Advisory Board

Alberto Palomar is a lawyer and Professor of Administrative Law. He is also a member of the Spanish Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, Director of the Aranzadi Journal “Derecho del deporte y del entretenimiento” and Director of the Master's Degree in Sports Law at the University of Valencia (Spain). He has been Director of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Sport and Deputy Director General of Professional Sport. He is also the author of a large number of academic works in the field of sports law.

Carole Gomez is a senior research fellow at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) on international sports issues since 2013. She holds a Master’s Degree in International and European Law (Queen’s University of Belfast) and a Master’s degree in International Public Law, International Relations, at the University of Panthéon Assas and International Security and Defense of Pierre University Mendès France in Grenoble. She also worked in the Ministry of Sports between 2011 and 2013. Her research work focuses on sports diplomacy, integrity in sport and sport governance reform. After studying sporting boycott, she became more globally interested in international sanctions.

The International Table Tennis Federation Foundation (ITTFF) uses sport characteristics, not only to promote table tennis and its benefits to a broad and different public, but also to foster development through the sport. This means using the sport as a method of attracting more people to play and working with them on different topics to improve their daily life.

Marisol Casado has been President of the International Triathlon Union since 2008, elected at the ITU Congress in her hometown of Madrid, Spain. She has extensive experience and expertise in the Olympic sport of triathlon, being one of the founding members of the Spanish Triathlon Federation and also heavily involved in the creation of ITU in Avignon in 1989. She served as Secretary General of the Spanish Triathlon Federation (1989-1994 and 1997-2008) as well as acting as Treasurer for ITU (1992-1994 and 2000-2008). Casado was elected Member of the IOC in February 2010 at the 122nd IOC Session ahead of the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Shortly after, she was appointed to the Coordination Commission for the 2nd Youth Olympic Summer Games in Nanjing 2014.

Reyes Bellver is the Founder and Director of Bellver Sports – legal boutique. She is a Spanish Lawyer specialized in Football Law (Madrid BAR). External advisor to the FIFA Professional Football Department since 2020. Founder and President of the Sports Law Association of Madrid, Member of the Committee of Specialists of the European Arbitration Association, and Patron of the Foundation for Diversity, since 2018, Reyes has been included in the prestigious international Who’s Who Legal (WWL: Sports & Entertainment) list as one of the leading sports law attorneys in the world. Co-founder and President of Leadership Woman Football, a platform to promote the leadership and the visibility of women in football, she is committed to gender equality and diversity in sports.

Richard Parrish is a professor of sports law at Edge Hill University where he is the Director of the Centre for Sports Law Research (CSLR). He has authored some of the main sports law and policy studies for the European Commission and European Parliament and he has acted in senior advisory roles for the EU institutions, including being a member of the European Commission's High-Level Group on Sport Diplomacy. He is currently leading the Erasmus+ funded project, Promoting a Strategic Approach to EU Sport Diplomacy. 

Silvija Mitevska is an advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia on Sports. She is chairing the inter-sectoral group for the National Program for Physically Active Nation as well as the working group for gender equality in sport within the Olympic Committee of North Macedonia. She is recognized expert in the field of sports diplomacy. She holds a master’s in political science and human rights and has a vast experience in sport and civil society sector. Silvija is an emerging leader of Global Sports Mentoring Program supported by the U.S State Department and the New Leaders program supported by IOC.

Dr J. Simon Rofe is Reader in Diplomatic and International Studies at the University of London, is Programme Director for the MA Global Diplomacy, chairs the Knowledge Exchange and Enterprise Panel, is Acting Director of the Centre for Distance Educaiton, following a role in the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) in 2012. Simon is the author and editor of a numerous books and articles including: 'Sport and Diplomacy: Games within Games', (Manchester: Manchester University Press / USA Oxford University Press 2018). He was awarded an Erasmus+ grant (Nov 2020) to provide a framework from an EU Sports Diplomacy strategy. Simon developed the first MA module globally to address ‘Sport and Diplomacy: More than a Game’, founded the Sport, Diplomacy, and Governance Hub, and has established the Global Sports Conversations podcast series. 

Snežana Samardžić-Marković is Director General of Democracy at the Council of Europe since 2012. Between 2007 and 2012 she served as Minister of Youth and Sports in Serbian government and President of the Fund for Young Talents. She is a member of the Board of the UEFA Foundation for Children and has been a member of the Foundation Board of the World Antidoping Agency (WADA) and the High-Level Group on Sport Diplomacy established by the European Commission in 2015. In 2011 she was awarded with the Traditional “May award” for the outstanding achievements for Serbian sport, 2011.

Dr. Murray is an Associate Professor in International Relations and Diplomacy (Bond University, Australia), a Global Fellow at the Academy of Sport (The University of Edinburgh), an Honorary Member of the Centre for Sports Law, Policy and Diplomacy at the University of Rijeka (Croatia), and an Adjunct Research Fellow at Griffith University (Australia). A globally respected editor, writer, speaker, and expert on International Relations, Diplomacy and Sports Diplomacy, he has dozens of peer reviewed publications, wrote the book on Sports Diplomacy: Origins, Theory and Practice, and regularly advises governments, international institutions, and non-state actors on a broad range of matters relating to diplomacy, international affairs, and sport.

Thierry Zintz is a Professor at the Université catholique de Louvain. He works closely with the Louvain Research Institute in Management, as a senior researcher. He was also Vice-President of the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee from 2001 until 2017 and is President of the European Observatory of Sport and Employment (EOSE). He is a member of the Olympic Education Commission of the International Olympic Committee and of the Standing Committee for Education of the World Antidoping Agency. He is Vice-President of the board of directors of Special Olympics Belgium.

Vanja Smokvina is an Associate Professor and the head of the Sports Law, Sports Policies and Sports Diplomacy Centre at the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka (Croatia). Professor Smokvina is also an academic member of the Centre for Sports Law Research at the Edge Hill University (UK). He has published seven books on Labour Law and Sports Law, more than thirty scientific articles and has presented his papers at numerous prestigious international scientific conferences (Cambridge, Manchester, Leeds, Angers, Cologne, Madrid, Lisbon, Roma, Verona, Zagreb, etc.). Professor Smokvina was president and member of various working groups of the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and of the Central State Office for Sport for drafting the new Croatian Sports Act (2014–2017) and was a member of the working groups for drafting the first ever strategy on sport in Croatia the National Sports Programme 2019-2026.