Anna Smirnova
Sports lawyer · Arbitrator · Lecturer · Barcelona
Anna Smirnova works across the practice, adjudication and study of sports law. For 17 years she has worked inside international sport as counsel, as a tribunal member and as a researcher.
At REX
Anna has been REX’s Executive Board Coordinator since June 2026. She works with the Board and members to turn the association’s priorities into practical work. She leads the coordination of governance and General Assembly preparations, member communications and organisational projects, and helps develop REX’s educational and international activities.
Practice
Anna advises federations, clubs, athletes and agents on governance, regulation, integrity and disputes. She has represented clients in more than 100 proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, FIFA, UEFA and other bodies. Her contract work covers transfers, employment, image rights, media and licensing.
She came to sport from international commercial law. She began her career at Chadbourne & Parke and was later Senior Counsel for international legal affairs at Ilim Group, working on joint ventures, cross-border M&A and carbon-credit transactions under the Kyoto Protocol.
On the bench
Anna sits on the UCI Disciplinary Commission and Arbitral Board, the International Table Tennis Federation Tribunal and the Sport Resolutions Legal Panel, including panels for the International Tennis Federation. She has been a member of the World Athletics Disciplinary Tribunal since 2017.
Teaching, research and voice
Anna teaches sports governance and co-hosts the AIAF Podcast of the Association Internationale des Avocats du Football, which discusses current questions in football law.
Her doctoral research at the German Sport University Cologne examines how strategies for environmental sustainability and human rights intersect in Olympic sport. It builds on her MA in Olympic Studies from the same university and on her earlier work on carbon-credit transactions.
She works in English, Spanish, French and Russian.