regulations on men's club licensing, women's club licensing and stadium regulations. We are joined by the following speakers: Farai Razano, Attorney, Razano Attorneys Brian Wesaala, Founder...

Our guest for this show is Paolo Lombardi, founder of Lombardi Associates. He has had an illustrious career in football and law. In this show Paolo talks about his time at the start of the FIFA's legal department, meeting Diego Maradona in a disciplinary case, starting a sports law firm and more. Paolo Is the founder and managing director of Lombardi Associates, a boutique sports regulatory firm which acts for a range of football stakeholder clients including clubs, players, coaches,...

Professor Kenneth Shropshire is a pioneer in the development of the sports law sector. He has had a distinguished career in sport, business and law over the last 40 years as a professor, business consultant, author, and lawyer. He has experience in a wide range of sports related issues such as race and discrimination issues, leading a global sporting event, stadium and arena construction and financing, the relocation of franchises, the transition of athletes from the playing field into...

As a $300 billion industry, it is hard to overlook the contribution equine sports law makes to the sports sector and the global economy. In this episode you will hear from leading specialists in equine law about the breadth of interesting, and at time unique, legal issues that arise for owners, trainers, riders and horses. Luc Schelstraete & Piotr Wawrzyniak are lawyers at Schelstraete Equine Lawyers. Schelstraete Equine Lawyers is an international law firm specialized in (Equine) Sports...

This podcast focuses on a new law in Brazil that is encouraging investment in Brazilian football. The new allows for clubs, to incorporate and receive investment while maintaining control of its identify. It is an innovative new approach. In this episode we speak to the drafter of law José Francisco Manssur who is a partner at Ambiel, Manssur, Belfiore, Gomes, Hanna Advogados and his colleague Tiago Gomes. Manssur participated in drafting several laws involving sporting activities, such as...

Mohit Pasricha is a Partner and Head of the Sports & Entertainment Team at Mackrell.Solicitors. He advising and representing a variety of sporting clients within the industry. He provides comprehensive advice on commercial and intellectual property matters in sport. His clients, among which include professional sport clubs, commercial sponsors, sports agents and individual sporting professionals with a particular focus on football, boxing, mixed-martial arts and motor-racing. Mo advises...

Bobby Sharma is a special adviser to the Sports & Entertainment Group at Foley & Lardner LLP. He has nearly 20 years of sports, media, and entertainment industry experience. Bobby is founding partner of Electronic Sports Group (ESG), a market-leading esports advisory firm which helps investment and business leaders navigate and operate in the burgeoning billion-dollar esports industry. He is also a partner at GACP Sports, a sports-related private equity firm, and the chairman of...

Caroline McGrory is the Chief Legal Officer for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. She started off her career in private practice before moving in house to IMG (the global sports marketing agency) in 2000. She then moved back into private practice to become the inaugural Head of the Sports Group at Charles Russell Speechlys LLP (then Charles Russell). After this, Caroline joined what was then B.A.R (British American Racing) as Legal Director and as a member of the senior management...

Daan Buylaert & Sven Demeulemeester are founders and Partners of ATFIELD, a collaborations between of full service law firm Altius and the tax law firm Tiberghien, which provides a single point of contact for sports sector. Their clients include football clubs inside and outside of Belgian, investors in acquiring clubs, players, cyclists and cycle teams, Olympic athletes and sports federations. Recently, Daan & Sven advised Kevin de Bruyne during his latest contract renewal with...

In 2020, Azeem Rafiq publicly spoke about the alleged racism faced at him while he played for the Yorkshire Country Cricket Club (YCCC) between 2008-2014 and 2016-2018. Eventually, YCCC launched its own investigation and Rafiq also appeared before a UK Parliamentary Committee to elaborate on his allegations against the club.  In November 2021, two partners at DLA Piper of South Asian descent sat down to discuss their own personal and professional reflections of the recent Azeem Rafiq...

Ricardo de Buen Rodríguez is the founding and Managing Partner of the Law Firm DE BUEN LAW in Mexico City. He is also a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport since 2002 and was part of the ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport during the Olympic Games London 2012.   He is a professor at different Universities in Mexico, and visiting professor lecturing Sports Law in Law Schools abroad such as ISDE in Madrid and St. Johns in New York, a member of the Ilustre y Nacional...

Mark Kurtenbach represents private and public companies and private equity and venture capital investors in mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, securities offerings, joint ventures, strategic relationships, and general corporate matters. He is a partner at Hogan Lovells in their Denver office. His practice spans a variety of industries, including sports and entertainment, media, telecommunications, technology, travel, hospitality, manufacturing, healthcare, and business...

Reyes Bellver is the Founder and Attorney-at-Law at Bellver Sports – Legal boutique (Madrid, Spain). She started her legal career at EY, but since 2009 she has been working in Sports Law and focused on football issues, defense of players, coaches and clubs before the dispute resolution bodies of FIFA and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as well as in advising intermediaries and other sports agents. From 2020, she is an external consultant for FIFA´s Professional Football...

Ben is the Senior Director, Legal at International Tennis Integrity Agency. He is a barrister and solicitor with 12+ years’ experience at top-tier firm and in-house, previously leading World Rugby’s Integrity Unit and now heading the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s new legal department. Ben has a significant amount of experienced in sports law, with experience across corruption, betting, anti-doping, governance, discipline and athlete education in particular. He has worked on...

In August 2021, Stats Perform partnered with data-ethics brand Signify to launch an AI and data learning project with the aim of detecting and monitoring online abuse aimed at athletes, organisations, sporting bodies and more. Stats Perfrom CEO Carl Mergele branded the partnership as a headline project for Stats Perform, and stated: “Sports integrity needs to be expanded to include online abuse, given its impact on competing athletes and organisations.” In this podcast Sean talks to Stats...

Oliver Hunt is a founding partner of Onside Law. Before establishing Onside Law, Oliver worked in-house at IMG and has since gone onto to advertise some of the world’s top professional athletes, particularly in golf and football. He has acted for Sir Nick Faldo for over 20 years, as well as for Rory McIlroy on his ground-breaking Nike deal in 2012 and advising Ryder Cup Europe on the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 Ryder Cups. Oliver forms part of Eden Hazard’s management team and...

As part of our AMA series earlier in the year, we recorded a session with Daniel Geey (Partner, Sheridans) and Cynthia Mumbo (Founder & CEO, Sports Connect Africa) on how to develop your sports and legal network. This session was designed to help people develop the human skills (Simon Sinek), which are often mistakenly referred to as "soft skills". The topics which were covered were: What are the basics of networking Approaching networking in a natural and organic way to build...

In this two-part series, Andrew L. Lee of counsel and a litigation and business attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP talks about his 20 years of experience in the sports, media, and entertainment industries, both in-house and as an outside advisor. Andy began his legal career working at a prestigious New York City law firm and was a member of its distinguished Sports Law Practice. Subsequently, he served as General Counsel for the National Football League's New York Jets as well as the NY/NJ...

In this two-part series, Andrew L. Lee of counsel and a litigation and business attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP talks about his 20 years of experience in the sports, media, and entertainment industries, both in-house and as an outside advisor. Andy began his legal career working at a prestigious New York City law firm and was a member of its distinguished Sports Law Practice. Subsequently, he served as General Counsel for the National Football League's New York Jets as well as the NY/NJ...

This episode highlights the work Hogan Lovells & Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDIH) and other partners are doing to support the fantastic project, Para Sport Against Stigma, a four-year collaborative project that will include free-to-air (FTA) broadcasting of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games to 49 Sub-Saharan African countries provided by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and led in partnership with the Global Disability Innovation Hub (GDIH), Loughborough University...

Alastair is an experienced litigation lawyer for LEVEL, who acts on behalf of sophisticated clients in all forms of dispute resolution, with a particular focus on sports law and arbitration. He has acted on a broad range of commercial disputes, advising clients on complex issues – from contractual matters to questions of public law – across multiple jurisdictions. He has experience in advisory work and has extensive knowledge of regulatory structures in football. He has written several...