Sports law · Sub-area
Sport has its own system of justice, with its own bodies and deadlines that are often very short. Identifying the right route and arriving in time is almost everything.
Sports discipline runs on its own rules and bodies, which sit alongside ordinary law without fully overlapping. For anyone facing proceedings, what is decisive is usually twofold: getting the competent body right and meeting deadlines that here are often counted in a few working days.
It is one of the areas the firm has trained for specifically (a Master's in Sports Law from the ICAB). You can also read our notes on sports justice and on doping.
Defence before the competition and disciplinary committees of the relevant federation, the first instance, where deadlines are short and every submission counts.
Appeals and proceedings before the TAD, the last administrative instance in disciplinary matters in Spanish sport (Act 39/2022 of 30 December on Sport). Its decisions are then appealed before the administrative courts.
Doping has its own regime (Organic Act 11/2021): the athlete's responsibility for what is in their body (article 19), a wide catalogue of violations beyond a positive test, including whereabouts failures (article 20), and an appeal route that is not the TAD but the administrative courts (article 49).
Proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS/TAS) in Lausanne, the leading forum where the matter has an international dimension.
The first thing is to identify the right route and deadline, because choosing the wrong door or arriving late can close the only opportunity to mount a defence. I prepare the submission and the evidence in advance, before the deadline bites, and keep an eye on time limits that here are especially short.
It is a field I know closely: I trained in it specifically and worked in it with athletes and clubs. Every citation is checked against its official source. I do not promise outcomes: I offer a defence that is prepared and alert to the particularities of sports justice.
Discover my methodTell us about your situation and we will tell you, frankly, how we can help.
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