What can Rustam do for you?
Rustam's a member of the sports law team at Mills & Reeve and specialises in sports disputes and regulatory matters. He advises on a range of contentious and regulatory work, across sports and the sports sector.
On the contentious side, Rustam has experience representing athletes, football clubs, governing bodies, player associations, agents and administrators in contractual, employment, disciplinary, ethics, match-fixing, anti-doping and selection disputes before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and various international and national governing body tribunals, including the FIFA Football Tribunal.
On the non-contentious side, he regularly advises clubs, players and agents alike on the application of FIFA's various regulations. Rustam's developed particular expertise on the application of The FA and SFA's Governing Body Endorsement Rules. He's acted on a number of international and domestic transfers of football players.
Rustam also advises sports organisations and individuals on disciplinary, investigatory and safeguarding related matters.
Supporting your ambitions
Recently, Rustam has:
- Acted for a Premier League club in a transfer dispute against a Ligue 1 club, as well as an English coach in an employment dispute with his former European club; in both cases before the FIFA Players' Status Committee.
- Represented a number of European clubs in a complex and high value contractual and regulatory disputes at the CAS.
- Assisted football clubs with applications for governing body endorsements, for the transfer of foreign players to the United Kingdom.
- Successfully defended former World Sailing president, Kim Andersen, in multiple ethics related matters before the World Sailing Ethics Commission and Judicial Board.
- Acted for the International Tennis Integrity Agency, in prosecuting a number of players of match-fixing related offences.
- Represented a number of athletes in anti-doping proceedings both domestically and internationally.
- Advised Ferdinand Omanyala Omurwa - Africa's fastest man - on various matters, including securing qualification for 100m event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
- Acted for UK Sport to set up 'Sport Integrity’, a first of its kind independent disclosure and complaints service for Olympic and Paralympic sport.
What do others say?
Rustam was nominated for Lawyer of the Year at the 'Made in Manchester Awards 2021', and Young Lawyer of the Year at the 2022 Insider Media North West Young Professionals Award.
He's recognised as a 'Rising Star' for sport by the Legal500, where he is described as "extremely hard-working and stands out for his expertise in cross-border sports litigation in areas ranging from football to sailing."
What else should you know?
Rustam has authored several publications for sports law journals of international repute and has been invited to speak on sports law issues at conferences, academic institutions and on television.
He holds a Master’s in International Sports Law from ISDE (Spain). Rustam lived and worked in Mumbai, Madrid and Rome before moving to the UK.
Rustam also sits on the anti-doping and arbitration committees of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation, the judicial panel at British Equestrian and the England Boxing national disciplinary panel.