Built by practitioners, for the practice of sports law.
REX Sport is an international association founded by José Juan Pintó. It connects professionals working in sport, encourages the exchange of knowledge and supports education and the development of sports law. Its members bring different jurisdictions and areas of practice into one continuing conversation.
Founded by José Juan Pintó
José Juan Pintó founded REX on a conviction he lived by: practitioners should learn from one another and invest in those who follow them.
He was a pioneer of sports law and sports arbitration, and helped shape both. As an arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, he sat on more than 400 panels, including at the Olympic Games. He combined fine legal analysis with boundless energy and real generosity towards colleagues.
Above all, he brought people together. REX is, in many ways, the result.
José Juan died in March 2026. He leaves REX a rare inheritance: a circle of friends who still learn from one another and still make room for those who come next. It is ours to enjoy, and to share.
A friendship and a programme
Seefeld, in the Austrian Tyrol, one August at the turn of the millennium. Ettore Mazzilli was there. Gianpaolo Monteneri was nearby, and so was José Juan Pintó. They talked. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Years later, the three met again in Cabrils. The conversation ran long, the way the best ones do, and it kept returning to one question: how do young sports lawyers learn the work they will actually do?
José Juan contacted ISDE. A lunch followed, then a meeting in Qatar. Gianpaolo wrote the programme with one test in mind: would he have wanted to take this course himself? The teachers would be practitioners. The groups would be small, so that every student was known by name. Each internship would be chosen for the student who took it.
Gianpaolo directed the programme until 2012. Then Lucas Ferrer de Robles and Efraim Barak took it on.
As time goes by, roads part and people move on. What began in Cabrils stays with REX: the idea, the knowledge built over the years, and the experience of learning from those who practise.
What REX does
The Board
REX is led by a Board drawn from its international membership.
Lucas Ferrer de Robles
Secretary
Efraim Barak
Treasurer
Rui Botica Santos
Board member
Konstantinos Zemberis
Board member
Marcos Motta
Board member
Anna Smirnova
Anna coordinates REX’s day-to-day work with the Board and members, including governance, General Assembly preparations, communications, membership and new projects. An international sports lawyer, arbitrator and lecturer, she is the first point of contact for enquiries about REX.