Sports law · Sub-area
Identifying the right route and arriving in time is most of the work in sports discipline, where bodies, procedures and deadlines all differ from those of the ordinary courts.
Anyone facing a disciplinary file in sport is facing a system with its own rules and bodies, which sit alongside ordinary law without fully overlapping. What usually decides the matter is getting the competent body right and meeting deadlines that here are often counted in a few working days.
I trained specifically in this field, with a Master's in Sports Law from the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB).
Defense 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, a national collegiate body that decides, through the administrative channel and as the final instance, the matters within its competence (article 120 of Act 39/2022 of December 30th on Sport). Its decisions exhaust the administrative channel and are appealed before the administrative courts (article 120.4). Which cases reach the TAD today depends on a transitional regime. Until the out-of-court dispute resolution system of article 119 is implemented by regulation, the disciplinary regime that preceded that Act still applies (third transitional provision). Royal Decree 53/2014, which gives the TAD the sports-disciplinary matters within its competence, remains in force. As of October 9th, 2026, that regulation has not been adopted. For Catalan federations, the supreme body of sports justice in electoral, competition and disciplinary matters is the Tribunal Català de l'Esport, which decides at the administrative level on the matters within its competence (consolidated text of the Catalan Sports Act, approved by Legislative Decree 1/2000 of July 31st).
Doping has its own regime (Organic Act 11/2021): the athlete's responsibility for what is in their body (article 19), a wide catalog of violations beyond a positive test, including whereabouts failures (article 20), and an appeal that goes directly to the administrative courts rather than to the TAD (article 49) or, for international-level athletes, to the system provided for in the World Anti-Doping Code (article 49.4).
Proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS/TAS) in Lausanne, the leading forum where the matter has an international dimension.
A wrong door or a late filing can close the only chance to mount a defense, so I identify the route and the deadline first and prepare the submission and the evidence in advance, before the clock starts to press.
I know this field from having worked in it with athletes and clubs, and every citation is checked against its official source before I rely on it. The defense I offer is prepared and alert to the particularities of sports justice.
See how I workEach guide takes one specific situation further, with the rules and deadlines that govern it.
Tell me about your situation and I will tell you, frankly, how I can help.
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