On The Front Foot Issue 17

ON THE FRONT FOOT O C TO B E R 2 0 2 1 I S S U E S E V E N T E E N

ON THE FRONT FOOT OCTOBER 2021 ISSUE 17

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The journey behind her success on and off the pitch...

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NFL RETURNS TO LONDON WITH EYES ON EXPANSION TO NEW EUROPEAN CITIES

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NADIA NADIM

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CONTENTS The Striking Story of Nadia Nadim 4 Getting Education Right for Athletes Long Term 10 Teamworks: Priorisiting Athlete Welfare 12 NFL Returns to London 14 Professional Triathletes Organisation: The Collins Cup 19 Paris 2024 Olympic Games Aims for Sustainability Gold 22 5 Tech Tools Your Finance Stack Can't Afford to Miss 26 Unique Identity Key to NWSL's Success and Progression 28 Ellevate Football: Levelling the Playing Field 32 The Benefits of 'Living Grey': At Home 34 Rajasthan Royals Mission to be Top Sporting Organisation 36 Real Ways to Streamline Your Financial Consolidation 42 Charlotte Worthington: Olympic Champion 44 Maximising Performance: Why Effective HR is Key 48 An Unbreakable Will to Achieve an Impossible Dream 50 Corporation Tax Matters - Navigating Changes in 2021 52 PSN Directory 54 Sports Job Vacancies 55

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NADIA NADIM

ROLE MODEL: THE STRIKING STORY OF NADIA NADIM Nadia Nadim discusses how she got into football, her dual-career path as a reconstructive surgeon and educating others through sport.

Nadia Nadim was just 10 when her father – a general in the Afghan army – was murdered by the Taliban, leading to the Afghan-born striker escape the country with fake passports and smuggled to London along with her mother and four sisters.

Nadim and her family had planned to escape to London, where they had a few relatives, through Pakistan to Italy. From Italy, her family went on a truck thinking they were heading towards London, but they never made it that far.

“After a few days we all turfed off the truck, expecting to see Big Ben,” Nadim recalls. “We did not. All we saw was trees. We asked a passer-by and found out that the bus had dropped us in Denmark, that these days I refer to as home.”

It was in the Nordic country where Nadim discovered that she discovered he love for football and like many of the women who began playing in Europe, Nadim was introduced to football by her father who bought home a ball when she was a little girl.

“I knew football from previously because my dad was really into 4 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

sports in general and he was the first person who gave me and my sisters a football,” says Nadim. “But I never really played it, we used to play other games with that ball.”

The rest of her story, however, is unique, inspirational and one driven by a passion to help others through the power of football.

“I think the first time when I saw a girls’ team at a refugee camp in Denmark, that was where I was like ‘Oh Damn that’s how you’re supposed to play with this ball’ and that’s where I was like I really want to play football. I would say my obsession started there.

“When I was 18, I got my debut for the Danish national team after I got the Danish citizenship. I had to wait and be in the country for a minimum of seven years before I could get the passport.

“My first game was against the US national team in Algrave and since its just grown from there.”

Outside of football, Nadim has completed medical school and is now coming to the end of studying to be a reconstructive surgeon, who she ➡

IMAGES CONNOR CUNNINGHAM

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NADIA NADIM

wants to be once her playing days are over.

“When I was young, I never imaged myself being a doctor because one of my goals was to be rich,” admitted Nadim. “If anyone would ask me what I wanted to do I would say I wanted to be rich.

“But later, as things shaped up, I felt I had a need to help people because throughout my life the littles things that people have done for me always had a huge impact and meant a lot in that situation.

“It could have been anything, not necessarily something big but it made a huge impact. So, when the time was right, and I had to choose, I thought being a doctor is going to put you in situations where you are actually able to have a massive impact on someone’s life.

“You can help someone and save lives and I like that feeling. I love that pressure and responsibility.

I remember after applying to the university, I got in and in my first semester I knew this was the right thing because I love working with people and having this conversation with your patience, I love it.

“I love being in the operation room. I feel the adrenaline that kind

you have on the field. Its almost the same thing for me because you have to be so concentrated, and you have a game plan. You go in and you execute.

“If you feel like you’re going to lose the game and if you fail there, that’s even worse. Having a huge impact on people’s lives, which is also a major thing for me because I think it’s crucial if you have the energy and you are able to give back and to help.”

While playing football, and studying to become a reconstructive surgeon, one would assume that balancing all of this is not easy.

“Lately it’s been quite hard,” admitted Nadim. “I feel like its quite demanding around the time of my exams and I have to study a lot of hours per day. That’s when you feel like you don’t really have a life.

“For five months it’s just a repeated cycle. In terms of how I do everything outside my studies, football is like mostly my vacation so when we have a couple of weeks off in the summer and winter, that’s when I plan all my travels.

“The reason why I do all of this is simply because I can, and I want to and I know it impacts and helps a lot of people. That is the reason.

That’s my drive. My motivation.

“In terms of how I can study and

"I thought being a doctor is going to put you in situations where you are actually able to have a massive impact on someone's life."

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“I love being in the operation room. I feel the adrenaline that kind you have on the field.

Its almost the same thing for me because you have to be so concentrated, and you have a game plan. You go in and you execute.”

do my school, I would say its planning.

There is no magic you just literally sit down, and you have no life. It’s just prioritising.

“For me helping people I literally love it because I can see the impact that it has. You can see the direct impact and see that you are making someone’s day.

In terms of studying, I like to learn. I love to grow as a human being but it’s not always fun, there are times when I’m not as motivated and I do get tired.

I do get the same feeling as everyone else but in the end, I’m always focused on the goal and what my end goal is and why I’m doing this. Then you find your energy.”

Nadim agrees that her ventures off the pitch benefits her performance and that each gives her a break from the other. “I love to be active so when you’ve been sitting for six hours in front of your computer and then get to run around for two hours, it is a really nice feeling.

“On the other hand, when you’re playing football, you get physically tired by mentally not always tired. I think it kind of compliments each other very well. I love after training you get home and rest for about half an hour and sit down. Your brain can really focus then.

“For me it works. I love that I am using my body and my brain in two➡

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NADIA NADIM

different ways. I think life would be so boring if I was only playing football because you do have a lot of time afterwards and I know you are supposed to recover but I think I just recover by studying.”

As Nadim keeps herself busy, it is incredibly important that she has a strong support network around her to push through when times get tough. Nadim recently tore her ACL while playing for Racing Louisville against Orlando Pride, meaning that she will miss the remainder of the season. Nadim joined the team in late July and has made an immediate impact.

But, with activity away from football, Nadim is able to keep herself occupied.

“For me when I am in down phases or when I’m injured, I try to look at the positive side. I know injury is part of football and that in any sport you cannot avoid it. I try to use my energy on feeling bad for myself, I just try to concentrate on how fast I can come back.

“The support system I have in the club and the people around me want the best for me. Our physio, strength and

conditioning coach and you have your teammates if you need to talk to them.

And also, my family.

“I love the fact that my family are not that interested in sports in general and that’s a huge thing when you talk to your sibling and family, and they don’t know what’s happening. They don’t know when we are playing, and I love that.

“It’s important that your mind is refreshed, and you restart again.

Otherwise, if it’s always football, you kind of drown in that world. For me its key to have people around you that are not necessarily only there because of the success.

One of those people who has been there to support Nadim throughout her sporting career is Michael Kallback, founder of Neverland Management who the striker has been working with for the past nine years. Nadim is full of phrase for Kallback, who first reached out to Nadim on Facebook just as Nadim’s contract with her agent at the time was coming to an end. Nadim took a leap of faith and gave Michael a shot.

“I think what he stands for is class and I love that guy because he is such as good human being and he’s been such a help for me as a person, as a player and also as my brand. He’s very smart and has lot of connections which has helped me.

“In terms of how much I am involved, I am very deeply involved in which way I want to go and what I stand for. I know what my value is, what my goal is in the future and what direction I want to go.

This is something we have talked about.

He’s helped me a lot. We sit together and we talk about the direction we are going.

“These are the people I want to work with because it’s something that I actually see the value in and there are things that I don’t want to work with. Yes, you will get money out of it, but for me it’s not about the money it’s about how you present yourself and if you’re doing the right thing.

“I don’t usually approach brands because I feel like if they see the value in me, that’s going to come. I’m not the person that’s going to go out because that’s not my style. For me it’s been a combination [of looking to build a brand],

NADIA’S ADVICE FOR ATHLETES LOOKING TO PURSUE SOMETHING OUTSIDE OF SPORT I think it’s very important. I think you should have something just in case because you never know how far you are able to far. You never know what’s going to happen in the sports world.

You might a injury that ends your career.

I also feel that as a human being to have this other world beside your sports world is a given as it allows you to recharge and come back at 100% every day.

Having a connection and a network outside of football is very 8 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

cool for me because you learn other stuff. You grow as a human being and in that way it may also affect your game on the field.

If you have the energy and motivation I think everyone should have something besides football because it’s a cool thing and especially in periods where injuries come about and you are out for a while, getting your mind away from that and actually feeling that you are doing something with your life is also very important.

“The support system I have in the club and the people around me want the best for me.

Our physio, strength and conditioning coach and you have your teammates if you need to talk to them. And also, my family.”

but I pick and choose which ones I want to work with. That’s a decision that I make because if I choose a brand is it going to represent my values? If it doesn’t align with my values and things that I respect, then I am most likely not going to work with them.”

Having people that you can trust is key to progressing. Having an agent is not only about bringing you offers and negotiating with clubs of sponsors.

It’s so much more than that. Many agents throughout the industry are just looking to benefit financially, rather than to take into consideration the athlete as an individual. But Nadim says that Michael and Neverland Management always have her back, no matter what.

“Michael, I feel is like a brother. I haven’t even signed a contract with him now. I signed one with him the first two years, because you have to.

But when it expired and since then we have never talked about contracts. It is crucial to have people around you that can help you and that you can trust.”

Neverland Management is headquartered in Sweden but operates all over the world. Nadim collaborates with Neverland which has been responsible for coordinating everything from her schedules, travel

itineraries and contact with media, for example.

But Nadim is always hands on, collaboratively initiating and negotiating her own contracts with brands including Nike, Visa and BeIN Sports, as well as contracts with Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain.

Nadim also speaks eleven languages, fluently, and is on the Forbes list of ‘Most Powerful Women in International Sports’, but still Nadim continues to focus on others and drive change around the world.

Selfless.

“I have so many things that I want to do.

I think one of my main goals in life is to be in a position where I can educate in some ways. I think the cause of a lot of troubles you see is lack of education and when I say education, I don’t mean you have to sit down and read or study, but make people understand. I think you can use football a lot of times to educate.

“An example could be that in a lot of the minor region countries in Afghanistan, the Middle East and South America, sports are almost forbidden for young girls. For me, that is lack of education from the people who control and make decisions.

“If you could educate them through sports and say ‘listen there is nothing wrong with a girl playing football’ that is something that I would like to do in the future and using football and my voice, my platform, to reach out and make a change.

“For me, I remember football has had a huge impact on my life and the person I am, how much I’ve learnt about the Danish society coming to a new place not knowing the language, didn’t know the norms, the culture, traditions. I felt like I learnt all of that with football.

“At the same time, I was having fun, I wasn’t even aware that I was learning. I think that is a huge area where you can apply football and then use it to change people’s point of views and hopefully help a lot of young kids around the world.”

If you want to show your daughter a role model, show her Nadia Nadim. U OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 9

EDUCATION

Life Beyond Trophies: Getting Education right for athletes long term Congratulations, Team GB, what a Tokyo 2020. With funding higher than ever, the results really showed. But with so much work required for young athletes to achieve Olympic selection, how can we ensure that their time at school, often seen as a drain on demanding training schedules, doesn’t get deprioritised?

The story of Beth Shriver, a 19-year-old teaching-assistant who won BMX gold in Tokyo, went viral this summer as it was revealed she had to crowdfund money to fly to selection events, rightly raising eyebrows across the country about how funding is allocated to Olympic hopefuls.

Had Beth acquired funding when she was a teenager, the money would not have helped her stay on top of her academic work. The UK government does not financially support young athletes who are struggling to keep up with their education.

There are opportunities, however. TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) 10 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

is a National Lottery funded partnership that connects eligible athletes to partner education institutions. Many private sports organisations, including a growing number of Premier League football clubs, are starting to recognise the importance of education, not just for the wellbeing and future prosperity of their players, but from a business perspective, too.

In today’s competitive football transfer market, elite clubs demand more than just ball skills from their players. Educate a young footballer well and their prospects of being bought are improved.

As private education specialists, Minerva works with sports clubs and organisations

around the world to ensure as many young athletes as possible receive the education they deserve. We run a fully online independent school: Minerva’s Virtual Academy, which is totally flexible around the gruelling training schedules aspiring athletes face. We also provide 1-to-1 private homeschooling and tutoring, the ultimate bespoke solution for athletes on the move.

We spoke to two sets of Minerva parents, both choosing to educate their young stars in different ways, to find out how it’s going. U For more information, visit www.minervavirtual.com or call +44 (0)20 3637 6477

ASPIRING PRO FOOTBALLER JOINS THE GROWING NUMBER OF ATHLETES TURNING TO ONLINE SCHOOLS Jakub, aged 16, joined Minerva’s Virtual Academy, our online school for Years 10, and 11, in December 2020. The Academy provides its pupil’s with a world class British education wherever they are in the world.

As part of school life, Jakub attends virtual assemblies, studies for his GCSEs on an innovative virtual learning platform, joins his classmates in live subject lessons taught by experienced teachers, and receives support from his personal Minerva mentor, who he meets with once every two week online. In addition to joining the Academy, Jakub receives additional Minerva Tutors homeschooling from a one-on-one tutor in Maths, Biology and Chemistry, in order to take these subjects a year early.

We spoke to Jakub’s mother, a former professional athlete, about their decision to enrol him at an online school.

13-YEAR-OLD OLYMPIC SWIMMING PRODIGY It’s fair to say 13-year-old Olympic hopeful Inès GuimondBeetham is on a roll. Last year in the Middlesex County Championships she scooped eight golds, winning the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, the 100m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle, and the 400m individual medley.

Inès has been receiving private homeschooling from Mnerva Tutors for the last year and the results are showing. We implemented a homeschooling timetable to fit entirely around her swimming schedule. Even when the family moved to Canada due to the pandemic, Inès’ tutors, Eleanor and Diana, continued to tutor her online, with no disruption to her learning and development.

“I keep thinking that Inès is one of the few children whose schooling has been continuous during the pandemic,’ says Stephanie, Inès' mother, ‘I certainly keep that thought to myself but I imagine that all of your pupils are in the same wonderful situation! So a huge thank you as Eleanor and Diana have been absolutely amazing. Inès is eager to please them and she is thriving, really enjoying learning with them.”

Scott Viney, head of homeschooling at Minerva Tutors, is delighted seeing Inès do so well. "She’s one of shining stars, really. I’m excited for her and the fact she’s continuing with us into her GCSEs. She’s got a really bright future ahead of her."

When did you start thinking an online school could be good for Jakub?

‘Jakub decided to go to Barcelona where he lives in a dormitory at the Marcet Football Academy. As Jakub has training every day in the morning and then at 2:30 in the afternoon it is very difficult for him to find a school so that he can continue with the British curriculum. Schools are not flexible and an online school offered him a school at a high level and professional sport as well.

What are Jakub’s ambitions?

Jakub has high ambitions but we as parents understand that the life of an athlete is very risky and injury can change everything. We are both former national athletes. Jakub’s dad played football and I was a synchronised swimmer at the Olympics. We understand the importance of a strong education and we know it has an important part to play for transfer to University.

Of course, Jakubs dream is to play for a big football club and a national team or at least for a University team. Jakub is very good also at Padel, squash and ice hockey. In Spain, he can also take padel training as it is a very popular sport there. Jakub hopes to play in the football league or padel league as soon as possible.

What are your long term plans?

Long term plans now are very difficult to predict. But from the point of view of his education, we want him to succeed in his iGCSE’s and then in his A levels and progress to a University with a good athlete program where he can continue his passion. Minerva's Virtual Academy is the perfect place for him to achieve that. It allows him to flourish in both sport and studies.

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ATHLETE ENGAGEMENT

Advice from Professional Organisations Across the Globe on Prioritising Player Welfare Teamworks has witnessed a global emphasis on player welfare across professional sports. The company, which ensures a premium player experience by creating efficient and consistent team engagement through its mobile app, partners with teams that encapsulate a multitude of professional leagues of various sports that span five continents.

From managing the logistical fallout due to Covid-19, the safe execution of returning to play, and ultimately navigating the “new normal” in professional sports, clubs around the world are seeking partnership with sports technology platform Teamworks. The company attributes their rapid international growth to a vested interest in player welfare and services that translates globally regardless of sport, league or country.

Teamworks currently partners with over 150 professional teams across the globe, including more than half of the teams in both the National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey

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League (NHL), and more than a third of teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Since the start of 2020, Teamworks has rapidly broadened its presence in international leagues like the English Premier League (EPL), Serie A in Brazil, Serie A in Italy, Premiership Rugby and more.

Through conversations with its international network, Teamworks has compiled recommendations from current executive leadership, coaches, operations staff and athletes for establishing player care best practices within a professional sports organisation. From having dedicated player engagement personnel to centralising the flow of communication and information and creating a culture of accountability, these Teamworks’ partners place a premium on establishing strong player engagement organisation wide.

James Onwualu - Former NFL Linebacker “At the Raiders, we have specific player engagement personnel who are focused on helping us be the best athletes we can be by helping us find additional organisation in our lives. When we are initially onboarded as players, this staff is dedicated to eliminating the additional stresses of transitioning to a new organisation so our attention remains on the work we want to accomplish on the field. Our player engagement personnel make sure we fill out the appropriate paperwork and documents, help us find housing, give us recommendations on services in our local area, essentially, they help reduce all of the logistical headaches that could take our focus away from training.

Drew Arthurson - Chief Operating Officer, Sydney Swans “Centralisation is key. Before instilling Teamworks into our football operations, we had a disparate set of systems in place to communicate with and coordinate among the players and various departmental stakeholders. Now, our players are conditioned to open their Teamworks app as their one source of

“Centralisation is key. Before instilling Teamworks into our football operations, we had a disparate set of systems in place to communicate with and coordinate among the players and various departmental stakeholders.” truth for everything from viewing their training schedules, reviewing team protocols, updating paperwork and receiving team messages. Teamworks has been essential in bolstering the level of accountability throughout the club in which our players are proactive in sourcing information from the app, while our staff are responsible for ensuring the information is added into Teamworks and up-to-date.”

Steve Risser - Director of Team Logistics, San Francisco 49ers “Player engagement relies on the quality and quantity of information you’re putting out to the athletes. When we first started on the Teamworks platform, I was afraid to send too many messages. I quickly realised we have these young men coming in from college, and we’re meeting them with team information where they already spend a great deal of their time...on their phones.

We’ve evolved from sending only the most important messages via Teamworks blast to pushing all our team information through the app. It’s as simple as messaging the players that dinner closes

in 30 minutes to more complex content like uploading our key fob codes onto their profiles, so they have to have their Teamworks app in order to enter our facilities.”

Leo Cullen - Head Coach, Leinster Rugby “We find it beneficial to consult our peers in the professional sports industry to gather new ideas for approaching player engagement and creating smooth operations within our own organisation. A prime example was at the start of Covid-19 when we knew we had to communicate with and coordinate among our players in new ways with everyone operating remotely. After numerous Zoom calls with people in the sports industry, it was clear there was no competitor to Teamworks in elevating a team’s operations and communication by allowing us to transition information into a digital format that players can access on their phone. Now that we’re using Teamworks, we not only benefit from the platform’s features but also from being connected to a network of professional

clubs and peers that prioritise player care best practices.”

Jamie Macmillan - Football Operations Manager, North Melbourne Football Club At North Melbourne, we operate under a growth mindset, meaning no matter how hard a task is or how consistently you’ve been doing something there is always room for improvement. Teamworks allows us to uphold that value when we think through ways to better engage our players or update our internal processes within the club. When there’s a form players are required to sign, is this a workflow that can go into Teamworks? Are we utilising the calendar to the fullest extent so that athletes are not just seeing training times but also nutrition appointments, weight sessions, meal times, and media requirements? We want to continually improve upon our operations, so we keep our players connected but also accountable for their schedules and team obligations. U

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NFL

NFL

NFL RETURNS TO LONDON WITH EYES ON EXPANSION TO NEW EUROPEAN CITIES NFL Head of Europe and UK Brett Gosper discusses the return of NFL to London, expansion beyond the UK and the challenges of international growth.

Brett Gosper, who previously served as Chief Executive of World Rugby since 2012, last year joined the National Football League (NFL) as Head of Europe and UK to drive the next stage of the league’s growth in Europe.

As CEO of World Rugby for nine years, Gosper – a former Australia under-21 international who spent a decade playing club rugby in France – oversaw recordbreaking Rugby World Cups in England in 2015 and Japan in 2019. Now Gosper has a new challenge, after the NFL came knocking with an exciting new opportunity.

Gosper has always been interested in NFL, having lived in North America for nearly five years and followed the league in addition to Major League

Baseball (MLB) and National Basketball Association (NBA) with curiosity as someone previously in the advertising business.

Having always had admiration of the NFL as an organisation, brand and business Gosper now has overarching responsibility for the successful execution of the NFL's business strategy across the UK and Europe, including fan growth, live games, and commercial success. It is a challenge the Australian relishes, with his experience at World Rugby teaching him many things that are of use also in the context of the NFL as there are many similarities in the sports and in the challenges the league faces outside of the US. It’s fresh, new and exciting for Gosper, as is the NFL’s desired strategic expansion into Europe moving forward.

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What are the biggest challenges facing the NFL in international growth?

It’s a massive leader, brand, and business in the United States, but here [Europe] it’s a very competitive sports market. Obviously, football is universal and dominant in the European markets, but then there are a lot of other challenger sports also, let’s say, more home grown: Rugby, Cricket and then Handball in Germany and France.

NFL has to fight for its place in the sun, and even against other sports out of America like the NBA (National Basketball Association) and to a certain extent Major League Baseball (MLB). But those challenges are being met by the NFL. The NFL is growing fast in the UK and in Germany both in terms of its fanbase and its television audiences, its consumer products ➡

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NFL

business, its Maden NFL [video game], and game pass subscriber channel. There is double digit growth in most of those areas which is incredible and encouraging. It’s up to us to manage that in a way that continues to grow a fanbase that seems to already be there.

The Super Bowl provides great access points for a broad number of viewers and those interested in sport in general to look into the NFL window, but we do accumulate avid fans in all of these markets each year at a high rate.

We have 19.2 million fans in Germany, 16.2m self-declared fans in the UK and about 3.8 million avid (those who consider themselves serious NFL fans in both Germany and the United Kingdom combined.

France is hot on the heels of those two markets as well, and we are seeing growth in Spain Italy and the Nordics as well.

There are challenges but not too many obstacles and there seems to be a real appetite for the sport in this part of the world.

There is news around the NFL exploring the possibility of games in Germany: Is the league keen to expand into other European cities and how will this affect the number of games being hosted in London?

The clue is in the role that they have appointed me to, which is Head of UK & Europe – a position they didn’t have before. There is real appetite to

target growth across Europe and of course in most of what we do its evidence based. We put a lot of effort into planning for the future and working through our data analytics to target those markets that we think will have particularly high growth in the coming years and the highest potential.

Certainly Germany, looking at the stats, is a huge market for us already. We have a bid process that’s being kicked off in Germany where a large number of cities in Germany have indicated an interest to host a game. At this point one game a year hopefully from 2022, if we see that the right city and host qualifies in the right way.

We said we are working our way through that, and that generates huge economic upside for a host city and for us it generates a huge interest, not just in that particular city, but throughout the country and as London does, outside the country.

6,000 people from Germany travel to the UK games each year, as they do from France, Italy, Ireland and other parts. Having a regular season game in Germany would be fabulous in bringing that relevance and tangibility to the German fans but also allowing another opportunity for other European fans to come and see an NFL game.

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France would, in our calculations, be the next big market that would attempt to grow in many ways, but whether they would get a game is debatable at this point. It’s possible.

We also have marketing and commercial programmes happening from teams in the States that weren’t allowed before, but from 2022 clubs can nominate an international market that they choose to commercialise in. We will limit that to about six per international market so you will have six clubs activating in Germany and in the UK. That will also help growth and relevance to those local fans as those local club brands become more apparent.

What is it about Germany that is attractive to the NFL? The size of the market itself, but also its economic strength.

There is a great tradition of American football and there are more players in Germany

“France would potentially be the next big market that would attempt to accelerate growth, but whether they would get a game is debatable at this point.”

in how you make that sport as visible as possible, how you get air time and then also how you grow out of the grassroots level to make it even more relevant to the youth population.

than there are in other markets in Europe. The former NFL European league was dominated by German teams as well. There are very strong playing numbers in Germany in both contact and flag football, so the participation numbers are already very high.

In Germany, unlike France and the UK, there’s not that contact sport like Rugby which fills that gap and desire.

Perhaps the reason why the numbers are so high in Germany is because it’s really just going up against football and not another contact sport that has the strength that it does like rugby in France and the UK. We are also looking to set up an office in Germany to get it greater attention. A lot of what we do in the UK is to provide that relevance. The NFL Academy helps to develop local talent who can go onto US colleges to then go on to play in the NFL eventually.

Investing in local talent creates more relevance that when they one day get to the NFL has huge attractiveness to the fans when they see someone from their own country playing and succeeding.

With German players in the past, like Seb Vollmer and Markus Kuhn, we are seeing

the same effect in the UK with players such as Efe Obada.

We have also got a charitable foundation in the UK so all those things add to a local relevance that you can only really set up when you’ve got a local office. That’s our objective in Germany in the coming months as well.

What is the difference between marketing the NFL in Europe compared to the US? Firstly, is there a difference?

We just have to localise and educate people more than you would have to do as part of their culture. People understand sport, understand the rituals around the sport that are appreciated but here it needs more explanation and so that educative part is very important but what is the most important element is visibility and so choosing the right partners that give the sport that visibility in Europe is incredibly important.

Sky Sports and BBC in the UK drive huge awareness and audience that spark that initial interest. ProSieben in Germany is the same thing and L’Equipe in France as well. So, we have a free to air and a pay channel, which works well in those

markets and drives the overall visibility of the sport.

On top of that there is the overlay of the story element of the sport rolled out through social media channels, our own subscription channels and so on. I guess the key different is you have to hold the hand of the European consumer slightly more than the American fan. In the last 10 years, 17 of the top 20 rated broadcast programmes in the states are NFL games so consistently it is highly dominant across the four major networks in a way that those four major networks are all promoting the sport as well.

We all hear about the phenomenal visibility of the Super Bowl in the States and outside, but it is a complex sport, and it does need localising.

Creating success in Europe is not unlike creating success for rugby in other parts of the world where rugby is not known. The States is a very difficult place to break through because of the highly competitive nature of the commercial sports environment there, but even when you take rugby to Russia, China, Brazil and other parts, there are some real similarities

How important is it for NFL in Europe to reach and connect with people from both ends of the fandom spectrum, to attract new fans and to keep existing fans engaged?

It’s hugely important to do both ends of the spectrum in any sport and you can’t treat your existing fans as novices, they have to be treated with respect for the knowledge that they have and the love they have for the game, then you have your tent pole moments that you’re leading newly acquired fans into the family of the NFL. It’s important that you keep your current fans delighted by what you are doing and just at the same time attract those new segments that are important to the sport going forward. You are always building on your existing fanbase and doing everything you can to retain them and satisfy them.

Pulling NFL fans out of a target audience, which is sports lovers, is not easy but it’s easier than pulling nonsports fans all the way to the NFL franchise. What’s really important is to hold onto those fans that you do have because they’ve come for a reason and you’ve got to keep them entertained as long as you possibly can and that requires a variation of messaging and monitoring the laws of the game to ensure that it continues to be as attractive as it possibly can.

Could you tell us more about the NFL Academy?

We’ve got about 80 students, 16-18 years-old which we recruit. I think it’s about 80 per cent UK based, mainly in the ➡

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NFL

city of London. We have a partnership with Barnett Southgate College which is not far from the Tottenham [Hotspur] Stadium, our stadium home in the UK. These students are recruited based on their athletic qualities, but we ensure that they receive the right kind of education academically, so they have time to play, train and develop their skills.

On a third aspect we do everything to develop character too. Those three pillars are very important.

Not all of them [students] will get an academic scholarship into the States, which is the main goal, but those who don’t we will help find homes in other academic institutions and we will try to ensure that we can bring change in a positive way to the lives of all those students that come through our Academy.

At the very top and ambitious end is getting a scholarship into American Universities and then hopefully onwards to contracts with NFL team ultimately.

They are also a big part of our youth messaging. A lot of our social media and our NFL Academy platforms are followed by younger audiences than the NFL channel is. It does the right thing in terms of developing talent, but also says the right thing about the NFL as a brand in helping to change people’s lives at that player stage.

Is there any possibility of a team moving to Europe permanently?

That's totally in the domain of the owners.

Should an owner decide that they would like to relocate their team then that’s going to be their concern. We are pleased about the [Jacksonville] Jaguars playing in London regularly and we are hoping that continues on outside of the two compulsory NFL games in London.

There are four international games now embedded in the 17-game season and in the schedules. From 2022 there will be at least two games in London and then the Jaguars might decide that they want to play one or two games outside of that compulsory cycle of all 32 teams coming through internationally over the period of the next eight years.

Any team can decide they want to take a home game to another market if they wish. But all we can do is prepare an audience and a fanbase to ensure, should that decision be made one day by an owner to go to London, it would be a good decision because of what we have done to develop the audience here for any team that may decide that.

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What do you think makes an NFL team successful in Europe?

Winning Super Bowls. People are greatly aware of the teams that win the Super Bowl and star players like Tom Brady who have given their teams an edge.

But success is about how well they market themselves in the future and how well they capture the imaginations of the fans that they’re going after and personalising experiences because fans don’t just support the NFL they support a club and we know that avid fans have a

“We are seeing a lot of excitement around the games this year. They are both at Tottenham [Hotspur Stadium], a state-of-the-art and possibly the best stadium in the world…” club that’s deer to them, and knowing the players is the next step. The more a fan knows, the more in love with the sport they are via those players and via the club itself.

It would be important when these clubs are able to market themselves internationally. Up to now they have only been able to market themselves commercially within a 75-mile radius of their stadium, so allowing them to now market themselves in key international markets is going to be a gamechanger.

Why were teams only previously allowing to market themselves locally?

I think it wasn’t organised internationally and there’s a very organised way of ensuring that the clubs don’t step on each other’s commercial territories. They are all organised within the catchment areas because the league is structured in a way that the commercial sharing and the interest of the total [revenue] is more important than the individual club.

The clubs will submit marketing plans for the markets that they are interested in and the league will work with those clubs to make sure they are optimise.

What can people expect from the upcoming games in London?

We are seeing a lot of excitement around the games this year. They are both at Tottenham [Hotspur Stadium], a stateof-the-art, purpose built venue - possibly the best stadium in the world… it’s a magnificent stadium where every single detail has been thought through and it’s a great fan experience as you're close to the game. There’s not a bad seat in the stadium and so we are expecting a full crowd for the two games. There hasn’t been NFL here for a couple of years, so there is some real appetite.

We’ve got some great match ups and great quarterbacks playing who were first and second pick in the draft - Zach Wilson (New York Jets) and Trevor Laurence (Jacksonville Jaguars). It’s all going to be incredibly exciting to watch so it’s a big part of the sporting calendar in the UK. It makes a great connection between the UK and America culturally and commercially which I think it’s something that fans here have missed in the last year and will be looking forward to getting back to. U

THE COLLINS CUP

How a ‘Ryder Cup’modelled race is being used to leverage the sport of Triathlon Following the first ever instalment of The Collins Cup in Slovakia, Sam Renouf, the PTO’s Chief Executive, outlines how the Ryder Cup style event has taken the triathlon to the next level.

Team Europe won the first-ever Collins Cup, the Professional Triathletes Organisation’s new flagship event which ran for the first time at the end of August 2021 in Šamorín, Slovakia.

Named after John and Judy Collins, the inventors of Ironman (a longer version of the traditional triathlon) the three-team triathlon competition has been billed as the endurance sport’s version of the Ryder Cup. Unlike the golf tournament, however, the Collins Cup featured Team Internationals as well as outfits representing the United States and Europe competing in a 12-person mixed relay.

Each team was made up of six male and six female competitors, where the top four eligible men and women in the PTO rankings automatically selected for each team, while captains were then able to select the final two men and women to compete.

Each trio of triathletes set off at 10-minute intervals, with the first to finish scoring three points, two points for second and one point for third. With the scores of the 12 trios combined to determine an overall winner and bonus points awarded for the distance between each competitor, Team Europe come out triumphant with a total of 42.5 points.

Team US ended with 31.5 and Team Internationals 21.5 points.

Founded in 2019, the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) is a not-

for-profit entity that supports the body of professional triathletes. It’s mission statement for adopting a Ryder Cup modelled race is simple… to celebrate the sport of triathlon and showcase the passion, talent, determination, struggles and achievements of the dedicated professionals through iconic events, reimagined broadcast and compelling storytelling to inspire global sports fans to watch, engage and participate in triathlon.

Chief Executive Sam Renouf is leading the way in reinventing how audiences can

engage with the sport, by taking it to a new commercial level and promoting the talents within its ranks and he believes that the body is well positioned to be able to do so.

“The Collins Cup brought together the greatest professional triathletes in the world in a team competition to do battle to see who dominates the sport,” said Renouf.

“It is a new race format modelled after the Ryder Cup, which will see teams of International, European and USA athletes pitted against one another and aims to create and leverage the excitement, rivalry, drama and personalities of the sport of triathlon to attract a wider fan base.

“By adopting a proven format like the Ryder Cup with its nationalistic intensity and having a points system that creates drama throughout the race, the Collins Cup is designed to be a compelling live TV event that appeals not only to the fans of endurance sports, but also to the general sports enthusiast.”

In a world dominated primarily by well-established sports, it will always be more difficult to breakthrough and offer something unique to fans and to those interested in commercial opportunities but the PTO’s invested goal of putting its athletes at the forefront of their exponential growth will likely see that continue long into its future.

“Our innovative ownership means both men and women professionals share ➡

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NICK SHAKINOVSKY

THE COLLINS CUP

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equally in the PTO’s collective success which is the very principle on which the PTO was formed - unity of the pro’s, giving them the power and a say in their future.”

“We are committed to not only raising the status of triathlon, but to grow its fan base and create a consistent, fan-focused media proposition centred around major events and compelling athlete storytelling,” explained Renouf.

“Sport is about caring who wins, loses, succeeds and fails. To care about an athlete, you have to know about their backstory in order to have an emotional connection.

“We plan to build athlete profiles by showcasing the personalities, struggles, determination and achievements of our amazing PTO professionals to a wider audience through a great broadcast product.

“The sport has unprecedented levels of engagement, but its fans have been starved of quality television coverage. We

aim to change that by creating world class sporting events and elevating the profile and status of these extraordinary men and women who push themselves to the edge of human endurance.”

In time for the launch of the competition, the PTO launched the Collins Cup player across web, IOS and Android to showcase live broadcast and on-demand as well as offering across to the PTOs premium content library. The PTO’s own Collins Cup OTT (Over-The-Top) content offering sits alongside multiple live broadcast deals that were arranged by the PTO and IMG, including an exclusive live deal in Europe with Discovery Eurosport, beIN Sport, FujiTV, Sky Sports New Zealand and Fox Sports Australia.

The PTO also secured deals for a onehour highlights programme with BT Sport in the UK, Tencent in China, SuperSport in South Africa, Astro in Malaysia, 3BBTV and TrueVision in Thailand, and VEION and FPT in Vietnam, alongside further

broadcast deals in Singapore, Canada, the US and South America. In total The Collins Cup was distributed in more than 165 territories, with live commentary in 21 different languages, to a combined household reach of over 365 million.

“The Collins Cup is a watershed moment for the sport of triathlon so we wanted to showcase this moment live to as many people as possible,” Renouf asserted. “With the launch of The Collins Cup player and live data feed alongside ground-breaking broadcast deals brokered by us and our media partner IMG, the event is one of the most watched professional triathlon events ever. U OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 21

“We are taking the Games out of the stadium and into the city. Paris will transform into an Olympic Park, with some fantastic, iconic venues that will be used as sports venues for the duration of the Games.”

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PARIS 2024

Paris 2024 Olympic Games aims for sustainability gold Paris 2024 Chief Executive Etienne Thobois addresses the host city's commitment for organising the world’s first Olympic and Paralympic Games with positive contribution to the climate and vision to make the Games more open to the public.

Taking the games into the heart of the city was kind of the cornerstone of your initial bid with Paris 2024, how has that concept evolved from just an idea to where you are now actually putting those processes into place?

We have just come out of Tokyo which was a fantastic experience because our they managed to deliver a Games in this particular time. We can only commend the Japanese people for that because the prior games are always an excitement for the next edition. Sometimes it’s a wakeup call also as it's only three years from now and we came back with a few learnings from there.

There is nothing like the games to bring emotions and sport should be at the heart of that. Even with no public the performance of the athletes was extraordinary, and they inspired the world.

We saw that the Olympic games, once again despite the situation, were the centre of the world for everybody. Also,

the strengths of sport is such that it goes behind sport and we saw demonstrations of mental health through Simone Biles.

We saw all those things and the political issues in respect to the athletes. You can see that the Games are a fantastic opportunity to take part in both for a country and emotional moments for the athletes, but also the ability to tackle a few of the current issues. That reinforces

the fact that we want our games to be as open as possible and we want the games to be open to the city, and to its people.

We are taking the Games out of the stadium and into the city. Paris will transform into an Olympic Park with some fantastic, iconic venues that will be used as sports venues for the duration of the Games.

Whether its the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games, it is very important for us to treat both in the same way.

We are working on an open ceremony that will not be within a stadium but actually outside in the centre of the city alongside the Seine River to the Games closer to the people.

It would be the first mass participation event. We want participation and to give the opportunity to people to live that experience as the athletes [do] and that is something new that is bringing new audiences to the Games.

That is also what we will try to achieve with the [inclusion of] new sports as we have the ability to get new sports ➡ OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 23

PARIS 2024

coming back, such as surfing and skateboarding.

It is a way of connecting with new audiences. Both sports [surfing and skateboarding] are very appealing to the youth, very strong in social media [and] very accessible. They are sports that you can get on very quickly and it is also linked with music, with the urban culture. It links with a new kind of excitement and brings a new audience.

We want to serve [that], but that’s our mind set again to open to new territories which links with what we learned in Tokyo.

But we want our Games to be open with the issues of modern society. That’s why we take the challenges very seriously like sustainability and a socially conscious games, the fact that we want to be responsible financially.

The concept by design is to use existing venues or temporary venues. 95 per cent of our venues are existing or temporary and we [have] tried to optimise with the delivering model, not to reinvent the wheel, but to use the local expertise. Then we can focus on legacy.

When we talk about physical legacy in areas that really need it. When we construct the Olympic village, it is in one of the poorest area's of Paris and there is a need for social housing. That is where will build the village because of the need for the future generation. The notion of being responsible, sustainable, and socially conscious for us is very important because we believe that’s also

best possible environment for the games.

The level of services that we are going to bring to them, the level of comfort, the ability to interact with the public is very important [and] we think the athlete will like that.

We don’t make the rules in terms of media relations. If we talk about Naomi [Osaka] case, I think that is more of an issue for NOC’s (National Organising Committees), for the international federations, and for the IOC (International Olympics Committee) to deal with the day-to-day welfare of the athletes.

Our goal for Paris 2024 is to give them an opportunity to show the world what

where there are commercial activities and that do finance the game.

If you look at the old organising committee, 97 per cent of our revenues, come from the commercial programme of the IOC. Whether it is through the IOC directly with the TV rights, or the top programme, or with our domestic programme and the ticketing, so this is also part of the overall frame.

But, I think there is more and more room for individual athletes to benefit from their actions and performances.

You mentioned domestic commercial partners. What’s the uptake from them in France?

We are looking at and considering the situation where companies, for the last couple of years, have been very much centred in how to survive in a pandemic situation with lockdowns. But the interest for the Games has never altered.

We kept contact and continued to have discussions.

We already have a pretty good sponsorship programme with more than half of the objectives on board and we have signed about 15 partners. They are very keen on the Games and for the ones we are still discussing with, they see the games as a positive project that is connected to its time and to the people.

We have 80 per cent of people in favour of the games in France. That figure rises to 90 per cent when we talk about kids and under 35’s. So, there is a great appeal for the project from the general public and from companies who see this positive project as maybe a way of symbolically to get out of these difficult times.

They [local sponsors] have been very supportive and we hope to have some very good announcements in the next few

“We like to say that we are taking the baton from Tokyo. Every Games has its own part and contribution to Olympic history. We want to be no different. We want to be a bit more open.” the acceptability for the public today that want to take part. That is consistent with the open concept. People want to take part they don’t just want to be spectators.

They want to be involved. The marathon, for example, will be the first mass participation event at an Olympic Games where anyone can get involved. That’s what we’re trying to do for 2024.

How will you look to better protect athletes but also enhance opportunities for them to develop commercially and ultimately, they can get some sort of financial benefit from that?

It is not directly a role for Paris 2024 [as the Host City]. Our role is more to offer a platform for the athlete to compete in the 24 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

they can do, to bring emotions to the general public and to make sure that that connection between the general public and the athletes through the media. It can be a bit more direct, and I think that already the decisions that have been taken by the IOC are going in the right direction allowing more freedom for the athletes to express themselves and the way we manage a commercial programme to allow the day-to-day support of the athletes to also have a little piece of the games.

I think it is important that we are sensible and that is what the IOC is doing today. The world evolves and everything does evolve. I think you need to have a global frame within the Olympic Games

weeks, but globally the sports industry has been very supportive of the Games as it opens opportunities for them.

The way we approach it again is as openly as possible so we can get a circular economy, working with small businesses and bigger ones. There is room for everyone, so we try to connect those different types of companies. At the end of the Games, the ones that want to use the Games’ sponsorship and communication opportunities, we welcome them, and we feel that through the Games there is a platform that allows them to say who they are.

Looking back at Tokyo 2020 and previous games are there any elements that you are looking to emulate with Paris 2024?

We like to say that we are taking the baton from Tokyo. Every Games has its own part and contribution to Olympic history. We want to be no different and we want to be a bit more open.

There is a huge frustration of not being able to have spectators [for the Tokyo Games] because of the situation, so definitely that’s an aim. But, we want to get one step further in terms of sustainability. What Tokyo did is actually quite remarkable in terms of using new kinds of energy like hydrogen, electric for transport.

When we talk about sustainability the use of plastic, how do we recycle, and our waste management strategy is going to be quite important for us. The full vision with the circular economy and those kinds of things are, for us, at the heart of society and we believe that with the Games we

embedded into the way that we think we should manage big events in the future. We have had discussions with our colleagues from the Commonwealth Games in 2022 on how we can reuse some of their equipment and some of our equipment will be reused in 2026. All these things we are trying to take to the next standard because we think it is important. have the opportunity to maybe speed up some of those processes.

I think the IOC as a whole has the idea of finding out how to do better with resources. For example, we want to cut the carbon footprint in half, and we will completely compensate the rest. Actually, we will even overcompensate.

Tokyo led the way, and we are just trying to push a bit harder to go to the next step and reach the next standard.

With environmental policies and technology expectations constantly evolving at such a fast rate, how are you planning ahead in terms of where that going to be in three years’ time and working towards that?

By design our games will be sustainable.

When you use 70 per cent of existing venues, you are sustainable and naturally we have a very concentrated concept. I think around 80 per cent of our athletes will be within 10km of the Olympic village. When you translate that into transport operations you get a footprint that is much lower.

It’s also about social responsibility.

For example, our headquarters are constructed out of 6,000 square meters of wood and we have solar panels on the roof. The people that work in the restaurant here are hired within the vicinity, while some of them come from socially difficult backgrounds.

We try to make sure that this sustainability aspect is prominent and

Where did that mission come from to take that up and drive sustainability from the start?

I think first of all the IOC is very conscious. We have known in the past that they have been questioned about the size of the Games [and] it's [carbon] footprint. I think they [the IOC] have really embarked with this responsible approach of how we contain the size of the games and how do we make sure that the resources used are used for good reasons.

It is also a global trend in society and I think sport with its reach and visibility has a role to play and we feel very much close to that. If you look at the city of Paris it is quite involved with those climate issues.

We had the climate change summit here in Paris and the Paris agreement was something important for the climate and we completely embraced that.

We want to be connected with our time and we believe that sport is good for society, for the welfare of individuals, for the health that sport brings, and benefits in the social aspect of life.

If you could sum up in one sentence what will make Paris unique what would it be?

We believe that interaction is now the aim of the game as people want to be a part of the story and part of something positive.

We want to make our Games more open to everyone and connected with our time. U OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 25

EXPENSE MANAGEMENT

5 TECH TOOLS YOUR FINANCE STACK CAN’T AFFORD TO MISS With the drive for ever-increasing efficiency, finance departments are having to find new ways to work, and the adoption of cutting-edge tools is a way to achieve this. We look at some types of tech that you really need to be included in your finance tech stack and why they make sense in today’s uncertain world.

Management Reporting One of the key areas that finance can really add value to the business is in up to the minute, insightful management reporting but as finance leaders so often note, this can end up turning into a cottage industry of staff producing reports just because that’s what they always have done.

A key plank of any strategy to improve technology for finance has to be the adoption of excellent automated and ondemand reporting tools.

Automation means that reports are designed and then produced efficiently with as little manual intervention as possible meaning that the process has efficiency built in.

On-demand means that managers in the wider business can access the reports they need, when they need them, wherever they are in the world.

With the advent of Software as a Service (SaaS) online

systems, there really is no reason why companies don’t make the move to one of the most useful tech tools you can have in your finance stack.

Travel & Expenses The plain truth is that paying employee expenses isn’t an area that gains you a lot of kudos in the business when done right but can cause a huge amount of upset when you get it wrong!

Employees expect that if they use their own money to pay for business expenses then they should have that reimbursed quickly and efficiently and if it doesn’t happen then that can hit morale significantly.

It makes sense that people within the business should be able to book their travel and accommodation easily and know that it will be at the best price and within company policy.

Using old systems or manual methods to make expense payments is also incredibly

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time-consuming and inefficient and with the advent of SaaS systems, it simply doesn’t make sense.

Implementing an online method of managing expenses and travel like Rydoo makes sense from an employee happiness point of view but also when we are looking at the efficiency of our finance team.

Payment Processing A very early beneficiary of the development of technology for finance, payment processing systems have come a long way in the last few years.

The advent of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning mean that invoices sent into an accounts payable inbox can be processed, correctly coded and enter the payment processing stream in a matter of seconds with no manual intervention.

Paying staff to open envelopes and sift through

wads of invoices, then key them into at least one (and maybe more) systems ready for payment seems positively stone age by comparison.

A great payment processing system makes a massive difference in the ability of the company to forecast cash flows and improves visibility immeasurably and for this reason alone must be in our list of top tech tools.

Accountancy Platforms Having an efficient and user-friendly accountancy platform as the centrepiece of your finance technology transformation strategy makes total sense.

The chance to transform the way that your finance teamwork by adopting the latest SaaS accounting platforms is an opportunity that no forwardthinking finance leader should miss.

Whenever you go for something that is an all-singing, all-dancing ERP type solutions, or you decide to buy something that can link into specialist apps that carry out individual aspects of the workflow, including a great accounting system within your tech stack is imperative.

Integration Tools In practice, it’s a rare finance department indeed that has a single system that does absolutely everything and so having an integration app that is able to bring together any disparate parts is a massive time-saver.

Having to double key information into at least two systems is not only having one of the most complained about tasks for finance staff but is also arguably the biggest source of manual errors within the accounting profession.

Using integration apps such as Zapier that transfer data between systems and take actions based on particular events means that these issues simply disappear.

Taking the opportunity to program workflows for particular tasks that free up staff to do

more value-add activities can really transform the way that the finance team work.

Covid has increased the speed of tech adoption by up to 7 years One of the most surprising things to come from the Covid crisis has been the finding that the adoption of technology in response to the rapidly changing business environment has increased massively.

In a recent report, consultancy company McKinsey highlighted the fact that on average the adoption process has been accelerated by three years and in some sectors by up to seven years.

This means that businesses have seen the value of tech tools as a way of increasing agility and reducing risk in uncertain times.

For finance leaders, the adoption of business decision-making tech, operational digitisation and the wholesale implementation of online communications and collaboration have all combined to improve financial efficiency.

Tech tools have revolutionised the finance workspace We have seen that the types of tech tools available on the market today drive efficiency within the finance department and out to the wider business.

Whether it is the reduction of manual processing by utilising travel and expense systems or payment processing solutions, or where companies invest in cutting edge accounting, reporting and integration tools there are wholesale efficiencies to be found.

We have also seen that following Covid, the speed of movement toward digitisation has been remarkable and will no doubt provide a significant competitive advantage for the early adopters.

The question for all finance leaders has to be whether they wish to allow their competitors to benefit from this competitive advantage whilst they continue to struggle on with legacy systems and processes. U

NWSL

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NWSL

UNIQUE IDENTITY KEY TO THE NWSL’S SUCCESS AND PROGRESSION Victoria Rich, Head of Operations for the NWSL discusses the objective of building the most successful and respected professional women’s sports league in the world.

While many other professional sports leagues around the world have struggled to attract eyes during the pandemic-induced lockdowns, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – North America’s top professional women’s soccer league – fared quite well comparatively. Now coming to the end of its ninth season of operation (In 2020, the league suspended the season before it started because of the Coronavirus pandemic), the league continues to attract the most prolific domestic and international players from around the world and is committed to building the most successful and respected professional women’s sports league in the world.

While the UEFA Champions league final is consistently the most-viewed annual sports event and European soccer leagues garner more attention, more views and more dollars than either the NWSL or Major League Soccer (MLS) in North America, interest in US soccer is growing both domestically and overseas at a steady pace, helped by back-to-back victories at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015 and 2019.

“The NWSL was formed [in 2012] when the previous two organisations had folded

we received a lot more backing than the other two had, so the investment is up,” began Victoria Rich, Director of Operations at NWSL. “Part of the reasoning behind this is because of the increased interest in the women’s game so in turn that has meant a higher financial return.

“We have seen a lot of high-profile owners, investors and multi-broadcast deals come into play since we formed. Our slow and steady approach ensures growth of the league, focusing on making the league a sustainable organisation, which has been a huge factor to our success.”

The NWSL has now expanded into 12 teams with the introduction of Angel City back in July 2020 and then San Diego in

May 2021, both scheduled to join in 2022, in addition to recent new investors that include Serena Williams and Billie Jean King (Angel City) and Naomi Osaka (North Carolina Courage).

“The league is continuing to engage in meaningful conversations, and we’re excited about that constant interest towards our group,” Rich explained.

“There are several markets around North America that would be great candidates for expansion clubs.

“There’s a high calibre of talent in the States and abroad so we’re excited to expand the footprint of the league, but really having that consideration of the slow and steady approach and the timeline to ensure that is does not diminish the quality of the competition.

“The NWSL has really earned the title of the best professional women’s league in the world, so we are able to bring in talent globally, which makes the clubs diverse and well-rounded.

“We have a strong focus on parity of the league with the clubs to maintain the high level of competitiveness in the league, there is a great level of talent available in the women’s game, so our teams can take advantage of that and create a high number of teams that can dominate.

“We have recently increased the number of teams in the play-offs from four to six.

The post season play in the NWSL has always been very exciting ➡ OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 29

NWSL

and is progressing every season, so we wanted to expand the size of it to get more teams involved and to continue to grow the attraction around it.”

With the recent growth of the Women’s Super League which has seen a gamechanging new broadcast deal for the English league that will see matches shown on Sky Sports and BBC One and Two over the next two season, there are elements from Europe that the NWSL

emphasis on the importance of taking the slow and steady approach whilst maintaining the ‘independent league’ having previously been under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federation until 2020.

“We work closely with the MLS and look to them for guidance, because they have been around for much longer.

“We can learn from their downfalls and experience but in the same vein we take

“We have a huge following from Brazil over here and that’s exactly what we want because the increase in viewership means we can increase investment as well.” can look to implement into their game.

The NWSL, however, are taking a slightly different approach in hope for a similar outcome in terms of success.

“We definitely look across the globe to see what others are doing, and obviously the WSL is a great league and its fantastic what they’re doing,” Rich asserted. “They are growing a lot, but we as a league are motivated naturally by doing the best for our staff, players, fans, and stakeholders so that goal has always driven us going forward and will do in the future.”

The NWSL could also take advice from the MLS, but Rich added further 30 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

pride in being an independent league and take pride in navigating the process in a unique way.

“Whilst saying this, we can look for guidance on what they’re doing as a business and look at any mistakes they make and how they go through that process will help us understand how we can stop those mistakes from happening in our league.”

“We have definitely seen a bump in the audience in the past years when the national team have been successful, for example, coming out of the 2019 World Cup we saw a huge spike in attendance,

and viewership. Nevertheless, it is not just the American national team’s success that drives us.

“We have 38 players who competed at this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, so the success of other national teams also boosts the success of our viewership which sees an increase on the back of specific players doing well. If the players do well, and the word gets out that the players play in our competitions, then that creates traction for our league.”

“The talent for us is coming from everywhere, players want to come here, and the fans know that, so they come here with them to watch the players and in turn they are watching the NWSL which is a huge benefit for us.

“We have that competitive edge, which is attracting the talent globally, and we see more and more people watching it because of the high standard of players that come over. For example, we get big stars coming over from France which means we get more eyes on the league and the same with England and even Brazil.

“We have a huge following from Brazil over here and that’s exactly what we want because the increase in viewership means we can increase investment as well.”

For the 2021 season, the NWSL expanded its partnership with Twitch to livestream all of its matches. All 18 matches are being streamed on Twitch internationally (excluding the US).

Meanwhile, seven games will be streamed globally to include access for US-based Twitch users, marking the first time that NWSL matches will appear on Twitch’s US platform. All of the leagues’ matches are now accessible for the league’s global fanbase.

“Twitch allows us to have that outreach to grow our fanbase,” explained Rich. “We have obtained a huge new fan base from South Korea which we would not have been able to have had without Twitch.”

It has not always been a straightforward road for those at the NWSL, and like others especially in the last 18 months due to the pandemic.

“Obviously the global pandemic has been a difficult situation for every sport to navigate where they stand and how to progress. The silver lining for us is that we were able to put forward a quality tournament, that pulled in a lot of viewers and a greater engagement. This is a testament to the league’s ability to be

flexible and nimble.

We also had a buy-in from key sponsors, which was an integral part to its success and even making that tournament feasible.

The motivation behind this was to be able to get the players to play and to keep the league going basically.

“It basically let the players know that they would be competing on the world stage the following year, which is something that they wanted, and we wanted, whilst obviously keeping safety as a priority. I think it was easier for us because we are a bit smaller so we have that flexibility, and we can be agile and make sure it all can run smoothly.”

The NWSL has now started a rebranding process to its visual identity to be unveiled later this year, in time for the league’s tenth anniversary season in 2020. The decision – aimed at reaching

a wider audience around the world – comes amid a number of decisions by top sports leagues, teams and brands to position their causes as more inclusive and diverse. The league is now working with stakeholders to conduct in-depth research to shape the brand strategy, with a primary objective of improving the league’s global image and supporting its future growth. U OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 31

SCOUTING

ELLEVATE FOOTBALL

LEVELLING THE PLAYING FIELD Reshaping the landscape of scouting and grassroots football ELLEVATE Football have been working hard implementing new and improved user features that will provide a more refined, intuitive, and comprehensive experience for our wide variety of users. The new app will include a range of exciting new features and is split into two distinct parts; the app itself, catered to players, and the innovative scouting dashboard assisting clubs and scouts in reaching previously unreached prospects.

Ellevate is kickstarting a football revolution with a platform for young footballers, to improve their game (and themselves), track progress, access football related offers and ultimately get scouted. A versatile platform which will become a centralised forum and global community for the future of the beautiful game. The underpinning philosophy being to provide aspiring footballers equal access to professional football training and opportunities.

Ellevate offers guided content, intricate challenges and player care including nutrition and rehabilitation advice, as well as a safe, accepting environment conducive to fostering talent and opportunities for the next generation of footballers.

The Ellevate approach encourages mass participation and promotes grassroots footballs by enabling clubs, teams and 32 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

Academies to educate and develop their players, whilst allowing clubs to manage their data in a user-friendly singular platform.

The player side of the app comes with an array of special features including world class training led by some of the biggest and brightest names in football today, including Phil Foden, Mason Mount, Leah Williamson (among many others) and UEFA qualified coaches from around the globe. This gives users access to exclusive curated content to hone skills and tactics, and is broken down into

daily/weekly sessions, with a clear structure and schedule for users to follow, led by former England under-17s coach Justin Cochrane.

Player profile hubs give users the ability to create ‘football CVs’ where their top skills are displayed, helping to raise their profile and increase visibility to scouts and clubs. The hub comes integrated with a calendar function so players can schedule when they want to upload content and notifying them when prizes become available.

Ellevate will be joined by many familiar faces from the Premier League, including Ben White and Patrick Bamford, psychologists and motivational speakers with expert insights and editorial content into all aspects of the game to help players improve their game off the pitch.

Hard work will not go unrewarded with Ellevate partnering with fan favourite UK brands and retailers such as Sports Direct, Nando’s and Vue, providing exclusive offers/discounts, well as access to weekly giveaways featuring the latest kit, equipment and hospitality tickets. In addition, all Ellevate users will be invited to local trials days in front of clubs from around the world.

While technique and skills grab the headlines, they are not the be all and end all, especially in the modern game. One of the key driving forces behind Ellevateis

helping players build themselves holistically, promoting nutritional advice and aiding rehab and recovery. Content focused on well-being will talk players through diet, favourite meals, promoting an understanding of having a balanced diet alongside gaining knowledge of energy used for playing the game and how to fuel themselves well, pre- and post-match.

One of the follies of youth can be not thinking about tomorrow. Ellevate will work with players and Subject Matter Experts on recovery content ensuring the right habits are formed for pre/ post-match and on non-game days to reduce injury risk and fatigue, with particular focus on the mental aspects of the journey, a consideration previously underappreciated by many in the game.

Scouting will now be made simple with our new tailormade Scouting Dashboard that can be customised specifically to an individual’s preferences. Ellevate’s commitment to promoting grassroots football and local communities has led to partnerships with several independent academies and clubs across the UK. This investment in grassroots football will help improve quality, increase competitiveness, and nurture the untapped potential at this level that otherwise might go unnoticed.

The platform will act as an aftercare market for players coming down from the top level, a journey which can often be fraught with trials and tribulations. The

app will seek to reintegrate the players that have dropped out and find them opportunities at other clubs. As well as being an aftercare market for released players, having these professional clubs on board will lead to a number of scouting exercises for young aspiring players to obtain a chance to get a trial or exposure through the app or at one of Ellevate’s scouting days.

All scouts will have access to individual player profiles and analytic tools documenting player progress across the Ellevate courses as well as featuring their own independent highlight centre. The platform will offer a simple web-based entity for scouts all over the world. With just a few clicks, scouts and agents can use the advanced scout search to adjust specific metrics and unearth the talent they’re looking for.

Scout Profiles features include: Exclusive access to the independent Ellevate scouting web database.

Opportunities to perform advanced search by adjusting specific metrics with unlimited monthly searches, yielding greater search returns.

Ability to contact players, matched with the ability to speak directly to the player via the app (if they are above the age of 16. If they are below the age of 16, parents or guardians of the individual will be notified) to arrange trials and other opportunities.

Invitations to scouting days in local regions across the world, with active players across seven different continents.

Full access to scouting day footage and all highlight footage captured on the Ellevate app Ellevate scouting days will allow aspiring players to showcase talent and scouts the tools to discover talent.

Scouting days will consist of drills, trials and exercises to exhibit players best attributes, creating a day that brings together talent and industry professionals.

All Ellevate players will be invited to apply to participate in dedicated local trial days which will commence this year.

As Ellevate enters a new exciting era, Ellevate is proud to be aligned in partnership with key global businesses, numerous professional clubs within the football league and aboard, and our global partners OhlaBola and the PSSI. One of the key partnerships that will shape this next chapter is SportsHero who have signed an exclusive partnership with Ellevate which will promote the launch of app to the 3 million users of SportsHero’s Indonesian football app.

With Ellevate’s official launch, the industry will be changed forever. The burgeoning gap between grassroots football and the pinnacle of the game can be narrowed with equal opportunities given to those that might have never been noticed -regardless of gender, race or background, levelling the playing field. The future of the game can be safeguarded with aspiring footballers realising their potential, becoming better players and most importantly, wellrounded people. U OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 33

SECURITY

THE BENEFITS OF LIVING GREY: AT HOME Scott Stewart, Vice-President of Security and Risk Mitigation firm TorchStone Global, examines how athletes can present themselves as less vulnerable targets at home.

The goal of being grey is to present a neutral façade to outside observers so that you are perceived as neither a valuable nor a vulnerable target. Being grey is something anyone can do with a little research, thought, and effort.

Understanding the Environment One key to staying grey while at home is understanding your environment.

Sadly, many people put more effort into researching a place they will be visiting for a two-week vacation than they do for the environment where they live for the other 50 weeks of the year.

At home, people generally do not need to do the type of social and cultural research they do for overseas travel because they have a fairly sound understanding of their baseline home environment. However, people should make an effort to develop a detailed understanding of the crime environment in their home cities, as crime is not just something that happens abroad.

Crime rates vary greatly across a city, and criminals will operate more brazenly in some sections of a city than others.

Therefore, it is essential to understand where, when, and how criminals operate in the place you live.

Useful tools widely available on the internet provide access to crime statistics and reports. Some of these websites are published by governments and local police departments; others are provided by real estates or alarm companies. And while the sites with this information may vary, simple searches of your location 34 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

and ‘crime statistics’ should yield relevant results.

Reading the local newspaper and following local police social media feeds will also be informative and useful. As neighbourhoods change, so do crime trends. It is important to re-check these sites periodically to watch for new criminal trends and tactics.

Clothing and Accessories Across the globe, wearing clothing with political or offensive messages can draw hostile attention. We have seen people assaulted for wearing hats or clothing with a political message. While one surely has the freedom to wear such items, one should also be aware that this freedom may have a price.

I would also apply this to political yard signs and bumper stickers because people’s homes and vehicles have been vandalised for displaying them. Is a public display of your political affiliation worth the potential risk it could create?

Like travelling abroad, avoid hot, attention-grabbing colours on the street at home. If you do decide to wear them, understand that they will draw more eyes than neutral colours. People who dress all in black or wear tactical clothing also draw attention to themselves.

Beyond clothing, what you carry with you on the street at home can also bring the wrong kind of attention. If you are wearing a watch or tennis bracelet worth several months of someone’s rent, people are sure to notice – and some of them are likely to have bad intent. But flashing cash and expensive accessories are not the only things that can draw untoward attention.

Vehicles Personalised number plates can also draw untoward attention. Not only because of the information they typically provide, but also because they are unique. There may be 10 black Mercedes S model cars in your city, but yours will stick out like a sort thumb from the flow of traffic. A vehicle with no bumper stickers and a plain license plate is the best way to stay grey while you drive.

Demeanour Just as important as what you wear, and carry is how you behave – your demeanour. Being loud, brash, or aggressive can draw hostile attention.

Conversely, looking like you are lost or frightened can also draw a predator’s attention. Added to this is when and where you are displaying demeanour. Very little good will happen to people who are drunk on the street at 3am, especially in the wrong part of town.

Situational Awareness Situational awareness helps you be grey by behaving in accordance with the environment around you. It also allows you to see potential threats. Criminals are lazy and prefer easy prey. All things being equal, criminals and other hostile actors prefer to prey on people who are oblivious to their surroundings because it provides them the element of tactical surprise.

They frequently avoid a target who had recognised them and instead focus their attention on a less aware target. U

“Just as important as what you wear, and carry is how you behave – your demeanour. Being loud, brash, or aggressive can draw hostile attention.”

OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 35

“WE WANT TO BE ONE OF THE TOP SPORTING ORGANISATIONS IN THE WORLD” Rajasthan Royals’ Jake Lush McCrum shares an insight into his journey to become Chief Executive of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, what makes the league so successful and the unique challenges the role brings.

In July 2021, Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals promoted 29-year-old Leeds University graduate Jake Lush-McCrum to the role of chief executive.

Lush McCrum has been with the Rajasthan Royals since 2018 and has played a crucial role in overseeing the franchise’s growth and participation in the biggest most commercialised professional cricket league in the world, achieving particular success in the digital transformation of the business.

He is now focused on building a worldclass management team to execute the expansive vision that he and the board have set out. This vision has a core aim of transforming society through cricket, and cricket though innovation.

What were your aspirations when you left University?

It feels like a long time ago for me now, but I certainly wasn’t thinking about going into the sports industry when I left Leeds [University]. I was focused more on the investment space.

I studied abroad at US Amherst in my third year, and I did do more sports marketing and entrepreneurship and worked with the likes of Coca-Cola and

36 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

other sports teams which was really interesting.

However, for me going straight into the sports industry in the UK didn’t seem likely as the roles were very specified and I wanted a broader more strategic role and so if I had gone in straight away it would have been a digital, sales, marketing role or equivalent. I wanted to learn about different business models, work with different companies and look at different career paths. Hence, I went more into the investment space.

I’ve always been passionate about sports and would talk to friends and family, saying I would love to be in that industry, I just didn’t see a way in straight

out of university. But then progressing through when I joined Blenheim Chalcot, I moved into the investment arm advising for five of them. Having Rajasthan Royals there, it was banned at the time for those two years, so it wasn’t active however knowing it was part of the portfolio was really exciting.

As it was looking to relaunch I started to become more involved with that just from a UK perspective and then as we were working late one evening the owner of Rajasthan Royals came up to me and asked if I wanted to go to India and relaunch the Royals with the Ranjit [Barthakur] – the chairman – and bring across Blenheim Chalcot and UK/US process, learnings and strategy for a successful relaunch in 2018. Soon after that I went out to India and the rest is history.

It was a five-month project which went well, and I thoroughly enjoyed India, which was an extremely intense learning experience. I think I learnt more in those five months than in the previous five years in the UK. It was incredible and with Ranjit pushing me into different areas in the business. It meant I was working with the digital team for a few months, then sponsorship, then I was in merchandising having to deal with Indian ➡

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

“It was a five-month project which went well, and I thoroughly enjoyed India, which was an extremely intense learning experience. I think I learnt more in those five months than in the previous five years in the UK.”

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RAJASTHAN ROYALS manufacturers and the complicated scenarios there. It enabled me to see all elements of the business which meant as I progressed through, I know the challenges faced in each area which hopefully means I’m capable of helping us adapt to improve.

Was it a difficult decision to move over to India?

It was a no brainer. On the walk home I called my parents and said ‘this seems brilliant, I can’t see any issues with this’, and they said go for it. Two weeks later I was out in India for a week to induct myself into the country, then after Christmas I went out full-time.

For me it was an easy decision.

For others it may have been more difficult particularly after the first five months as it is incredibly intense. Others may have thought that they have had an incredible experience but now want to go back to their lives in the UK. But for me, I could learn so much more at the club and in the country. Also, with the impact we can make on others, as the IPL is the leading Cricket league in the world, we are looking to be the leading franchise in that, so everything we do can be a first in the league and the industry which is very motivational.

How have things been in the first three months as CEO especially with the restart of the tournament?

a great job in creating the opportunity for it to happen to entertain a nation. I remember getting messages saying it was keeping them going and that kept us going. I remember having a chat with all the players and staff near the end of our stint in Mumbai just saying we know how much everyone here is struggling, people’s families are suffering, and we are grateful for everyone being here but the reason we are here is that we are making a difference to people on the outside. That resonated with everyone.

Why is the IPL the most popular professional cricket league in the world?

I think it’s two parts: One is the quality on the field; Two is entertainment off the field.

When the IPL launched [in 2007], they did an amazing job at optimising both.

The league has the best players on the field so naturally, it gets the viewership.

Then the entertainment of it. Having that clarity made it attractive for fans around the world and then off the field how to make it entertaining for those in the stadium and around the world to create that engagement.

Naturally, there is an audience of 1.2 billion people in India which the majority are massive cricket fans which helps.

But also, the way in which they have integrated foreign players means they have a good time, so when Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and others come over not only do they have a good couple of months, but they help develop the Indian players which is awesome for Indian cricket and cricket overall. Most importantly they have a great time and that means their social media presence, their engagement,

“From a business point of view the most important thing for me is digital transformation so how well can we understand our fans, through CRM, customer data platforms and marketing automation” It is always hectic but that’s why I love it. Over the last year/ year and a half Ranjit, who was in the CEO role, naturally pulled back to allow me to grow into those responsibilities. It wasn’t that when I was appointed everything changed, it had actually happened in a staggered manner, which is helpful for me as I’ve gradually taken on more and more responsibilities.

When the change happened it was more how I approach the role differently about what we are trying to achieve so we built a five-year plan over the last year which gives us a great framework to focus the rest of the business.

The two months in India for the IPL first half were potentially some of the most challenging scenarios to deal with in terms of running a franchise with Covid in the country. I think the BCCI (The Board of Control for Cricket in India) did 38 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

and the content they put out brings in fans from around the world. I think those elements have made it so successful.

We need to keep innovating to remain at the top. We will naturally have the biggest viewership given the following, though for me it can scale even more significantly which is why I’m so excited to be in the role I’m in, and keeps me motivated.

Does it help being from the UK to bring British players to the Royals and how is your relationship with them?

I think we have a few connections in the UK – Manoj [Badale] the lead owner is based in the UK. There is certainly an element where they will have an increased level of comfort by having someone they know well. However, I think our team manager is exceptional. If you asked any player from any country who is the most important person within the franchise, they will probably say him which I totally agree with. The relationship he builds with all of the players is immense so as much as there is a benefit to me being here I cannot take credit for them feeling good coming over here. I give that all the team.

What are your expectations for the rest of the year and does the lack of fans have an impact on the quality of the team?

I think we have been playing without fans for a couple of years now so I don’t think that affects the quality. There is a chance there will be fans in this half of the IPL so we will wait and see what happens there, but it will be amazing if we could get fans in the stadium. It won’t be full capacity but that atmosphere and passion, the intensity of fans wanting to come to the stadium will be sold a hundred times over so that will be amazing.

As for the team our aims are to make the playoffs and once you are in the playoffs it’s a knockout competition to get

to the final. We are fifth at the moment and one win away from the fourth spot.

The nice thing about where the IPL pauses is we have got seven games and everything to play for so even though we are currently out, it is in our own hands, and we will be working hard to get there.

How difficult has the process of reorganising the tournament to get it going again whether that’s in the UAE or India over the last few months?

It definitely helps that we have played there before. Firstly, from a BCCI perspective they have a good relationship

with the Emirates Cricket board they know the stadiums and that they can run it safely which is very beneficial.

From our side, we know it can be executed safely here. We are in a different hotel this time, but we are in an awesome bubble here so yes there is a level of comfort and flexibility. The good thing is it was announced early enough that it was going to be in the UAE, so it gave us a couple of months to prepare.

Previously, we have had to move very fast in certain circumstances, this time was more flexible. When it got shifted in 2020 it was an extremely short time frame.

We had to move very fast this time we could make sure we were getting the right property, the right facilities the right setup, and keep everyone updated around them. That process has been efficient this time.

The replacement players have been the more active area where we have unfortunately not got Jos [Buttler], Jofra [Archer], Ben [Stokes] and Andrew [Tye] for this season so we have been working to get the right balance for the side. This has been the more complicated aspect.

The preparation for the tournament has just been making sure the players are safe, training the players and then getting them to the UAE in the optimal time to quarantine to then train ready for matches.

How heavily involved with the players and the team are you with your role?

I think that given the way my role has progressed from general manager to chief operating officer, there was

weighting of cricket within it. Because of that, there will still be a cricket proportion to that role.

As we are not the same size organisation as Liverpool FC for example there is not the same separation in roles so that involvement will be there.

It does depend on what type of CEO you are, and your skillset is. Thankfully I think my strengths suit managing those high-pressure situations like the auction, optimising the group. You learn about the team and what works best for them.

I am not involved in players selected for the eleven and when it comes to the auction the question for me is never who is better than who, it is how we optimise the discussion between our cricket experts, so we get the right result.

Naturally we have someone in charge of analytics, a director of Cricket, strategy director, head coaches and all the rest of it. As we build out our cricket team, I will spend less time involved in those discussions and as our analytic teams grow, they will then formulate a list of players they want with prices and why they want them. I will just discuss if they are the right options. So, the commercial side will sit with me, but the team selection and coaching are left to the experts.

You mentioned the five-year plan, where do you see the franchise going and what are your goals for the next few years?

To give a clear line we want to be one of the top sporting organisations in the world. We want to be the most advanced cricketing franchise both from a perspective of innovation and.

Over the last few years, we have ➡ OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 39

RAJASTHAN ROYALS

finished fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth. That is not the performance I want us to achieve as a franchise.

We want to transition to become a regular in the playoffs and winning regularly and to do that transition we are looking to spend more on analytics and enhance our cricket structure.

If you are not performing well on the field, it is very challenging to achieve the scale you want in all the elements you want off it.

Better on field performance will naturally increase our sponsorship [opportunities] and the brands that associate with you. We have done a good job of getting some top brands on board – like Red Bull and Colgate – who partner with us now as they know it’s not just about visibility it’s how we integrate across every element of the value chain. For example, with Red Bull we did a documentary with them and produced some amazing content.

From a business point of view the most important thing for me is digital transformation so how well can we understand our fans, through CRM, customer data platforms and marketing automation. How can we create a personalised experience for the fan and get as many fans into our database as possible so we can give them the best experience? This then leads to monetisation in the future.

There is no quick fix for that but having the right infrastructure and people managing and segmenting the audience and personalising that communication then leads to a much better experience which adds overall value.

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Do you see the IPL potentially trying to grow outside of the usual cricketing nations in which it already has a presence? For example, the United States or individual games being played overseas.

The league is trying to grow globally and wants to expand its fanbase as much as possible. How they will do that is hard to say at the moment.

The United States probably is a target market as there is a huge South Asian population in the US. I think there is something like six million subscribes to Willow TV which is purely Bollywood [movies] and cricket. The fact is that the US has much greater purchasing power than India. If you have 100,000 subscribers versus a 1 million or 10 million in India it will probably generate more revenue. The US is an exciting proposition for cricket as a whole as if that market can expand then it will benefit the IPL and cricket in its entirety. How that is done will be interesting to see.

Will it be done from digital engagement? Or Esports a potential avenue or exhibition matches? We will continue to do that ourselves and in other ways. For example, we just acquired a Caribbean cricket team because it naturally grows the fanbase and it’s a chance to test new ideas either through players or analytics, strategy etc. We can then bring them to the first team [in India]. We want to transform society through cricket, so we feel we can help Barbados who can in turn help us grow. U

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BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

REAL WAYS TO STREAMLINE YOUR FINANCIAL CONSOLIDATION The pandemic has increased the workload for finance teams in sport – managing the furlough situation as well as meeting the demands for constant reforecasting and scenario planning. However, the usual financial statements must still be produced on top of all this extra essential work.

Many businesses – whether in sport or any other industry – struggle to generate timely, accurate financial statements. Pressure from investors and other stakeholders to produce them quickly can be at odds with the finance team’s responsibility to ensure they’re correct. Managing the balance between these two competing priorities is difficult enough when you’re only dealing with one entity.

It’s exponentially harder if you need to consolidate results from several different business units to produce a single set of reports and are juggling the added demands created by the volatile nature of financial planning as we emerge from lockdown.

Challenges of complexity What makes consolidation so challenging is that the data required for reporting is not always in one place. As businesses expand, they may invest in or acquire other companies, or diversify their offering to create different income streams – there can be ticket sales, hospitality, retail (and online sales), other events and more.

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While diversifying and creating new income streams is welcome, particularly just now, it’s not always so great for the corporate finance team, however, in terms of workload and time pressure.

Dependent on the systems used and how they are organised, to prepare consolidated financial statements, data may first have to be exported from each system and converted into a standard format. It then needs to be normalised to

balances and completing other tasks.

Much of this work may have to be done manually, using spreadsheets, so the risk of errors is significant, especially with so much pressure to work quickly.

Addressing the pain points Automating data conversion can help address some of these issues, and companies with highly skilled finance and IT staff often develop complex extract, transform and load (ETL) processes for just this reason.

This can be a long, involved process, however and – like other forms of integration – software upgrades or other system changes can disrupt the entire process, resulting in costly maintenance.

Few busy finance teams in sport have the time or the resources for this.

“A system like NetSuite gives mutlicost centre sports businesses fully automated, real-time financial consolidation, resulting in a faster close process and more timely reporting." ensure like is combined with like. Only then does the consolidation reporting process really begin.

As any finance professional reading this will know only too well, what follows can be a long, involved process of reviewing account details, allocating overhead costs, identifying and eliminating intercompany transactions, adjusting

Consolidation made easy Fortunately, there is another option for consolidated accounting that is both faster and easier to manage, and that is the right ERP / financial software. One

of the solutions proven most suitable to the flexibility sports and venue-based businesses require is Oracle NetSuite, and as Eureka Solutions customers including Ageas Bowl, St Andrews Links Trust, Powerleague Fives and Luton Town FC, are all now benefitting from the streamlining NetSuite brings them – and NetSuite internationally is used by numerous other football, rugby, cricket, NFL, NBA and other sport teams – we’ll use that an example here.

NetSuite automates the consolidation processes, eliminating the challenges of working with multiple systems by providing a cloud-based financial management solution specifically designed for multi-entity businesses.

The unified platform stores data centrally, so instead of dealing with multiple sources and formats, a club’s finance team can work with a single set of data.

If subsidiaries are involved, they are able to manage their financials in the way that works best for them, with their own chart of accounts, journal entries and workflows. They can use different currencies and accounting rules than the parent organisation, and even have different reporting periods.

When a transaction is posted to a

subsidiary account, it’s also posted to the corresponding account at the headquarters level. NetSuite automatically converts the account code used by the subsidiary to the correct parent account code. Everything happens in real time, ensuring accurate, consolidated financial data is available whenever it’s needed.

To maintain data integrity, accounting staff at the cost centre or subsidiary level only have access to the records for their part of the organisation. The corporate finance team have different requirements, however, so permission-based rules give them access to any information that’s appropriate for their role, from summarised results to individual transactions at the subsidiary level.

The ability to link one cost centre’s or subsidiary’s sales order to another’s purchase request simplifies the reconciliation process. When an intercompany order is invoiced, NetSuite identifies the transaction and automatically posts an elimination journal entry. This not only saves time by ensuring that accounting rules and legal requirements are being adhered to, it reduces the risk of costly fines or other penalties.

The time to be strategic A system like NetSuite gives multi-cost centre sports businesses fully automated, real-time financial consolidation, resulting in a faster close process and more timely reporting. As the role of the finance leader in sport develops to become more strategic – a change that has been accelerated with the pandemic – this streamlining can be the difference between meeting deadlines and not. U Eureka Solutions is a 5-star NetSuite Partner and were named Outstanding NetSuite Partner of the Year for the UK and Ireland earlier this year. They are also a leading Sage 200 Partner with one of the most technically proficient business solutions teams in the country, so are ideally placed to talk through your challenges with real sport related examples.

Contact Richard Christie, Business Systems Specialist, on 01355 581960 or richard.christie@eurekasolutions. co.uk.

OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 43

44 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

BMX

CHARLOTTE WORTHINGTON: OLYMPIC CHAMPION Charlotte Worthington speaks on her road to the Olympics and coming away from Tokyo 2020 with a Gold Medal as BMX freestyle made its Olympic debut.

BMX freestyle made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, bringin a fresh, youthful feel to the Olympic programme.

British Cyclist Charlotte Worthington, also on her Olympic debut, secured a sensational victory in the event after landing a 360 backflip which has never been performanced in female competition, in a huge second move - having crashed attempting the move in her first.

Plagued with injury, the Games' postponement allowed Worthington to recovery from injuries and compete to secure her Gold Medal.

How does it feel to be the first Olympic women’s freestyle champion?

To be the first Olympic freestyle champion, really feels like years of grinding and being up against it is finally paying off. All the hard work came together that one day.

We said it all along that we were going to peak on August 1 and it felt like a dream when it actually all happened and went to plan.

and this was 6 weeks out of the games, so I has less than two weeks [of] rehab and recovery which was super intense and then I had three or four weeks nonstop on the bike. So going from having an injury two weeks before to having to go straight into my biggest tricks was a real mental challenge and there was definitely a lot of tears and times where we thought it wouldn’t even happen.

How was the lead up to the Olympics and what did you do in preparation for it?

The lead up was absolutely horrendous. I was struggling with a shoulder injury since the start of 2020 [as] I had surgery on it.

The original date for the Olympics was looking really tight and then it was a year later. I was very lucky to have the year. It was a blessing in disguise for me to have a year, due to covid, for me to catch up, and I learnt 90 per cent of the tricks that I did in the contest in that year.

The last 3 months before the games were like a complete

rollercoaster. I was out training in the USA and then I took another hit to my shoulder.

I fractured it and dislocated it the second time. I did that during training [but] I got over that super quick.

We had some success at the World Championships, two months before I got a bronze medal, so it was looking for kind of good and we were testing the waters for the games and what the run could look like.

On my first session back in the UK, we were setting our sights and narrowing down for the Olympic run. I dislocated my shoulder for the third time,

Given your injuries, how important was a strong support system leading up to the Olympics?

Massively, I had support around me, although I was the only girl in the UK doing this, I was never alone. I had great support from my coach Jamie Bestwick, my teammate Bethan Brookes and all the friends and family around the BMX community.

Before the Olympics, there wasn’t really many eyes on BMX so it was a very small community and everyone has been so supportive, skate parks included and the staff at British cycling. So, I had a lot of support mentally as well as physically. ➡

OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 45

BMX

What does this achievement mean to you?

It feels like all those horrible little beliefs that you have in your head of always coming second or third or just messing up at the last minute, you kind of have to really get over those and this was something that I realised after the world championships just before the Olympics.

I looked back at my run when I was reviewing it with my coach and I realised that I actually had all the pieces to win, I just didn’t put them together in the right way and essentially didn’t believe in myself that I could have done it, so I was stressing over it for no reason. That was a little bit of a turning point, and it really was like the final step to making the gold happen, with the last 3 months being so up and down.

Five years ago, I was working in kitchens in a regular job, earning money to try and fund my hobby at the time.

I was working 30-40 hours a week in a restaurant just trying to fund a hobby. I could only ride once a week because of time and money so I was so blessed to even get the opportunity back in 2018 to take on the Olympic journey.

It’s something that I started for fun, I just thought that I could be good at it and I enjoy riding my BMX, I enjoy sport and I just loved it so I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and for it to absolutely snowboard over the last four to five years has been incredible.

I’m 25 now and throughout my teenager years from about 12 I originally rode scooters, which is a really new kind of sport and it’s a very young sport. I wouldn’t say it’s extremely professional right now, there are people that can do

amazing things on it, but again it was just fun. It was in the skate park environment.

I’ve always loved extreme sports like skateboarding, mountain biking and everything, so I was always surrounded

by BMX. I did that from the age of 12 to about 19. And when I was 19, I [thought] I’m kind of done with that. I wanted a new challenge, something that was a bit fresh and again that I enjoyed. So that’s when I picked up a BMX. It was all very similar, I already had the basic skills on a bike, so I kind of picked it up quite quick and really enjoyed it and

hard as all the other athletes out there just in a different way. We are just as fit, we have just as many neuro skills and it’s really difficult and dangerous what we do.

I am hoping that it will raise the profile for those people, and I think the whole narrative behind my story and my win essentially can show that you can turn a regular hobby into a career and inspire the younger generation to get involved.

As youngsters we started not thinking that we wanted to be Olympic champions, we started because we loved the sport.

I think the whole narrative behind my win, starting in a regular job, funding my hobby because I love it, taking an opportunity, again because I love it just absolutely snowballed and I hope that it inspires youngsters to get involved in the BMX community and either take the Olympic journey and take it seriously or just do it for fun because cycling in general as well as BMX is a really great community and a lot of fun.

“I hope that my win, on a professional level is going to raise the profile of the riders that take it seriously. We work as hard as all the other athletes out there just in a different way. We are just as fit, we have just as many neuro skills and it’s really difficult and dangerous what we do. ”

46 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

I did that for a year. I competed once and in kind of a chain of events I was on a TV show and met a couple people, which lead me to trying out for the Olympic team at the start of 2018.

How do you think this will impact the popularity of the sport?

I hope it’s going to change a lot within BMX in the UK. Even though it’s the debut of the sport, it was definitely overlooked in the build-up to the games, there was a lot more focus on sports like climbing and surfing as well as other sports which are really cool, and I love them in their own right but it was definitely a bit overlooked.

I hope that my win, on a professional level is going to raise the profile of the riders that take it seriously. We work as

What are your plans for the future?

I’m only 25 now so I can see definitely one, possibly two Olympics in the future.

I would love to go and try and defend the title. In the meantime. I haven’t won a World Championship title yet so I would like to set my sights on that within the next 2 years. Outside of BMX, I really want to break into opportunities outside the sport.

At the moment, I’m taking as much advantage of the media coverage as possible to try and raise the profile of BMX and myself. I also want to work with brands outside of that to try and get even more eyes on BMX and really help fund the future. U

What Does An App Do For Your Sports Club?

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POTENTIAL FEATURES: App-only competitions with the chance to win exclusive prizes Quizzes, votes, and polls including eventday predictions for increased interaction Added incentive to earn points with more interactions, giving users the chance to win experiences “Access all areas” with behind the scenes footage and in-app content streaming (video and live) DEMO APP DESIGNED BY DIGIRUU

READY TO GET STARTED ON YOUR APP? At Digiruu we’ve partnered up with Premiers Sports Network to help sports clubs maximize fan engagement and build loyalty through their own app.

Go to digiruu.com/get-started to book a FREE call with our team or email aman@digiruu.com

48 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

HUMAN RESOURCES

MAXIMISING PERFORMANCE An effective performance management system enables managers to offer support to employees who need it and identify future superstars.

Why effective HR is key Sports stars are the ones who claim the glory, take the limelight, and receive the accolades.

The gold medallist sprinter, the leading goal scorer, the match-winning batsmen. They are the ones that get hailed as the legends.

But behind every team of stars there are dozens of employees supporting them on and off the pitch.

And harnessing their collective talents is so

tasks, including onboarding packages.

It’s easy to get tripped up by the complexity around player salaries and bonuses, salary caps, and appearances.

But beyond that, it’s the entire employee experience, from booking holidays and changing personal information, to getting payroll right.

HR teams also have to deal with the seasonal needs around staffing for mass events — and how to recruit

“Running the HR department at a sports club has many specific challenges. At a football club, the constant stream of transfers – in and out – brings many tasks, including onboarding packages.” important to ensure the organisation performs to its full potential.

How can your club do that effectively and show your people how they contribute to success on the pitch?

The answer lies within the people who look after your people – the HR professionals.

The unique HR needs of sports clubs Running the HR department at a sports club has many specific challenges. At a football club, the constant stream of transfers – in and out – brings many

and manage volunteers.

Then comes the pressure of cutbacks or scaling up when budgets change dramatically because of cup runs, relegation, promotion, or entry into European tournaments.

And then there are multiple employee policies on everything from hygiene to social media. Data security is a huge issue and HR regulatory requirements cannot be missed.

What if things go wrong?

Heads can drop everywhere, including HR. Without suitable HR systems to support every

activity, sports clubs can experience the same problems as any other kind of company.

Issues might occur in the handling of payroll, sick pay, holidays, new hires, or in all of the others areas that HR connects the business to its employees. Mistakes can happen, action is sometimes taken too late, or good opportunities are missed.

If morale and culture aren’t effectively managed, plummeting morale can affect everyone, from the backroom to the boardroom. It can morph into a lack of ambition, including how you develop fresh talent, on and off the pitch. Problems can extend beyond the club too, with poor fan engagement impacting events, sales, and loyalty.

The danger is that clubs can sleep-walk into mediocrity.

The answer is developing a strong, robust, efficient, and effective HR process, underpinned by leading technology solutions.

How can you create a championship-worthy HR department?

With an all-in-one HR system that covers all your needs, it’s possible for people to feel more empowered, motivated, and committed. You can develop a winning culture and mindset. And you can reduce your business costs.

Discover in our whitepaper how IRIS’ market-leading HR software can deliver this to bring even greater success to your club – on and off the pitch. U

OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 49

UNBREAKABLE

AN UNBREAKABLE WILL TO ACHIEVE AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM As a child Steve always dreamed of being a professional football player. I never dreamed about becoming a filmmaker but I did have a tendency to write short stories in the form of poems and raps.

WORDS: SERGE RASHIDI-ZAKUANI, DIRECTOR OF UNBREAKABLE

Steve is my cousin and I have grown up with him my entire life. Playing football in the park with him even at the age of eight was to witness brilliance personified. He would play with kids twice his age and make them look foolish on the pitch, often prompting those older kids to use their physical stature against him by fouling or hurting him in some way. I guess this was the only way they could stop him but even back then he was fearless on and off the ball and he needed to be, growing up in inner city London.

His talent would initially allow him to shine in Sunday league football, eventually being spotted and scouted by Arsenal football club. Playing for a top tier academy would allow Steve to travel around the world at a very young age giving him an appetite for much more than the disadvantaged background we came from.

Unfortunately, at the age of 14 Steve would see his dream crumble upon being released from Arsenal. Their reason for letting him go? He was too small for his age and did not fit the physical profile sought by the academy at that time. He subsequently joined Leyton Orient but the drop in quality was clear, no longer travelling the world, plying his trade against elite players or being surrounded by top quality facilities, he quickly became disheartened.

During the same time I was finding my voice through music as a grime mc part of a growing sub-culture of music in innercity London. I would pen music with a narrative often tragic, sometimes funny, but always relevant to my experiences at that particular time.

50 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

Seeking a distraction, Steve began to do the same. He joined a collective called Menace to Society and his voice could often be heard on the radio. The same fearlessness he displayed on the football pitch manifested itself in provocative yet insightful lyrics on the mic.

As any teenager in inner-city London will tell you, there are too many distractions that can lead you astray. One day Steve and his friends came up with a bright idea to steal a moped for a joy ride. While on the bike, Steve had a head-on collision with a parked car resulting in his foot being crushed. Doctors would inform his parents that the damage was so severe that he potentially would always walk with a limp, and football was out of the question.

Believing his dreams to be gone, and with no-one to blame but himself, Steve entered a deep depression with no sense of direction. As fate would have it, an Arsenal Academy alumni had recently

joined a newly formed independent football team and was adamant that Steve needed to join and would be able to play again with his guidance.

During this time I was also experiencing my own identity crisis, no longer doing music because I did not feel I was good enough to make it. I no longer had an outlet to express myself. I would remain in this state for a few years until I went to university.

Meanwhile, over a 14-month period, Steve worked with the independent football academy (IFA) to rehabilitate himself and begin playing again. The IFA would boldly offer itself to academy teams for friendly matches and quickly picked up a reputation for often outclassing ‘better’ teams. Scouts began to take notice.

Across the pond in Ohio, USA, Caleb Porter, a newly appointed head-coach of Akron’s University’s soccer team was keen to develop his programme and was desperately seeking new talent. His search would lead him to British shores where he would encounter Steve. Impressed with what he saw, Caleb decided to take a bet on him.

During my first term at University I would have my own fateful encounter, meeting two ambitious friends with a passion for storytelling. This shared passion would lead us to starting our own production company. Initially starting with stage plays, our first production sold out the Bloomsbury theatre in London and inspired us to produce additional shows for the stage.

Overcoming numerous obstacles, Steve received a full scholarship to enlist as a student athlete at the university of Akron.

Two years later, flying high as the leading scorer of college soccer, Steve would enter

the Major League Soccer draft where he became the number one draft pick, recruited by the Seattle Sounders.

I remember watching the live stream of the draft in shock and awe of an individual who had achieved a seemingly impossible dream against all the odds. Many would end the story here but unfortunately this was only the beginning.

Unbreakable: The Steve Zakuani Story documents the journey from a horrific leg break sustained during an MLS game, nine surgeries and severe nerve damage, to a heroic comeback in front of 40,000 fans at Century Link Field, Seattle in the summer of 2012.

At the time of injury, Steve was coming off a career-defining-year in which he led his team in scoring, debuted for his National Team, and was attracting interest from European clubs. ​The injury remains the worst in Major League Soccer history. The comeback remains one of the most iconic moments in Seattle sports history.

In 2017 I received a phone call from Steve seeking advice on how to tell his story. By this time I was a fully-fledged storyteller with several writing, directing and producing credits to my name for stage and screen so I felt confident in advising him on how to go about doing this.

A few weeks later I would receive another call from Steve with a simple question “Would you want to tell my story?”

Unbreakable is an emotional, inspirational, heartfelt, and uplifting story that had to be told. U Unbreakable: The Steve Zakuani story is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Serge is a filmmaker, innovation coach, workshop facilitator and public speaker and can be reached via serge.rashidi@ steppingstonez.co.uk OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 51

ACCOUNTING & TAX

CORPORATION TAX MATTERS – NAVIGATING CHANGES IN 2021 The tax landscape for sports organisations continues to change; organisations that are not familiar with the new requirements may miss opportunities to claim valuable reliefs. Jamie Whale Senior Tax Manager at haysmacintyre covers some of the key changes and how your organisation can benefit from new reliefs.

Increase in CT rate from 2023 The Chancellor announced at Budget 2021 that the Corporation Tax (CT) rate will increase from 19 per cent to 25 per cent with effect from 1 April 2023. All tax-paying companies, associations and clubs will be impacted by this increase, which is the first increase in the main rate of CT for almost 50 years. The existing rate of 19 per cent will remain for profits up to £50,000 so small income streams in entities that are otherwise tax exempt will be unaffected.

Although the increase is effective in 2023, deferred tax disclosures will need to reflect the future tax rate from the date of substantive enactment of the Finance

or computer equipment, will be entitled to a 130 per cent tax deduction during the acquisition period. Integral features and other assets that ordinarily qualify for the ’special rate pool‘, such as expenditure on air conditioning systems and water systems of a building, will be entitled to a 50 per cent “first year allowance” tax deduction, with the remaining balance pooled to receive tax relief in future years as normal.

The latter is of use to entities that already use their full Annual Investment Allowance –£1 million of expenditure per group per annum, until 1 January 2022 when it is scheduled to decrease to £200,000 per annum. The enhanced rates apply for two years from 1 April 2021, the end of each

“Many sports clubs consider their trading activities with members to be exempt from CT on the basis that the organisation is conducting mutual trading – that is trading transactions with your own members.”

Bill, expected in July 2021. Therefore periods ending after this date will disclose deferred tax at the future rate.

Super capital allowances The Chancellor also announced that super-deductions will be available for qualifying capital expenditures for taxpaying businesses. Qualifying plant and machinery, such as fixtures and fittings 52 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

change coinciding with the increase in CT rate – this removes any incentive to delay expenditure to obtain 25 per cent relief in future.

Companies, associations and clubs that partly conduct taxable trading activity are required to reduce the level of all capital allowances claims to only make a percentage of the claim that is ’just and reasonable‘ – this means that assets

used in both taxable and exempt trading activities only receive a deduction based on the proportion used in its taxable trading activities. This means the benefit of these reliefs is reduced accordingly, though it is nevertheless a higher rate of relief than was previously available.

Structures and buildings allowances (SBAs) SBAs can be claimed for expenditure on structures and buildings used for qualifying business purposes. SBAqualifying expenditure is expenditure on construction of new buildings, renovation or conversion of existing commercial buildings (and any incidental repairs), and any associated fees. It does not include expenditure on land, nor on residential buildings. The structure or building must be used in a qualifying trade ie trading activity conducted with a view to a profit, that would be taxable in the event of any profit arising. As for other capital allowances (see above) this means a further reduction is required wherever the building is only used partly in a taxable trade. This expenditure would not previously have been eligible for capital allowances. The rate of relief was increased to 3 per cent of expenditure per annum from 1 April 2020, having been initially set at 2 per cent per annum.

Mutual trading Many sports clubs consider their trading activities with members to be

exempt from CT on the basis that the organisation is conducting mutual trading – that is trading transactions with your own members. This exemption is a valuable relief for clubs in reducing their corporation tax exposure, provided that they meet the necessary conditions.

The concept of mutual trading has derived from case law and is a complicated area; there are a number of requirements that a sports body must meet for the mutual trading principle to apply including: • The contributors to the club’s surplus, and the participators in the surplus (ie those who own it and can benefit from it) must be identical – notwithstanding the fact that the make up of the membership may change over time • Members must control the common fund by being voting members of the organisation • The surplus must be returned to contributors and no one else upon the club being wound up (ie ceasing to operate and being dissolved) with a reasonable relationship between amounts contributed and amounts returned to members.

An organisation that conducts a mutual trade with its own members and also trades with third parties is conducting partly trading activity within the scope of mutual trading, and partly normal trading activity. Only the former is exempt from

CT, meaning that as above, CT is charged as usual on trading activity with third parties.

In order for members to be considered to ‘control the common fund’, upon a winding up of the organisation, any surplus must be returned to members.

HMRC’s view is that there must be no possibility of it being distributed to another association or another third party unless with the express consent of members.

Many not for profit organisations have Articles of Association or Constitutions stipulating that upon a winding up any surplus is donated to another similar organisation or to a charity. HMRC’s view of case law is that they cannot be conducting mutual trading activity.

HMRC are known to have taken an increasing level of interest in this area recently and have won cases against prominent organisations where constitutions were not correctly drafted to ensure that members control the mutual fund and would receive any surplus upon a winding up. If an organisation has not reviewed this position for some time, it is sensible to conduct a review prior to any HMRC challenge.

It is worth noting that any activity that does not amount to trading activity – because it does not meet the definition of commercial trading, outlined by ’badges of trade‘ – can be treated as

non-taxable without the need to consider the requirements for the mutual trading exemption.

Withholding taxes The Budget also included a repeal of the UK’s domestic legislation implementing the EU Interest and Royalties Directive (IRD), effective from 1 June 2021. This impacts sports organisations that make intra-group payments from EU-based companies in respect of interest or royalties – withholding taxes must now be applied to such payments, generally at 20 per cent, the exact rate is confirmed by the double taxation agreement (DTA) between the UK and the country in which the recipient is tax resident. Taxes deducted should be reported to HMRC on a quarterly basis, using form CT61.

Most payments from EU companies to UK companies have been impacted since 1 January 2021. Again the relevant DTA confirms whether any withholding taxes are due [If a higher rate has already been applied to certain payments than provided for in the double tax agreement, or if withholding tax has been levied with a 0% rate, relief must be claimed from the overseas authority by the payee – no credit can be claimed against UK Corporation Tax or Income Tax for any excess].

For more information on the above tax changes, please contact Jamie Whale at jwhale@haysmacintyre.com OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 53

PSN Directory ACCOUNTANCY & TAX (BUSINESSES)

haysmacintyre 10 Queen Street Place, London, EC4R 1AG, UK www.haysmacintyre.com Contact: Tom Wilson, Partner E: twilson@haysmacintyre.com T: +44 (0)20 7969 5697 ACCOUNTANCY & TAX (INDIVIDUALS)

MHA Carpenter Box Amelia House, Crescent Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 1RL, UK www.carpenterbox.com Contact: Sam Uwins, Senior Partner E: sam.uwins@carpenterbox.com T: +44 (0)19 0323 4094 APP DEVELOPMENT

DIGIRUU 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, UK www.digiruu.com Contact: Aman Birdi, Founder E: aman@digiruu.com T: +44 (0)79 5539 6217 ATHLETE ENGAGEMENT

Teamworks 122 E Parrish Street, Durham, NC 27701, USA www.teamworks.com Contact: Paul Dudley, VP and GM for Enterprise & International Sales E: pdudley@teamworks.com T: +1 (215) 260 5230 BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Eureka Solutions West Point House, 5 Redwood Place, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G74 5PB, UK www.eurekasolutions.co.uk Contact: Richard Christie, Business Systems Specialist E: richard.christie@eurekasolutions.co.uk T: +44 (0)13 5558 1960 DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Global Sports Initiatives Tampa, Florida, USA Contact: Kevin Meredith, Chief Executive Officer E: kevin@globalsportsinitiatives.com T: +1 (305) 209 2362 EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

UCFB Education Ltd. Wembley Stadium, Wembley, HA9 0WS, UK www.ucfb.com E: info@ucfb.com T: +44 (0)33 3060 1456 EXPENSE MANAGEMENT

Rydoo Hendrik Consciencestraat 40-42, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium www.rydoo.com Contact: Jan Dejosse, Vice President of Marketing E: jan.dejosse@rydoo.com T: +32 (0)15 29 19 29 54 | OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021

FITNESS HYDRATION

WOW HYDRATE 5 Prospect Business Park, Langston Road, Loughton, IG10 3TR, UK www.wowhyrdate.com Contact: Jon Hayman, Managing Director E: jon@wowhydrate.com T: +44 (0)20 8508 9510 FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Argentex 25 Argyll Street, Soho, London, W1F 7TU, UK www.argentex.com Contact: Jon Goss, Head of Sport E: jon.goss@argentex.com T: +44 (0)20 3772 0318 GAMBLING & ESPORTS MARKETING

Because We Can Media www.becausewecanmedia.com Contact: John Donovan, Founder & CEO E: john@becausewecanmedia.com T: +44 (0)77 8741 4423 GLOBAL RELOCATION SERVICES

Sterling Lexicon Hallmark House, Rowdell Road, Northolt, UB5 6AG, UK www.sterlinglexicon.com Contact: Ruth Lyons, Business Development Manager E: ruth.lyons@sterlinglexicon.com T: +44 (0)77 6931 2434 HR SOLUTIONS

IRIS SOFTWARE GROUP Heathrow Approach, 470 London Road, Slough, SL3 8QY, UK www.iris.co.uk E: sales@iris.co.uk T: +44 (0)34 4225 1525 MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY

Beder www.beder.org.uk Contact: Razzak Mirjan, Founder E: razzak@beder.org.uk T: +44(0)79 2919 1993

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

24/7 Software Group 6909 SW 18th Street, Suite 301, Boca Raton, FL 33433 www.247software.com Contact: Gerald Hwasta, Chairman & CEO E: ghwasta@247software.com T: +1 (561) 421 1500 PR & COMMUNICATIONS

Weber Shandwick www.webershandwick.co.uk 2 Waterhouse Square, 140 Holborn, London, EC1N 2AE Contact: Chris Harris, Director E: charris@webershandwick.com T: +44(0)20 3353 8740 PRECISION MEDICAL DEVICES

Electro Medical Systems (E.M.S) Chemin de la Vuarpillière 31, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland www.ems-dolorcast.com Contact: Christian Seeberger, Sales Manager Europe GDT/ Pain Therapy E: cseeberger@ems-ch.de T: +49 894 271 1610 PRIVATE AIRCRAFT CHARTER

ACC Aviation 18 Priory Drive, Castlefield Road, Reigate, RH2 0AP, UK www.accaviation.com Contact: Mitch Broadstock, Senior Business Development Manager E: mitch.broadstock@accaviation.com T: +44 (0)17 3723 2230 PRIVATE TUITION

Minerva Tutors 79 Eccleston Square, Pimlico, London, SW1V 1PP www.minervatutors.co.uk Contact: Clare Sender, Head of Marketing & Admissions E: clare@minervavirtual.com T: +44 (0)20 3637 6477

We’re always looking for innovative partners who align with our values in the global sports industry.

To get in touch, please email enquiries@premiersportsnetwork.com or call +44 (0)20 3983 8562

Job Vacancies REAL ESTATE

Knight Frank 55 Baker Street, London, W1U 8AN, UK www.knightfrank.com Contact: Alex McLean, Head of Sports Desk E: alexander.mclean@knightfrank.com T: +44 (0)20 4502 3143 Contact: Kate Doyle, Graduate and Early Careers Manager E: kate.doyle@knightfrank.com T: +44 (0)20 3811 1762 SCOUTING & TRAINING

Ellevate Football 75 Park Lane, Basement Office, Fountain House, W1K 7HG, UK www.ellevate-football.co.uk Contact: Akshay Lugani, CEO E: akshay@e11evate.co.uk T: +44 (0)77 4107 0002 SECURITY & RISK MITIGATION

TorchStone Global 295 Madison Avenue, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10017 www.torchstoneglobal.com Contact: Christopher Sanchez, VP E: csanchez@torchstoneglobal.com T: +1 (540) 424 8755 TRAINING PROVIDER

Learning Pool Clockwise Offices, Riverhouse, 48-60 High Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT1 2BE www.learningpool.com Contact: Rob Carter, Head of Marketing E: rob.carter@learningpool.com T: +44 (0)11 5822 0475 TRAVEL MANAGEMENT

Corporate Travel Management Senator House, 85 Queen Victoria St, London EC4V 4AB, UK www.travelctm.com Contact: Shelley Matthews, VP Sales & Partnerships EMEA E: shelley.matthews@travelctm.com T: +44 (0)77 9176 8019 WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

When I Work 420 North 5th Street, Suite 500 Minneapolis, MN 55401, USA www.wheniwork.com Contact: Isaac Philibert, Partner Success Manager E: Isaac.philibert@wheniwork.com T: +1 (612) 504 4689 WEALTH MANAGEMENT

FLM Wealth Management Basildon House, 7-11 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AF, UK www.flmltd.com Contact: Ben Smith, Senior Advisor & Chartered Financial Planner E: ben.smith@sjpp.co.uk T: +44 (0)20 7710 3422

To discover more sports job vacancies visit www.premiersportsnetwork.com/jobs If you have a vacancy you would like to promote, please contact enquires@premiersportsnetwork.com Head of Performance Psychology – English Institute of Sport Location: Flexible at an EIS Primary site Salary: £53,045 - £70,136 p.a.

Closing Date: 1 November 2021 Match Official Developer – England Rugby Location: Remote Salary: £30,000-£35,000 Closing Date: 20 October 2021 Head Physio – Salford Red Devils RLFC Location: AJ Bell Stadium, Salford M30 7EY Salary: £45,000 Closing Date: 13 October 2021 Foundation Head of Operations – West Ham United FC Location: Foundation Offices, Beckton. Travel across East London and Essex maybe required.

Salary: £50,000-£60,000 Closing Date: 22 October 2021 Head of Olympic and Paralympic Programme – British Cycling Location: National Cycling Centre, Manchester, UK Salary: Competitive Closing Date: 14 October 2021 Digital Marketing Manager – Birmingham City FC Location: St Andrew’s Stadium Salary: Competitive Closing Date: 4 November 2021 Corporate Events Manager – British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Location: Flexible Working Considered – London Office Based time essential Salary: £30,000-£33,000 Closing Date: 14 October 2021 Talent Partnership Manager – England Hockey Location: Nationwide Salary: Circa £42k per annum plus a car allowance Closing Date: 13 October 2021 Marketing and Media Manager – British Taekwondo Location: Manchester (and home working arrangements) Salary: £33k-£39k commensurate with experience Closing Date: 22 October 2021 Marketing Associate – Golden State Warriors Location: San Francisco, CA Salary: Competitive Closing Date: 16 October 2021 OTFF ISSUE 17 ★ OCTOBER 2021 | 55

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