Marc Cavaliero

Attorney-at-law; LL.M., Partner

Marc represents major sports federations, clubs, athletes, agencies and other various sports stakeholders in front of decision-making bodies of international and national sports federations as well as in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss Supreme Court. Marc's area of expertise encompasses all kind of compliance, disciplinary and ethics proceedings, contractual and financial, licensing or match manipulation matters. Marc regularly advises in the drafting of sports regulations and contracts, governance matters and in the implementation of decision-making, compliance and disciplinary processes within sports federations.

 

Languages:   English | French | Spanish | Italian | German

+41 79 276 1904

mc@cavaliero-associates.com

 

Before founding Cavaliero & Associates, Marc was a founding partner at Kleiner & Cavaliero and before that worked within the legal affairs division of FIFA for almost 10 years. As such, Marc acted as head of the disciplinary department between 2011 and 2017. In this role, Marc was responsible for all investigations into breaches of FIFA Regulations, infringements related to international transfer of players, match incidents, failure to comply with FIFA or CAS decisions (enforcement procedure), doping, match manipulation, third party ownership and other compliance and good governance issues. In addition, Marc also acted as Secretary to the FIFA Ethics Committee between 2011 and 2015 and was responsible for the supervision of all ethics-related proceedings. As such, Marc was responsible for the work of the three judicial bodies at FIFA and represented FIFA before CAS.

 

Between September 2008 and March 2011, Marc worked as Legal Counsel and Senior Group Leader in the FIFA Players' Status Department with a specialisation in dispute resolution. As such, Marc was in charge of handling all employment-related disputes, disputes related to solidarity contribution, training compensation and international transfers.

 

Marc holds a law degree from the University of Geneva and was admitted to the Geneva Bar in 2007. Marc also graduated from the master’s programme in international sports law at the Higher Institute of Law and Economics (ISDE) in Madrid, Spain.

 

In addition to acting as lecturer on various sports law-related courses and master’s degree programmes, and for several football organisations, Marc regularly publishes academic articles on international sports law and co-edited, with Professor Colucci, a comparative analysis of disciplinary procedures in football.

Marc is the President of the UCI Ethics Committee and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of World Aquatics.

 

  • Disciplinary & Integrity, SSBM International Master in Sports Law, Geneva, April 2024;
  • Anti-Doping Rules and Key Anti-Doping case law, AFC Legal Workshop 2023, Kuala Lumpur, November 2023;
  • International Sports, Ethics and Diplomacy, IBA Sports Law Conference, Doha, September 2023;
  • Sports Governing Bodies: A Framework to be Renewed with Arising Issues, IBA Sports Law Conference, Doha, September 2023;
  • Disciplinary & Integrity, SSBM International Master in Sports Law, Geneva, April 2023;
  • Swiss Law –Importance, Structure, Case Law – Escuela Universitaria Real Madrid -Universidad Europea, Madrid, March 2023;
  • Disciplinary & Integrity, SSBM International Master in Sports Law, Geneva, April 2022;
  • Swiss Law –Importance, Structure, Case Law – Escuela Universitaria Real Madrid -Universidad Europea, Madrid, March 2022;
  • Importancia del TAS en el mundo del fútbol, Universitas Fundación, November 2021;
  • Aplicación del derecho civil suizo en los laudos del TAS. El trámite del recurso ante el Tribunal Federal Suizo; Alade Derecho, August 2021;
  • FIFA Disciplinary Proceedings, Romania Sports Forum, May 2018, Bucharest;
  • Termination of Contract without just cause, The FA's Legal and Governance Conference, November 2017, St. Georges Park;
  • Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property and Ambush Marketing, ISTAA 9th AGM & Conference, November 2017, St. Petersburg;
  • FIFA Reforms 2016, 7th UEFA Disciplinary Workshop, 29/30 September 2016, Dubrovnik;
  • FIFA Disciplinary measures (regulatory framework and case law), Executive Programme in International Sports Law and Justice, III edition, 19/20 July 2016, Ravello;
  • Incumplimiento de decisiones, Prohibición de la propiedad de derechos económicos por terceros, Transferencias Puente, Reunión anual del Fútbol Mexicano, Seminario Jurídico, 7 June 2016, Cancún;
  • FIFA Structural Reform, UEFA Football Law Programme, 18 April 2016, Madrid;
  • Investment Funds in football: a debate on the new regulations (Round Table), 6th International Congress on Football Law, 13 - 14 November 2015, Madrid;
  • Third party ownership, Players’ Contract 2015, 4/5 November 2015, London (together with Ms Kimberly Morris);
  • FIFA Disciplinary Committee, AFC Legal Workshop 2015, 20/21 October 2015, Kuala Lumpur.
  • Is there a Place for a Precedent in Sport Arbitration? Marc Cavaliero & Carol Etter, Swedish Sports Law Review, December 2020.
  • Disciplinary Measure and Principle of legality: Reminder of principles through some recent CAS awards (CAS 2017/A/5498 Vitaly Mutko v. IOC and CAS 2018/A/5987 Bernard Giudicelli v. ITF), Marc Cavaliero, Football Legal, March 2020.
  • Disciplinary procedures in Football, an International and Comparative Analysis, Marc Cavaliero, European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin 2017 (together with Prof. Michele Colucci).
  • The Skenderbeu case - A step forward in combatting match-fixing? Marc Cavaliero, Football Legal No. 7, June 2017.
  • Failure to respect a decision: case law when the debtor is a natural person, Marc Cavaliero & Jaime Cambreleng, Football Legal No. 6, December 2016.
  • Third-party influence & Third-party Ownership – a regulatory approach, Marc Cavaliero, Football Legal No. 5, June 2016 and Swedish Sports Law Review, December 2016.
  • Dispute Resolution at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association and its judicial bodies, Marc Cavaliero (together with Mr Omar Ongaro), European Sports Law and Policy Bulletin 1/2013.