Our guest for this show is Paolo Lombardi, founder of Lombardi Associates. He has had an illustrious career in football and law. In this show Paolo talks about his time at the start of the FIFA's legal department, meeting Diego Maradona in a disciplinary case, starting a sports law firm and more. Paolo Is the founder and managing director of Lombardi Associates, a boutique sports regulatory firm which acts for a range of football stakeholder clients including clubs, players, coaches, intermediaries, associations, leagues and investors, also providing external advice to law firms. Paolo currently assists a significant number of clubs in the Italian Serie A, as well as providing advice to Lega Serie A and a number of clubs in Scotland and England, and internationally. The area of focus being transfers, dispute resolution, breach of contract, training compensation and solidarity mechanism, registration of minors and more. In addition, he also assists clubs with both UEFA and national licensing issues, including proceedings before CAS. Paolo has been involved in a number of cases which have shaped the jurisprudence of CAS. Lombardi Associates has now been in active in the market for over 10 years. Prior to Lombardi Associates, Paolo worked at FIFA joining the FIFA Players’ Status Department in 2002, becoming Deputy Head in 2006. He was responsible for players’ agents and involved in landmark cases, including Mexes, Webster, Mutu. In 2007 he was appointed Head of FIFA Disciplinary and Governance, overseeing disciplinary and governance matters both in-house and at various FIFA tournaments such as the Beijing Olympics and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He was involved in the drafting and regular updating of all FIFA regulations relevant to his positions.  Paolo is as Specialist Arbitrator for Sport Resolutions. The host is Sean Cottrell (@spcott), founder and CEO of LawInSport. For more sports law news, commentary and analysis go to LawInSport.com Upcoming Events: www.lawinsport.com/sports-law-events LawInSport Recruitment: www.lawinsport.com/careers/recruitment-services. LawInSport Academy Mentoring Scheme: www.lawinsport.com/announcements Follow us on Twitter @LawInSport and Sean at @spcott. Listen to podcast on: Soundcloud: @lawinsport iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/lawl…rts-law-podcast Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7zNCAlkXxL2…knQeSAKSdXKUL2kA