LECTURERS

Saleh Alobeidli
Saleh is the managing partner of "Saleh Alobeidli Advocates & Legal Consultants" the first sports law firm in the Middle East. He is a UAE national with an LLM degree in International Commercial Law from Deakin University, Australia. He has another LLM in International Sports Law at ISDE, Madrid. Previously Saleh had the experience of working with the biggest two law firms in the region where he has gained his international experience. He is an advocate licensed to appear before all courts of the UAE including the High Court and before all sports dispute resolution bodies. He has experience in handling disputes in the areas of football and Horse Racing; he is representing National Sporting Bodies, Clubs and athletes. He provided assistance in drafting the Technical Regulations of the UAE Football Association and other sports laws in the country. Saleh has written several research papers and articles in relation to sports law. Recently, he has contributed the chapter about the sports Justice in the UAE as one of the author of the book “International & Comparative Sports Justice” published by the Sports Law & Policy Centre, Rome.

Efraim Barak
He is a member of the Israeli BAR and an Honorary Member of the BAR of Buenos Aires. As the Senior Partner in D. Mirkin & Co. he is the head of the Sport law department in the firm and is involved as a practicing Lawyer in Sport law for more then 20 years. Efraim Barak is a CAS Arbitrator since 2005 and was appointed (until the end of 2014) to deal with more than 180 Sport related arbitrations (including as president of the Panels and as Sole Arbitrator). He is one of the founders, a member and a member of the Board of RexSport, as well as a member of the International Association of Football Lawyers (AIAF). Efraim Barak is the Academic Director and professor of the two ISDE Master programs in International Sports Law in Madrid and he regularly lectures in several other LLM & Master of Sport Law programs worldwide. He is also very much involved in various public activities related to Sport Law in his Country, Israel, and amongst other activities was for many years a member and the Head of the Advising Committee on Statutes and By Laws of the Israeli Football Association. Starting August 2014 he is the General Counsel and Head of Legal Affairs of the Israel Football Association.

Massimo Coccia
Naming partner of the firm Coccia De Angelis Pardo & Associati. Prof. Coccia's practice focuses on sports law and commercial matters, both at Italian and, particularly, international level. He has extensive experience in arbitration law, being frequently appointed as counsel or arbitrator in national and international commercial or sports arbitration proceedings. He also has a remarkable experience in antitrust and intellectual property matters as well as entertainment law issues. Since 1995 he is one of the most distinguished arbitrators of the Court of Arbitration for Sport of Lausanne (CAS) and, as such, he has been a member of the Ad Hoc Arbitral Division for the Winter Olympic Games of Salt Lake City 2002 and Turin 2006. Since 2001 he is conciliator and arbitrator at the CONI Chamber for Sports Conciliation and Arbitration. In 2012 he also held the office of arbitrator in the “Ad Hoc Division” of the Court of Arbitration for Sport of Lausanne (CAS) at the London Olympic Games.

Salvatore Civale
President of the Italian Association of Sports Lawyers. Member of the Sports Law and Policy Centre.

Michele Colucci
Director of the Sports Law and Policy Centre. Lawyer and former member of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber and European Handball Federation Court of Sport. Professor of International and Comparative Sports Law at European College of Parma(Italy), ISDE (Madrid). Director of the Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport and The European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin. He has extensively published in the field of International and Comparative Sports Law. In 2010 he launched the idea of an “Erasmus Sports Programme” for all amateur athletes in the European Union (www.erasmusandsport.eu)

Alessandro Coni
Alessandro Coni as Italian qualified lawyer assists national and international clients in commercial transactions, especially in the field of entertainment, sport and new technologies. He has developed a specific expertise in the field of copyright, IP and image rights, including a wide licensing and sponsorship activity. He is author of several legal publications regarding copyright and sport law.







Juan De Dios Crespo
Sports Lawyer, Director of Ruiz-Huerta & Crespo Sports Lawyers in Valencia (Spain). He is professor and co-director of the Master on Sports Law of the Law Faculty of the University of Valencia., as well as partner and head of the Sports Law Department of the law firm Ruiz Huerta & Crespo. He is arbitrator of the Valencia Chamber of Commerce as well as in proceedings at the ICC of Paris. He is the president of the Sports Law Section of the Valencia Bar, speaker in seminars and masters of sport law. He is professor of International Contracts.



Mario Gallavotti
Mario Gallavotti specialises in Media and Sport law and within the Sport Law he matured a large professional experience practising before all the Sport Courts and Arbitration Panels, both domestic and international, mainly dealing with professional football. He served as Director of an Italian professional club of Serie A and he also served as a member part of the Chamber of Arbitration of Italian Football League, and represented the Italian Professional League in several technical panels, both domestic and international. In 2001 he was part of the FIFA/UEFA task force who negotiated and drafted with European Commission the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players and since then he has been a member of theFIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber as Club’s representative. Former member of FIFA Legal Committee, and former member of the Club Licensing panel of UEFA and of UEFA Legal Committee, since 2011 he is a member of the Appeal Body of UEFA. Mr. Gallavotti is Legal Counsel to the Italian Football Association (FIGC) and he regularly advises other national associations, as well as national and international Leagues and professional clubs.

Theodoros Giannikos
Member of the Athens Bar association maintain his independent legal and consultancy firm in Greece working actively with many sport and commercial issues and cases for Clubs and Players. He is Head of Legal Affairs and of International Affairs of Olympiacos FC since 2007 and member of the legal committee of the Super League Greece. Previously he served as a General Secretary in the Greek Football League and member of the Executive Board of EPFL and for many years worked in UK, USA and Russia. Currently is a member of the Executive Board of ECA and a co Chairman on its Institutional Relations Working Group and member of Its Statutory Affairs Panel. In addition he is a member of FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber and Leading Judge for Transfers of Minors. He is also member of UEFA's Club Competition Committee.

Dennis Koolaard
Qualified lawyer in the Netherlands at De Kempenaer Advocaten Law Firm in Arnhem, Dennis is Ad hoc clerk with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI). He is an Arbitrator in the doping chamber of the Netherlands Institute of Sports Judicial Administration (Instituut Sportrechtspraak - ISR). He is guest lecturer at various sports law programs and seminars.





Wouter Lambrecht
Legal Manager of the European Club Association (ECA) where he is the contact person for all ECA members clubs who seek legal advice on legal issues relating to FIFA, CAS and UEFA jurisprudence and procedural rules. Besides he is responsible for the ECA Mediation and the ECA Legal Advisory Panel. He is a speaker at seminars and has published several articles.







Stefano La Porta
Stefano La Porta's practice primarily focuses on the assistance of entities operating in the entertainment industry on IP/IT matters. He regularly assists the clients of the firm on copyright, trademark, patent and data protection matters on both the negotiation of commercial agreements and the related litigation. He was involved on the legal side of the organization of main sport events and attended as a speaker to several conventions and courses focused on the exploitation and protection of IP rights related to sport events.





Marco Longobardi
Lawyer specialized in the field of International and national Tax Law. Lecturer in several schools and universities. Sports Arbitrator and Associate at Carnelutti Law Firm (Rome)











Felix Majani
An advocate of the High Court of Kenya, Felix is a passionate alternative dispute resolver, with a keen eye for international arbitration and sports in particular. He has since 2009 served and continues to serve as an ad hoc clerk at the court of arbitration for sport and is a consultant for Portuguese law firm at Coelho Ribeiro e Associados. He has authored several articles on sports law, such as but not limited to a monograph on “Sports law in Kenya”, published in 2013 by Kluwer law, “One step forward two hops backwards – an excavation into the legal deficiencies of the FIFA 6+5 Rule and the UEFA homegrown player’s rule in the eyes of EU Law” published in the international sports law journal 2009/1-2 among others, and is the director of the African Sports Law and Business Journal

Stefano Malvestio
International consultant for Bichara e Motta Advogados in Sports and Entertainment Law area, lawyer in Spain and member of the Ilustre Colégio de Abogados de Madrid – ICAM. Stefano acts mainly for international clients, as his practice focuses on dispute resolution before the bodies of FIFA as well as arbitration before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), having particular expertise in doping, agency, transfer and employment-related disputes. He also advises on a broad range of sports legal issues, such as negotiation and drafting of contracts related to international transfer of players, players' agency, economic rights and image rights.



Ettore Mazzilli
Qualified lawyer specialized in sports law registered by the Bar Association of Bari (Italy) as well as an European Lawyer registered by the SRA of England and Wales. Among others, he has been working as Legal Advisor for the Qatar Football Association since 2005.









Omar Ongaro
Head of Players’ Status and Governance in FIFA’s Division for Legal Affairs. Authors of several publications in the field of Football Law. He is a guest lecturer at various universities and schools.










Walter Palmer
Head of Department, UNI Sport PRO, a global platform for athlete unions and a sector of UNI Global Union, an international trade union federation. Mr. Palmer is a former professional basketball player, having played from 1990 - 2003 in the NBA, Europe and South America. After his playing career, he transitioned to union activism on behalf of professional athletes. In 2005, he co-founded SP.IN, the first basketball players union in Germany, and served as its general secretary. In 2006, he became general secretary of the UBE, the federation of European basketball player unions and then the general secretary of the European Elite Athletes Association (EU Athletes), which represents more than 25,000 athletes in a number of popular sports. In 2011, he moved to his current position at UNI Global Union.



Luca Tettamanti
Qualified lawyer in Italy and in Switzerland. He has been representing several clients before FIFA and CAS. He is also General Director of LT Sports Law and GM of FC Lugano and Lecturer at various sports law programs.










Mario Vigna
Associate of the Law Firm Coccia De Angelis Pardo & Associati. His main areas of practice are sports law, corporate and commercial law, arbitration, copyright, patent & trademarks, domain protection and registration, both at Italian and international level. With regard to the anti-doping field, since 2009 he is member of the Anti-doping Prosecutor Office of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). In 2013 he took office of Deputy Chief Prosecutor of CONI. Moreover, he has been directly involved as legal counsel for CONI in most of the doping cases before the Court of Arbitration for Sport of Lausanne (CAS). Since 2007 he is Expert of International law at Tuscia University of Viterbo. He is currently Member of the “Corporate and Industrial Law” Working Group of the BAR of Rome.



Julien Zylberstein
Julien Zylberstein (32) is a legal counsel at UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe. He has responsibility for EU legal matters and advises on a wide range of strategic, regulatory and commercial issues. He is the legal advisor of the adjudicatory chamber of the UEFA Club Financial Control Body, spearheaded by former European Court of Justice judge José Narciso da Cunha Rodrigues, which oversees the application of the financial fair play regulations. He represents UEFA before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in club licensing and financial fair play cases. A graduate from the University of Paris Panthéon – Sorbonne, Julien also studied at the University of Bologna and the University of Rome II Tor Vergata. He holds a LLM in European law from the University of Brussels as well as a Master’s degree in European Sport governance from Science-Po Paris. Julien is a guest lecturer at various universities where he teaches EU sports law and European football governance. He is the author of many academic papers and sits in the reading committees of Les Cahiers de Droit du Sport and of the Rivista di Diritto ed Economia dello Sport. He is also a scientific co-director of European think-tank Sport & Citizenship. Julien was a board member of French football clubs AS Beauvais-Oise (2008-10) and Evian Thonon Gaillard FC (2010-11). He advised Evreux FC 27 in 2011 and is currently a board member and the legal advisor of Paris Football Club. Julien sits as a judge in the Anti-Doping Tribunal of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). He is an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration of the European Handball Federation (EHF) and a member of the legal committee of Rugby Europe, the European rugby federation. In addition to his mother tongue French, Julien speaks English and Italian.