Francesco is an Italian lawyer registered with the Piacenza Bar Association. He primarily focuses on labour and sports law. He started his career in 1993 as a lawyer for the AIC ASSOCIAZIONE ITALIANA CALCIATORI (Italian Football Players’ Association) by representing several players before the relevant #Arbitration Panels in disputes with their clubs or agents. He also assisted players, coaches and officials in bankruptcy proceedings concerning their former football clubs.
In 2003, he was called upon to serve as a member of the Panels of Arbitrators for dispute resolution between #football players and clubs of Italian Lega Serie A and @Lega Serie B. He still holds this position and has participated in more than 400 arbitration proceedings.
In 2016, he was appointed as an arbitrator at the TAS/CAS Tribunal Arbitral du Sport / Court of Arbitration for Sport / Tribunal Arbitral del Deporte in Lausanne, where he was recently confirmed for 2023-2026 on the CAS general list and football list.
He was a member of the Federal Court of Appeal of the Italian Fencing Federation and is currently President of the Federal Court of the Italian Badminton Federation.
He also dedicates himself to teaching as a contract professor at the Unimercatorum University in Rome, where he runs a Labour Law in Sports programme and lectures at the Master in International Sports Law at the ISDE in Madrid and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland.