Sports Tribunals and State Courts in the Italian Legal System: Between Constitutional Safeguards and European Challenges

Italy’s sports justice system reserves disciplinary disputes to sports bodies and the Collegio di Garanzia dello Sport, while State courts cannot annul or suspend federative sanctions and may only award damages. After the Italian Constitutional Court upheld this balance in 2011 and 2019, Advocate General Spielmann’s Opinion of 18 December 2025 in joined Cases C-424/24 and C-425/24 argues that EU Law may require annulment powers and interim relief before national courts, putting the Italian model under pressure. By Stefano La Porta and Luigi Primicerio, Gallavotti Bernardini & Partners, Rome, Italy.

Since the entry into force of Law Decree no. 220/2003, Italy has maintained a distinctive system of sports justice, under which disciplinary disputes are reserved, on an exclusive basis, to the internal judicial bodies of sports federations and, in the last instance (and solely in respect of alleged violations of applicable rules and regulations, including of procedural nature), to the Collegio di Garanzia dello Sport, an independent body established within the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). State courts are not competent, instead, to review, annul and/or suspend the...

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Sports Tribunals and State Courts in the Italian Legal System: Between Constitutional Safeguards and European Challenges

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