The lawyer Juan de Dios Crespo will give an insight into sports arbitration in the current context of the health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, at the next ISDE Webinar promoted by the Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía (ISDE) to be held this Thursday (20:00) and within the activities of the ISDE Sports Convention (ISC).

Under the title ‘Sports arbitration in times of COVID: CAS & BAT’, the online talk will be moderated by José Carlos Oliveira, student of the Master’s in International Sports Law of ISDE and Legal Advisor of Sporting Club, Portugal. In it, Juan de Dios Crespo will review the legal challenges posed by coronavirus in sports arbitration and the legal consequences that have come about as a result of the postponement or cancellation of major sporting events.

A lawyer since 1985, Partner of the law firm Ruiz Huerta & Crespo, and holder of numerous diplomas in sports, community and international law, Crespo was President of the Sports Law Section of the Valencia Bar Association from 2000 to 2012 and again from 2019.

He was also External Legal Advisor from 2000 to 2010 to LaLiga, LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank, football clubs, foreign football and basketball players, and agents, he has advised basketball, badminton, Valencian pelota, taekwondo, roller hockey and, among others, rugby federations.

With an experience of more than 450 cases at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), he was Advisor and Director of the Sports Law section of the General Review of Spanish Law, Director of the CAS (International Sports Arbitration) section of the Revista Aranzadi of Sports and Entertainment Law and lecturer in different sports law courses in more than 20 countries.

He is a lecturer in different Master’s in Sports Law in Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Argentina, the United States, France, Russia and England, and has been an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration of the Valencia Chamber of Commerce, the European Court of Arbitration of the European Handball Federation (EHF), the Latin American Association of Sports Law (ALADDE) and Sports Resolutions in the United Kingdom.

This is the sixth ISDE Webinar during the state of health emergency decreed by the COVID-19 pandemic, within the ISC, the congress on sports law and industry organised by ISDE, in collaboration with LaLiga, the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and the Madrid Bar Association.

In the previous sessions various experts have appeared,such as: the Brazilian lawyer Daniel Cravo, expert in sports law at ISDE and member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Football Lawyers (AIAF); the Director of the Women’s Football Area of LaLiga, Pedro Malabia; and the Brazilian lawyer and ISDE professor Marcos Motta, who reflected on the challenges facing the transfer system and football agents in the face of the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.

Also in previous sessions, the Heads of eSports at Movistar, Ander Pérez and Guillermo Mañas, spoke about a social phenomenon, eSports, which has an audience in the millions. The Directors of As.com and Marca.com, Luis Nieto and Emilio Contreras, and the Assistant Director of the legal portal Iusport, Irene Aguiar, addressed the challenges and the near future facing sports journalism in the post-coronavirus era, and the lawyer Juan de Dios Crespo spoke about sports arbitration in times of COVID-19 and the legal consequences that have come about as a result of the postponement or cancellation of major sporting events.