On The Front Foot Issue 8

ON THE FRONT FOOT APRIL 2020 ISSUE EIGHT

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★ THREATS TO THE SPORTING CALENDAR ★ SUPER STADIA ★ VIEWERSHIP AND BROADCASTING ★ FINANCIAL REGULATIONS

THE INDUSTRY’S LEADING I N V I TAT I O N - O N LY N E T W O R K

FINANCE IN SPORT CONFERENCE 30TH MARCH 2020 - POSTPONED RESCHEDULED DATE: FRIDAY 9TH OCTOBER, THE MAY FAIR HOTEL The industry’s leading private network exclusive an invitation-only audience of Finance and C-Level Directors representing the world’s most reputable sports clubs, teams, leagues, federations, governing bodies and agencies, from all over the world

S P E A K E R S I N C LU D E

DOMINGOS OLIVEIRA CEO S.L. BENFICA

ROBERT YEOWART CFO BWT RACING POINT F1

JAMIE CARRAGHER FORMER FOOTBALLER & TV PUNDIT

STUART CAIN CEO WASPS

KELLY SIMMONS DIRECTOR, THE WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL GAME THE FA

RICHARD GOULD CEO SURREY CCC

TONY SUTTON COO THE RUGBY FOOTBALL LEAGUE

DAVID CONN AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST THE GUARDIAN

SASHA RYAZANTSEV CHIEF FINANCE AND COMMERCIAL OFFICER

CLARE BREIGAL CEO INTERNATIONAL NETBALL FEDERATION

STEPHEN PEARCE CEO DERBY COUNTY FC

PETER MOORE CEO LIVERPOOL FC

O N T H E AG E N DA • DIVERSIFYING REVENUE OPPORTUNITES • STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH • EFFECTIVE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT • THE APPLICATION OF BRANDING • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION & FUTURE TRENDS

• MAKING STRIDES TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FUTURES • ENTERING NEW AND EMERGING MARKETS • THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ON-FIELD AND FINANCIAL SUCCESS • MANAGING COSTS AND INNOVATIVE SAVING STRATEGIES

“PSN’s values are deeply rooted in ensuring that welfare is taken seriously across the sports industry and given ongoing developments relating to the COVID-19 virus, PSN have made the decision to postpone Finance in Sport until Friday 9th October as a precaution to protect the health and safety of all guests, speakers and partners.”

S P E N C E R H I D G E F O U N D E R, P S N

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CONTENTS

Welcome to April’s edition of PSN’s On The Front Foot magazine

Publisher Premier Sports Network Design ShandMedia To send feedback or articles for publication contact Premier Sports Network at: enquiries@ premiersportsnetwork.com To enquire about advertising contact jordan@premiersports.agency On The Front Foot is published by the Premier Sports Network copyright ©2020. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without permission.

As the status of sport continually changes and with the future sporting calendar under scrutiny, it is increasingly important the whole industry comes together to support each other and ensure that not just the athletes taking precautions, but the staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes across the sports industry are safeguarded against these uncertain times.

In safeguarding the welfare of staff across the industry, Premier Sports’ annual Finance in Sport Conference has been postponed until Friday 9th October and will bring together PSN’s exclusive network to celebrate the efforts of sports organisations over the 2019/20 season and share ideas of best-practice across multi-sports.

This edition of On The Front Foot takes a look into the 2020 sports calendar and the impact of COVID-19 on sport as we know it, as worldwide postponements have affected; football, rugby, soccer, basketball, netball, motorsport, cricket, boxing, golf, tennis and cycling to name just a few.

Learning lessons from others is key to the continued improvement of sport, so how do sports clubs, leagues and governing bodies move forward in ensuring the expulsion of Bury FC from league football is not repeated? And what regulations must be implemented to ensure competitive balance as Formula 1 sets sights on a cost cap, while football and rugby tackle breaches of FFP and the salary cap.

Overall, sports must look at new ways to diversify revenue streams, engage global and loyal fans and break boundaries of entering new and emerging markets which have been achieved by few, but with great success!

Spencer Hidge, Director, Premier Sports Network

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Inside this issue...

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PLUS

Future of the sporting calendar “on hold”

Annual sports sponsorship spend nearing $50bn mark

PAGE 6

PAGE 10

Super Stadia: Developments to be aware of in 2020 PAGE 29

Breaching FFP and Salary Cap regulations PAGE 30

Super Agents make a stand against FIFA’s transfer reform PAGE 25

The rise of Sports tourism in the gulf PAGE 26

Implications of Brexit on the sports industry PAGE 32

Inter Miami FC kick off MLS campaign PAGE 56

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CORONA VIRUS

Coronavirus

What now for the sporting calendar?

For the first time in history, major sports events across the globe are being postponed due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. The impact of the virus has caused severe financial pressures on the sports organisations, athletes, host cities and many more who have planned for months and years for these major sports events, but in unprecedented times like these, health must take priority.

CORRECT AS OF 24TH MARCH 2020

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TOKYO OLYPMPIC FLAME EXTINGUISHED

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ollowing public scrutiny of their approach to the postponement of the Olympic Games, the Japanese Government have reached an agreement with the IOC to postpone the summer’s Olympic Games for one year until 2021.

This action is in light of the horrific scenes being witnessed across the world and Government action forcing entire nations into lockdown, but there is no hiding that the economic impact of postponing the games will not be significant, hence the delayed decision.

The spread of COVID-19 has forced the postponement of major sports events around the world, incluing the Tokyo Olympic Games, UEFA Euro 2020, Fomula One and Formula E seasons; the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing; European Tour golf competitions in Malaysia and China; both of Irelands men’s and women’s Six Nations matches against Italy in Dublin; as well as the suspension of football leagues in England, China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and more.

The global economic impact is projected to be severe, with research firm Capital Economics predicting a $280 billion loss to the world economy in the first quarter.

Costs Organisers said in December that the games were expected to cost some $12.35 billion, but that figure did not include an estimated $27.8 million for moving the marathon and walking events from Tokyo to the northern city of Sapporo to avoid the summer heat.

Tokyo 2020’s budget is split between the organising committee and local and national governments; the IOC contributed more than $800m. Sponsors, insurers and firms in media and advertising have also committed billions to the games, which have generated record domestic sponsorship revenues of more than $3 billion. This does not include partnerships with Japanese companies Toyota, Bridgestone and Panasonic, and others such as South Korea’s Samsung, who through an Olympic sponsors programme have separate deals with the IOC worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

With the games now postponed, global insurers face a challenge as they identify the lawful proceedings of event postponement within partnership agreements, with the estimate cost for insuring the showpiece running into the billions of dollars. Analysts with the financial services firm Jefferies estimate the insured cost of the 2020 Olympics at $2 billion, including TV rights and sponsorship, plus $600 million for hospitality.

Economic hit Economists state that as most of the domestic spending on the Olympics has been done meaning that the cancellation would have minimal effect in that regard.

Tourism is a major contributor to recent Japanese growth and has taken a hit amid fears of the spread of coronavirus, without even considering the negative impact the city will receive from this postponement.

Last year, Japan hosted 31.9 million foreign visitors, who spent nearly $43.1 billion. The forecast consumption of $2.22 billion from event-related tourism in 2020 is also likely to evaporate now that the Olympics have been cancelled. According to Kiichi Murashima, Chief Economist at Citi in Tokyo, the loss of such events-related tourism would reduce Japan’s quarter-on-quarter GDP growth for the three months to September by 0.2 percentage points, or 0.8 percentage points on an annualised basis- based on his estimate of the 2 million expected inbound tourists for the games not travelling to Japan. That theoretical blow would hit a Japanese economy that is deemed at risk of entering a technical recession later this year.

08 CORONAVIRUS UEFA EURO 6O YEAR ANNIVERSARY POSTPONED UNTIL 2021

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EFA has decided to postpone this year’s European Championship until 2021 because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

At an emergency meeting the European football’s governing body ruled the competition will now be played between June 11 to July 11 next year, allowing time for domestic competitions to conclude.

The majority of Europe’s top football leagues have been suspended because of the virus and Italy, France and Spain have all introduced lockdown restrictions on millions of citizens as they try to lessen COVID-19’s impact.

“The health of fans, staff and players has to be our number one priority and in that spirit, UEFA tabled a range of options so that competitions can finish this season safely and I am proud of the response of my colleagues across European football.”

UEFA has yet to reach a definitive decision on what happens to this season’s European club competitions -- for both men and women -- which have been put on hold.

CLUBS LOSE OUT ON IMPORTANT REVENUE AS THE LEAGUES GRIND TO A HALT

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t the end of February, four Serie A matches were postponed and Inter Milan’s Europa League matches against Bulgarian outfit Ludogorets was played behind closed doors, marking the beginning of the end of Italian football for the foreseeable future, Juventus, presenting a €45 million pre-tax loss in the first year, immediately saw their stock drop some 11 per cent as fears over the virus sent the Italian FTSE MIB index into a dive, dropping around 5.4 per cent.

Analysts are forecasting that the Italian economy will shrink in the first quarter, meaning Italy will face its fourth recession since 2008.

Meanwhile, English football has also postponed until the end of April, causing concern amongst staff and player as to the financial stability of sports clubs during this time. Already, a number of sports organisations have halved wage-bills for staff across the board and made redundancies to non-playing staff.

For now, it is unclear when football will resume and in what capacity. Not only has gate revenue been hugely impacted, the implications of broadcasting, media and sponsorship has been felt hard in the industry.

FORMULA 1 MUST BE INCREDIBLY RESPONSIBLE

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1 has been hit hard by the coronavirus, with governing body announcing the cancellation of three more races due to the pandemic. After the Australian Grand Prix, F1 quickly cancelled the Bahrain, Vietnamese and Chinese races.

All parties said they would study the viability of finding alternative dates for races later in the year, and the statement added that Formula 1 and the FIA expect to be able to begin the 2020 season “as soon as it’s safe to do so after May” but will continue to monitor the situation.

In the meantime the Formula One machine has cranked up the fight against coronavirus with an offer to help the government in the production of ventilators. A Mercedes spokesman responded: “We are working in coordination with a number of our fellow Formula 1 teams on the feasibility of supporting the production of ventilators, in response to the UK government’s request to industry for help. This is an on going assessment but the teams and Formula 1 are acting in concert to make a positive contribution to the cause.”

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Financial Transparency and Governance in Sport There are no universal rules on the standards of governance and transparency across sport. It is based on type of entity, incorporation status, size and even major income streams, which all vary widely across different sports.

With recent high-profile examples of transparency issues in sport, from the issues at Bury FC, to Saracens salary cap breaches and Manchester City and financial fair play, what can we learn about each approach to improve the sector as a whole?

Football and Rugby clubs tend to be private limited companies, meaning they have no extra governance obligations than your average company (very few). There is variation across sports depending on rules of competition etc., Financial Fair Play (FFP) is an example of this. Although FFP has made an impact, it struggles to create an equal footing and higher levels of transparency. There are always ways around the rules. The only real way to change this would be full cultural buy-in from all clubs to the fundamental principles of FFP. This would need to be rigorously clamped down on by the governing body and other member clubs. Unfortunately, this is extremely difficult to achieve in a competitive industry, and we have seen when punishment is handed out, expensive legal cases usually ensue.

County cricket clubs are most often set up as cooperatives and not companies. These are effectively members’ societies run for the benefit of its members. There is a reasonable amount of transparency with this model.

They are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), not companies house, and their accounts can be publicly accessed.

The accounts tend to be relatively comprehensive and are organisationally structured, so members have significant power.

This can cause its own challenges, however, particularly when necessary change is not popular with the membership.

National governing bodies (NGBs) are usually incorporated as companies by guarantee, this means the company has members rather than shareholders and is not run with a view to shareholder returns. The majority must abide by the code for sports governance, a code drafted by Sport England and UK Sport to set the standard of governance they expect if you are to receive their funding. It has had an impact in a lot of key areas like board diversity and lessening the role of unwieldy councils as some of our own research suggests, however there are still high-profile governance challenges which occur from time to time.

Could professional clubs learn from some of the aspects of the code for sports governance? Possibly, it is well drafted but there needs to be a strong will to cooperate in an otherwise uncooperative environment. Keeping major funders and 100,000 subscription-based members happy is a completely different governance environment to a single private owner and a broadcasting-focused funding model. With larger and more democratically powerful stakeholder bases comes more incentive and regulatory pressure to maintain high standards of governance.

Sport is a highly visible industry in the national consciousness and will never be seen by the general sports fan as a ’normal business’ because of the emotional connection between fans and clubs. Transparency is often in the eye of the beholder and views vary wildly between fans, sports business professionals and owners. Despite the seemingly untouchable popularity of sports organisations, the reputation of the sector is likely to be determined by the importance placed on governance over the next few years.

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SPONSORSHIP

Annual sponsorship spend nearing $50bn mark The global sports sponsorship industry is set to enjoy its strongest growth in a decade this year, boosted by the Olympic Games in Tokyo, according to a report published by the World Advertising Research Centre.

The company’s latest Sports Sponsorship Investment forecasts that advertiser spend on sports sponsorship will total $48.4 billion in 2020, up $2.3 billion, or 5 per cent, from $46.1 billion last year.

The figures from WARC Data and Two Circles, the international data-driven agency, show the global market has grown every year since 2011, but that this year is set to see the greatest rise.

The Tokyo games are expected to account for $5.94 billion in revenue in the current Olympic cycle, almost double the figure for the previous Rio 2016 games.

WARC claims that $1.95 billion will be spent by International Olympic Committee TOP sponsors such as Coca-Cola and Proctor & Hamble, double the amount the previous cycle, with a further $3.33 billion driving from domestic partners such as Canon, Asahi and Fujitsu, four times higher than the figure for Rio 2016.

North America remains the most valuable market in terms of sports sponsorship spend with

the figure there expected to hit $18.8 billion in 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate of 4.6 per cent since 2011.

The USA accounts for 82.5 per cent of the total figure and brand associations with the three major leagues expected to be worth $3.97 billion, comprising $1.53 billion for the NFL, $1.39 billion for the NBA (2020-21) and $1.05 billion for MLB. The three highest investing categories in the USA in 2019 were financial services ($5.3 billion), automotive ($2.4 billion) and retail ($1.3 billion).

European sports sponsorship revenue is forecast to increase by 5 per cent to $12.9 billion in 2020, ahead of the five-year CAGR of 4.2 per cent. Germany is the leading market, with a projected value of $1.89 billion, up 4.4% from last year, with the UK second.

WARC claims that 38 per cent of European sponsorship money is directed to soccer rights holders, and that the most influential sectors in terms of regional spend are sportswear (10 per cent), banking (5 per cent) and betting (5 per cent).

“The Tokyo games are expected to account for $5.94 billion in revenue in the current Olympic cycle, almost double the figure for the previous Rio 2016 games.”

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Leveraging Off-Field Assets To Enable Strategic Growth

Over recent decades the sports industry in general has seen enormous growth. This is reflected in, amongst other things, the size of sponsorship and TV rights deals. This rapid growth has meant that sporting organisations face unique challenges including how to leverage their off-field assets to maximise their potential and maintain their growth.

As with any organisation experiencing fast growth, the main considerations for sporting organisations are (i) hiring and recruitment of both on and off-field employees; (ii) maintaining focus on clients (e.g. ensuring the customer/fan experience remains the same or is improved); (iii) continued investment in infrastructure to sustain their growth (e.g. upgrading the stadium); and (iv) cashflow management.

Financial institutions can help, directly or directly, with (i) – (iv) above. Cashflow management, which ultimately facilitiates sporting organisations in performing (i) – (iii) above, can prove particularly problematic for sporting organisations due to the fact that certain cashflows will only arise in the future (e.g. TV rights) and others are unpredictable (i.e. ticket sales).

However there are a number structured finance solutions

which can assist sporting organisations in rationalising their cash flow requirements. These include, amongst other things (i) the monetisation of (a) player transfer fee receivables; (b) TV revenue contracts; and (c) sponsorship contracts; and (ii) a corporate style facility secured against the assets of the organisation. These solutions can be tailored to meet a sporting organisation’s needs. For example, a football club may choose to monetise a single transfer fee receivable in order to raise relatively short-term debt or use all of its transfer fee receivables (current and future) as security against a larger piece of debt (e.g. a stadium financing).

The type of solution required by a sporting organisation will ultimately depend on its short-term and long-term goals.

In choosing the correct solution to meet its needs now and in the future, it is important that each sporting organisation chooses a strategic finance partner who can quickly provide a whole suite of products to meet that organisation’s requirements ranging from, amongst other things, monetising receivables, stadium financing, cash management solutions and FX solutions. A large multi-service financial institution like Deutsche Bank is uniquely placed to offer tailored financial solutions to satisfy its sporting clients’ needs.

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WOMEN’S SPORT

Investment in Women’s sport is growing but has it reached the point of financial independence Vitality’s record-breaking sponsorship renewal with the Netball World Cup in 2018 was described as ‘the largest female team sport sponsorship deal in the UK’

by England Netball Chief Executive Joanna Adams with the undisclosed value of the partnership being doubled.

With more and more high-profile commercial deals being sealed in women’s sport, particularly football, Nielsen, the data provider, states that the number of women’s sports sponsorship deals robe by 47 per cent from 2013-2017, with the average value of partnerships also rising by 38 per cent.

Although these statistics are amazing, it is unsure how sustainable these projects are, with Adams outlining that despite the Vitality extension, England Netball is still 64 per cent funded by government backed Sport England.

Sally Horrox, managing partner of Y-Sport, a women’s sport focused agency, is feeling ‘pretty positive’ about the increasing commercial value, but feels financial sustainability is still far away. “We are only just seeing deals of that sort of value and duration being done in Europe, and still predominantly in women’s football, prompted by the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Tennis and football occupy such a dominant position in terms of global appeal,

infrastructure and fanbase, it’s difficult for others to compete.”

Despite the challenge, more time and resources are being invested by international federations to develop female facing initiatives, such as new competition formats or marketing campaigns, often as part of corporate social responsibility strategies.

Brett Gosper, Chief Executive of World Rugby, announced the introduction of new underage tournaments as part of ‘Women in Rugby’, spearheading a longterm strategy to engage more women and girls.

Gosper stressed his wish to ‘grow the commercial value of the women’s game as fast as we can’ which he believes will require a new approach.

Historically, women’s and men’s rugby assets were bundled together. However, in order to see the commercial possibility of women’s rugby, these assets must ‘stand on their own two feet’ to earn more value. As a result, ‘the women’s game’ will be marketed far more on its own.

Horrox stresses that long-term vision and patience are needed, with a belief

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that core investment will need to be put into women’s sport for at least four years, alongside ‘an eight-year commercial cycle to break even or turn a profit’.

According to Nielsen, of people in the UK who are interested in at least one women’s sport, 51 per cent are female and 49 per cent are male. Across all sports fans in the country, 65 per cent are male versus

are brands who have a large number of women’s products, has a significant presence in men’s sport, but are still ‘missing open goals’ in women’s.

Jonathan Cockcroft, England Hockey commercial director, told Marketing Week that there is a lack of CMOs and directors who “have the imagination, the bravery and the gut instincts to go for something

“Sports organisations need to get to grips with the way teenage girls live their lives; their hopes, fears and aspirations. Sport must be relevant to the complex and busy lives these girls lead.”

Ruth Holdaway, Women in Sport Chief Executive 35 per cent female. Women influence 80 per cent of consumer purchasing decisions, so more brands may identify the opportunities in women’s sport and connect brands with this dynamic.

Adams went on to say that the commitment needed to gain a return from women’s sport is a reason why many brand managers are reluctant to invest.

She added that Gillette, Dove and L’Oréal

that’s slightly less mainstream”. Jo Bostock, Women’s Sport Trust co-founder and joint chief executive, believe that a lack of data is often cited as a way to avoiding investing in what is perceived to be an immature market.

Although there is a large amount of short-term data, with World Rugby reporting an increase of 28% since 2017 of registered female players, the lack of long-

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term data struggles to support long term commitment to women’s sport.

Female participation in women’s sports falls during teenage years, with a study carried out by One Poll finding that, in 2,000 youngsters aged between eight and 18, 57 per cent of girls played some kind of sport outside education, compared to 79 per cent of boys, a trend seen across the world.

This rapid decline is already being addressed worldwide, with The New Zealand government released their new ‘Strategy on Women and Girls in Sport and Active Recreation’ in 2018, highlighting the need for ‘collective action’ according to Jennah Wooten, Sport New Zealand.

One Poll found that over one third of girls felt they were not good enough to take part, with 18 per cent feeling too shy.

Women in Sport released a study in 2018, outlining how sport can be made more relevant to girls’ lives.

More brands than ever before are recognising the potential of association with women’s sports. However, despite some notable exceptions, financial selfsustainability for women’s sports properties remains an aspiration rather than an achievement for the majority.

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NBA

Inside the NBA’s efforts to reach a global audience In recent years the NBA has made great strides in opening up new markets. The NBA’s trip to Paris, this year replacing London, at the beginning of the year was a welcome opportunity for fans in Europe to experience an NBA game in person. Preseason trips to China have become the norm, as has the annual NBA Africa game and next year will see the first preseason games played in India.

To really reach a global audience, the NBA’s work on broadcasting is what matters. It’s no small undertaking. NBA programming during the 2017-18 season reached more than one billion unique viewers, and more than 35 per cent of visitors to NBA.com come from fans outside North America.

It’s a mark of the progress they have made, with the games that have been hosted in London and Paris being broadcast in 215 countries and in 34 languages. The NBA have partnered with Sky Sports to promote the NBA throughout Europe and distribute content through their online platforms.

Inside the feed truck It’s the mission of NBA’s Steve Hellmuth (EVP, Media Operations and Technology) to ensure the NBA reaches as many people as possible.

On a visit to the nerve centre of the NBA’s 2019 London games broadcasting operation, the world feed truck, Mr. Hellmuth talked through how the NBA gets their product out to so many different audiences. Tucked away out of view in an underground parking garage in the O2 Arena, the world feed truck would take

video of the action from 11 cameras and then distribute it to a wide range of broadcasters.

One camera specifically generated the NBA’s mobile view output, also used for social media content and highlights.

“We’ve been here often enough that the cameramen know what they’re doing.

They know exactly what we’re looking for.

Downstream is Comcast Washington, they’re taking four cameras and the main feed, and they’re shipping them back to Connecticut and they’re cutting their own version of the game. The Knicks also have their own commentators on site, they’re taking the world feed and then they’re adding their own graphics presentation and doing their own version.”

“The Sky TV folks have their own truck and they’re doing pre-game, halftime, and postgame, and otherwise cutting in and out of the world feed. They’re explaining the game of basketball to the UK public the way they’ve done for [American] football so effectively for the last 20 years. They take it from the ground up and really explain the sport. They really know the appropriate level to explain the sport, and then they bring in experts.”

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NBA

“Then we have commentary on site.

We have France, Germany, Spain, Romania in the stands. Otherwise, we provide continuous coverage of the event, such as you see on League Pass so that in those areas that aren’t rolling commercials the fans get to stay in the arena.”

The growth of NBA League Pass The European market is a particularly tricky one for the NBA due to the time difference, as well as the dominance of more traditional sports such as football [soccer]. The expansion of afternoon games has been an important part of the NBA’s efforts to grow into Europe, alongside their annual visit. During the 2018-19 season, a record 42 regular-season games (24 Sundays and 18 Saturdays) were aired in primetime in Europe.

But the growth of NBA League Pass, available in more than 200 countries, has opened up the game to fans in a completely new way. The ability to watch any game live, or on demand, means that fans can experience the NBA whenever they want to and wherever they live. The top five markets outside the U.S. as of the end of the 2018-19 season (in subscriptions) were China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico.

In Europe, the UK is the No. 1 market for NBA League Pass subscribers, followed by Germany and France. It’s all a far cry from 20 years ago, where NBA fans in the UK were treated to a weekly highlight show and one game a week broadcast in the depths of the night.

For many fans around the world, League Pass broadcasts a continuous feed that stays in the arena during the breaks and carries the same commentators that American fans see, at least for regular season games.

So why doesn’t the NBA produce a generic world feed to be tailored to

“In the States, everything grew up differently. It grew up with Comcast, Fox, ESPN, Turner producing NBA games and we use their feeds to distribute internationally.” different audiences like they are doing for the London game?

As Mr. Hellmuth explained, it is partly to do with the history of how the game was broadcast, and partly to do with fan preferences. “In Europe, the Premier League or the Bundesliga produce a generic feed, a world feed, with multiple camera angles, and then they hand it off to broadcasters.

Then the broadcasters populate it

with graphics and pop their own announcers on camera, they do their own replays.”

“In the States, everything grew up differently. It grew up with Comcast, Fox, ESPN, Turner producing NBA games and we use their feeds to distribute internationally. The good thing about is the announcers are very passionate and speak directly to the graphics that are on camera. The fans around the world like it. The downside is that there is often advertising material and graphics and promos that nobody understands because the product isn’t sold where you are. We’re kind of betwixt and between on it. At some point, we might do generic world feeds, but for now actually, particularly in China, our Chinese viewers say they prefer to see the ESPN feeds and graphics. They like the innovation.”

Nevertheless, the NBA is making strides to produce more bespoke products in some markets, as Mr. Hellmouth outlined. “In China, Tencent gets every feed. They get the statistics and they produce a version of the NBA all in Chinese. Rakuten is preparing to do the same thing in Japan. So we do have [multiple] versions of League Pass.”

So, what’s next? The NBA will continue looking at how to enhance their product. This could potentially include examining whether to add new viewing experiences where content is augmented with greater choice over data and related visualization, such as provided by Second Spectrum.

For now, though, international basketball fans can just be happy to experience the NBA, whether it’s through more chances than ever to attend a game, or through the opportunity to view content whenever they want, thanks to the NBA’s continuous efforts to reach more audiences around the globe.

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EURO 2020

EURO 2020: CELEBRATING 60 YEARS OF EUROPEAN FOOTBALL To celebrate the 60 year landmark, the competition will boast a unique format where 12 key European cities will play host to the tournament, but amid health and safety concerns, the much anticipated tournament will be on hold until the summer of 2021.

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UEFA have taken the opportunity to mark the anniversary by, for the first time in history, allowing 12 cities across Europe to host matches. Aleksander Čerefin, UEFA President, states that the UEFA chose to celebrate the 60th anniversary by allocating games to a number of host cities, symbolising how proud UEFA are ‘to see football acting as a bridge between nations and to carry the competition closer to the fans’.

Following the coronavirus pandemic however, the tournament will now be postponed until the summer of 2021, but UEFA maintain their vision of a European tournament across 12 host nations.

Sustainability Pre- COVID-19, UEFA have announced that one million paperless tickets will be distributed via a ground breaking blockchain system integrated in an app, which will activate via Bluetooth once fans are in the vicinity of the stadium. This has been introduced as part of UEFA’s sustainability efforts, which have been intensified as a result of this continental structure, causing a detrimental impact on the environment as a result of a multitude of factors generated by the event, such as travel costs. UEFA are concerned about the potential impact this tournament will have, and so are seeking to make this the most sustainable competition they have ever held. In addition to the mobile tickets, UEFA have also sought to include clauses with each host city, giving all fans attending matches free public transport on matches. This is a significant move as at the 2016 Euros, held in France, fans, spectators and guests accounted for 19% of the 2.8million tonnes of carbon generated. However, during 2016 fans were asked to compensate for their own emissions, so this move for UEFA to absorb all travel costs for fans on match days will decrease the likelihood of cars or taxis being used. It is evident that UEFA are

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doing their utmost to reduce costs for fans as they attempt to decrease the carbon footprint of their tournament.

Economic Impact Fortunately, the majority of costs which UEFA are putting into the competition is bound to see increased benefits for the local economy.

A study commissioned by Dublin, Ireland, carried out by EY-DKM, revealed that for every €1 of public expenditure on the competition, €4 would be generated, in addition to the creation of 2,780 jobs.

The 2016 Euros saw a France saw a €1.2billion impact on their economy as a result of hosting the 2016 tournament, a massive profit on their €200million injection of public money. With €74.3million was also generated in additional tax, resulting in a boost in the local economy far exceeding the duration of the competition.

The majority of host cities will be hosting matches for two weeks, where it is estimated that there will be between 76,000 to 96,000 additional tourists who will stay for an average of six nights in Dublin. With the addition of free public transport on matchdays, fans may be encouraged to familiarise themselves with local transport routes, resulting in them exploring further than their local hotel and stadium surroundings. As not all games will be hosted in the same city, fans may seek to watch live games with fellow football fans, as they can replicate the atmosphere at those live games without being there. The best place to do this is in the host city’s Official UEFA Euro Fan Zone, which have been designed to allocate designated areas across each city for fans to enjoy live games in iconic locations such as Museum Square in Amsterdam and Greenwich Park in London. With other activities and stalls also held in the festival theme created for each fan zone, the crowd in the fan zones is bound to be a diverse crowd.

The France 2016 Euros saw an average expenditure of €154 per visitor per day. With more cities being able to embrace the Euros fever, it is highly likely that this figure could be even higher in 2021. The majority of these cities have not had an option to host such a large tournament in a while, or at least a tournament on such a continental scale, making it more likely that local businesses will produce products dedicated to the Euros.

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FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

SOFI STADIUM IN LA EMBODIES FUTURE OF LIVE SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT A mass redevelopment in Los Angeles will see an eye-watering $5.2 billion venue for two NFL teams, the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, open this year.

Super Bowl LVI in February 2022 is slated to be held at the ground, as is the College Football Playoff National Championship a year later. For the 2028 Summer Olympics, the opening and closing ceremonies will be held at the ground, as well as the football tournament. It will host 70,240 spectators during NFL but can be increased to 100,240 during special events such as the Olympics, Super Bowl and World Cup.

SUPER STADIA For fans of state-of-the-art facilities, there’s never been a better time to be alive. With the opening of the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last year, a large number of venues have ongoing schemes to redevelop existing grounds of move to newly constructed stadiums, to create new revenue streams and prepare for the future. Here we take a look at some of the most exciting developments across the globe.

EVERTON’S STUNNING WATERFRONT PLANS The Toffees have been searching for a new home for years. In late 2019, their plans for a new £500 million waterfront stadium received a supporting vote of 96 per cent from a public consortium of 43,000 people. Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, believe that the 52,000 capacity stadium will improve the ‘dilapidated docklands which sit in one of the poorest areas of the UK’ when it is built, which is scheduled to be 2023. Everton have also announced a £30million naming rights deal with former Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov.

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BRENTFORD LOOKING TO A BRIGHT FUTURE The Championship promotion-chasers are going their own way over transfers and player development- and hope the new stadium in West London will leave them in profit. There is little doubt that Brentford’s impending move to a new stadium opens up exciting opportunities for the innovative and upwardly mobile west London club. Capable of hosting 17,250 spectators, which includes 2,930 premium seats, the new stadium will allow growth of support and the ability to realise an important new revenue stream in the pursuit of top-flight football.

BRISTOL’S ‘SPORTING QUARTER’ Ashton Gate Stadium Ltd is aiming to provide hundreds of new homes, as well as a new 4,000 capacity arena for the basketball team, the Bristol Flyers, as designs for a sports and convention centre next to Ashton Gate Stadium have been revealed.

As well as the two marquee developments with 250 new homes, there will also be two new hotels with more than 300 rooms as well as mixed office space, bars, restaurants, a gym and a multistorey car park.

A report from Ashton Gate revealed “There has long been the ambition to bring the Flyers home to Ashton Gate. As part of the Bristol Sport Group, it has always been the aspiration to have the team play out of BS3. We also believe it would enhance the city’s sporting prowess and create a new ‘City Quarter’ centred around sport, leisure and events, where the city’s football, rugby and basketball teams can all play.”

FGR ECO PARK: ‘THE GREENEST FOOTBALL STADIUM IN THE WORLD’ Forest Green Rovers FC, named as the world’s greenest football club by FIFA, have received the go-ahead to build a carbon-zero ‘sustainable stadium’ called Eco Park. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the 5,000-seat timber venue is set to be powered by renewable energy and will be the first modern football stadium constructed almost entirely from wood. Eco Park would be located in parkland where some five hundred trees and 1.8km of new hedgerows would be planted. The club have done a huge amount to showcase sustainable initiatives from being becoming the world’s only vegan football club, to working with partners to reduce its carbon footprint and ‘green up football’, but Eco Park will take their sustainable thinking to a new level entirely.

THE WORLD’S LARGEST CRICKET STADIUM The biggest stadium set to be built in the next decade is the New Sardar Patel Stadium in India. Located in Ahmedabad, it will hold 110,000 people and will become the new home of the Indian cricket team as well as state side Gujarat. It will become the second-biggest stadium in the world, behind only May Day Stadium in North Korea (114,000).

CIAO SAN SIRO Inter and AC Milan have shared the iconic San Siro arena – which seats over 75,000 – since 1947. The Serie A giants revealed two potential designs for a new 60,000-seater stadium in September, putting an end to speculation that the San Siro was set to be redeveloped. A Cathedral design draws inspiration from the Duomo di Milano church in the heart of the city with some environmentally friendly features including rainwater harvesting, zero emissions and solar panels. The second design is labelled ‘The Rings of Milano’ and would change colour depending on which team is playing.

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FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

THE FUTUR OF CAMP NOU FC Barcelona’s ambitious ‘Espai Barça’ redevelopment project will see the Camp Nou’s capacity increase to 105,000, (making it the second biggest football stadium in the world), with the addition of a roof, as well as being the first stadium in the world to incorporate 5G technology.

REVISED BATH RUGBY CLUB STADIUM DESIGNS UNVEILED Last October, Bath Rugby revised designs for the new stadium at Bath’s recreation ground. The new 18,000 capacity ‘community and sporting stadium’ will also include a underground public car park with a capacity of 550. Key design changes included an overall height reduction of 5.1m to the structure to maintain views to local landmarks, capacity of the car park being reduced from 700 spaces and the installation of a hybrid playing surface which can be used all year round. Planning application is set to be submitted this year.

SOUTH LONDON GROUND TO BECOME LARGEST CRICKET STADIUM IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE Work is well underway on a £26m redevelopment at the Oval. The new scheme, One Oval Square, will feature two new roof terraces floating over the existing Peter May Stand, increasing the capacity of the ground to 28,000.

A linked four-storey building will contain the covered concourse on the ground floor, as well as reception, shop and ticket office as well as hospitality space including a room capable of holding 900 people throughout its bars and restaurants. The project is part of a wider £50 million redevelopment master planned in-house by Surrey Cricket Club, which will see the Oval transformed into the largest cricket stadium in the western hemisphere, with a capacity of 40,000.

FULHAM FC RIVERSIDE STAND REDEVELOPMENT Construction of the new sizeable Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage is underway, which will have a capacity of just under 9,000 across two tiers. The development will also include restaurants, meeting facilities, bars, nine flats and a new riverside walkway behind it. Once completed it will raise the capacity of Craven Cottage to 29,600, however the stadium is restricted to 21,000 for at least a season.

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LIVERPOOL FC’S PLANS FOR £60M ANFIELD REDEVELOPMENT TO BOOST CAPACITY TO 61,000 Liverpool have unveiled revised plans for £60 million redevelopment to take the capacity of Anfield beyond the 60,000 mark and make it one of the largest grounds in the Premier League and Europe. Following the expansion work to the main stand, that was completed shortly after the 2016/17 season commenced, Liverpool are hoping to continue to meet the extraordinary demand at Anfield with Phase Two. According to Deloitte’s 2020 Money Football League, Liverpool earned around £85 million from matchday last season- or around 16 per cent of total turnover.

This figure is up from around £60 million in 2015/16, the final season before the capacity was first expanded, meaning that the proposed plans could well take Liverpool’s revenue from match days north of £100 million- given that of the 7,000 additional seats, around 5,200 are estimated to be for general admission and the remaining 1,800 will be more lucrative lounge and sports-bar hospitality.

MSG SPHERE: A GROUNDBREAKING NEW VENUE IN LONDON The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) wants to transform an undeveloped site in the heart of Stratford, East London, into MSG Sphere - a state-of-the-art music and entertainment venue that will pioneer the next generation of immersive experiences, creating unforgettable moments for fans from the UK and around the world. If approved, MSG Sphere would become a thriving destination with the largest and highest resolution LED screen in the world; adaptive acoustics delivering crystal-clear audio to every guest; haptic system so you can ‘feel’ the experience- the technology behind MSG Sphere will transports fans to whole new worlds. It will be unlike anything experienced before and will offer something for everyone- from concerts, residencies and immersive experiences, to family shows, corporate events, award shows, product launches and select sporting events.

REAL MADRID’S ‘DIGITAL STADIUM OF THE FUTURE’ Not to be outdone by their bitter rivals, Real Madrid are also planning to renovate and modernise their famous home, though there will not be an increase in capacity. Instead, the €525 million project will see the outside of the stadium given a sleek new look as well as a fully retractable roof being installed. The height of the ground will be raised by 10 metres, with an American-style Jumbotron mooted for installation that will give fans a 360-degree view of the action.

BDP’S PLANS FOR OLD TRAFFORD CRICKET GROUND SET FOR GREEN LIGHT Lancashire county cricket club’s plans for a new BDP-designed development at its Emirates Old Trafford ground in Manchester are set to get the green light.

The project will replace the stadium’s Red Rose Suite with a 4,850-seat stand that will take the capacity of the ground from 26,000 to 26,700 and include a heritage centre and a shop. Trafford Council is also embarking on the redevelopment of the wider area, the Civic Quarter Masterplan, which will include a new public piazza and processional route that links the cricket ground with Manchester United’s Old Trafford.

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FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

CLOCK IS TICKING ON CHELSEA’S VISION FOR STAMFORD BRIDGE With Stamford Bridge having a capacity of under 42,000, far smaller than other league rivals, the club have been looking for some time at ways to further increase it, but various problems have been encountered. The club were handed council approval in January 2017 to build a new 60,000-seater stadium on the site of their current ground and now have little time on their planning approval, which was endorsed by the London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

WASPS BUZZING OVER TRAINING GROUND DEVELOPMENT Wasps look set to develop a new high-performance centre in time for the 2020/21 season. Since playing their first game at the Ricoh Arena nearly five years ago the Black and Golds have not had their own training ground base and have been using the facilities at Coventry club Broadstreet RFC since July 2016. Subject to planning approval, the deal will see a new training base for the first team and Academy set-ups, complete with two grass pitches, an all-weather surface, skills area and gymnasium.

MILLWALL REVEAL STADIUM EXPANSION PLANS Millwall FC has submitted plans to expand the Den stadium in South London to 34,000 seats. The plans, drawn up by AFL Architects, include new upper stands and community additions, including a sports hall, gym and local café. The club said some of the design elements reflected the history of the football clubs, including brickwork arches in the design to reference the railway arches and the important industrial past of the area. The expansion plans remain dependent on the council agreeing to the club’s lease on the area.

LEICESTER CITY Leicester City are pressing ahead with plans to develop the King Power Stadium as they look to turn their ground into a ‘world-class sporting venue and events destination’. As part of their grand ambitions for the club, owners King Power intend to increase the capacity of the stadium and develop the site on Filbert Way to make City’s home into one of the premier venues in the country.

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TRANSFERS

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FIFA transfer reforms target an end to player ‘hoarding’ and mega-pay days for agents FIFA have taken further steps to reform the transfer system with the establishment of a new system for training rewards and with confirmation that limits of player loans will be introduced, as of July 2020.

In a transfer reform that will be widely welcomed across many sectors of the game, FIFA is set to limit the number of international loan deals from next season and curb the amount agents can be paid.

In a statement, FIFA said it had taken “a series of key steps to protect the integrity of the system and prevent abuses” following a meeting of its Stakeholders Committee.

From next season, non-domestic loans among players aged 22 and over will be limited to eight out and eight in, with that figure dropping progressively to six by the 2022/23 season. The number of players that can be loaned between the same two clubs will be capped at three.

Individual leagues would be given a period of three years to implement similar rules for domestic loan deals though there is nothing to force them to do so.

Many leagues already have strict loan criteria. In the Premier League, for instance, clubs may not register more

than two players on loan at any one time and can only register four loans in total in a single season. But if approved, the FIFA stakeholders committee proposal will put a much-needed ceiling on the practice throughout the professional game.

The proposals are subject to the approval of FIFA’s players’ status committee and the full FIFA Council and should in theory provide for a more regulated system as well as muchneeded greater emphasis on home-grown talent. The new regulations, FIFA said, are intended to “ensure that (loans) have a valid sporting purpose for youth development”.

One of the reasons for the move is stop the unsavoury practise of hoarding players which has become one of the game’s most unfair and destabilising devices.

“Players’ development is suffering as they are moved from one club to another with no clear career plan. The current loan system has facilitated player

hoarding with clubs putting numerous players on their books and then loaning them out to other clubs,” FIFA said in a document quoted by AFP. Among the clubs who will take note are Chelsea and Monaco. Chelsea have been guilty of loaning out vast numbers of players while Monaco currently have as many as 18 at other clubs.

The influential stakeholders committee also proposed the introduction of a one per cent levy on all transfer fees to support a fund to compensate clubs who develop players through their youth academies.

Smaller clubs have long complained they are not sufficiently rewarded when players they develop leave at a young age and are later involved in big-money moves. Many of world football’s big-name stars start off at unheralded clubs and this is what FIFA wants to address.

FIFA says the system up until now has not worked properly especially in Latin America and Africa.

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SPORTS TOURISM

THE RISE OF SPORTS TOURISM IN THE GULF Middle Eastern countries are following a clever game plan by hosting increasing sports events Over the past few months, global sporting attention has centred on a new arena; Saudi Arabia’s sand dunes are the cynosure of attention with a raft of big-ticket events. In December, heavyweight boxers Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr faced off against each other in the Clash of the Dunes, a rematch of their June 2019 bout.

And for the first time in January, the Kingdom staged the Dakar Rally. The highprofile annual motor-racing event, formerly known as the Paris-Dakar rally, relocated to the Arabian Peninsula for the first time from its home in Latin America – with the trophy lifted by veteran driver Carlos Sainz and the X-raid team, sponsored by neighbouring Bahrain.

In the same month, the port city of Jeddah hosted Spain’s top four football teams, including Barcelona and Real Madrid, in the Spanish Super Cup, in a deal valued at €120 million.

The events add heft to a growing annual winter sports schedule around the Gulf.

With one-off event such as the Paralympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, as well

“Sports tourism represents over 10 percent of the global tourism market, with international tourist arrivals of between 12-15 million generating a global turnover of over $600 billion.” as annual fixtures including the Dubai Desert Classic, the Dubai World Cup and the Formula 1 Grand Prix races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, the region’s track record over the past couple of decades underscores its arrival on the map as a global contender for the hosting of marquee international sporting events.

It appears that the region’s tourism boards have a new motto: host it and they will come. Tourism has provided a valuable route to economic diversification for the Gulf’s hydrocarbon-dependent economies.

Saudi Arabia, which launched a major tourism push at the beginning of 2020,

hopes the travel industry will account for 10 per cent to its annual gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade, as part of its Vision 2030 initiative.

In Bahrain, tourism makes up 6.5 per cent of the aggregate economic value at present, and the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority expects that contribution to swell to 8.3 per cent by 2022. Sports tourism represents over 10 percent of the global tourism market, with international tourist arrivals of between 12-15 million generating a global turnover of over $600 billion.

The Gulf’s strategic shift is particularly well-timed. The global sports tourism market size expanded by 32.34 per cent in 2019, according to a report by Technavio, and is expected to race ahead at a compounded annual growth rate of 36 per cent through to 2023. That’s a total increase of $6,120 billion over a five-year period.

The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) describes the Middle East and Africa as the world’s fastest-growing tourism destination. The region has youth and money on its side: the WTO cites factors

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“With fewer hydrocarbon reserves than their neighbours, Bahrain and Dubai were the first destinations to recognize the appeal of bigleague sporting events.”

such as a young and growing population, a rapidly expanding middle class with high disposable incomes and improved event marketing.

With fewer hydrocarbon reserves than their neighbours, Bahrain and Dubai were the first destinations to recognize the appeal of big-league sporting events.

From cricket and basketball to tennis and rugby, Dubai has shown how culture and entertainment can be key pillars of future economic success.

Similarly, when the first Gulf Air Formula One Grand Prix was flagged off 15 years ago in 2004 in Bahrain, the reverberations were heard around the world. As the first major motorsport event to be held in the Middle East, it was soon followed by attempts from other regional players — including Abu Dhabi, which has staged a Grand Prix since 2009.

And in an increasingly digital world, spectator sports are not only happening in soccer stadiums and on racetracks.

The emergence and rapid growth of the e-sports industry has taken place in the Middle East as much as anywhere else,

and is set to bring an estimated market value of $4 billion to the MENA region by 2022.

As well as attracting substantial interest from developers seeking to harness the interest of the Arabic-speaking world, where the native-language gaming market is vastly underserved, the surrounding ecosystem is creating a major market opportunity for firms to appeal to professional players at the highest levels.

Bahrain’s recent hosting of the BLAST Pro Series global final, for example, saw teams from around the world competing for a $500,000 prize pot – attracting crowds of fans and millions of viewers online.

But the success of these events demonstrates another significant advantage of the Middle East’s fastgrowing sports industry. By funding toptier sports on the global stage, countries across the region bolster their credentials as investors in success that is ultimately driven by precision and innovation. And at a time when the Gulf is firmly in the global spotlight, outward investment in such public-facing sectors shows that

the region’s economic ambitions span far beyond hydrocarbons, dispelling a common preconception about the Middle East.

Since 2017, for example, Bahrain has been backing a pro-cycling team in global contests; formerly Bahrain-Merida, the team will enter the 2020 competitive season — and the run-up to the Tour de France — as Bahrain-McLaren. Cycling has been called the new golf, and Bahrain on the team shirt shows the Gulf state’s commitment to advancing elite athleticism at the highest levels. Similarly, the curiosity of motorsport fans was sparked by the presence of a Bahrain team in the Dakar Rally — an event which highlighted the natural beauty of the sprawling desert region in Saudi Arabia.

Together, these sporting associations are indicative of a Gulf on the rise with a genuine claim to a place alongside other sporting regions. With 1.8 billion worldwide tourist arrivals forecast for 2030 — and a possible 180 million sports tourists — Middle Eastern destinations are playing a long game on several fronts.

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GOVERNANCE

Bury Beware: Lessons on the importance of good governance from Bury FC’s football league expulsion “Caveat emptor” seems rather paradoxical when observing the plight of Bury FC. The story so far In August 2019 Bury became the first club since Maidstone United in 1992 to be expelled from the EFL. The 125-year old club faced severe financial difficulties from 2013, when Stewart Day saved it from bankruptcy. Debts were mounting in late 2018 when Day sold the club to Steve Dale for £1.

Bury then faced a winding-up petition, dismissed by the High Court in July.

Creditors then approved a CVA intended to settle some of their debts but left ‘nonfootball’ creditors (including HMRC) only 25 per cent of what they were owed. A CVA is a qualifying insolvency event; the league accordingly imposed a 12-point penalty and cancelled six fixtures.

On 8 August the EFL gave Bury a 14-day ‘do or die’ deadline to formulate a repayment plan or be expelled. After Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Bury North MP James Frith implored the league for an extension, Dale brokered a deal with C&N Sporting Risk to sell the club; this collapsed.

The EFL expelled Bury on 27 August 2019 and rejected its re-entry in the 202021 season. HMRC has since brought a winding-up petition against the club on 16 October.

What went wrong?

Poor governance by the owners and regulators drove Bury’s decline, but the vast financial inequalities in English football did not help. In 2017-18 Premier League clubs made combined operating profits before transfers of £900m;

Championship and League One and League Two clubs sustained losses of £411m.

Despite the palpably unequal playing field, Bury is the first club to be expelled from the league for 27 years; it was ultimately not the root cause of its fall.

Irresponsible ownership There are strong arguments to support the notion that Bury was driven to expulsion due to the actions of its owners. In pursuit of promotion Bury’s penultimate owner purchased players through loaning money

“These owners share a portion of the blame. They appear to have demonstrated a lack of responsibility and have exposed the existing rules’ fallibility. These acts indicate a flawed, cracked system that needs to be reinforced or reformed.” to the club from his property businesses, then converted the cash to shares. When these businesses became insolvent, Bury instantly could not afford to pay its players and staff.

In a seemingly unthinkable move, Day also mortgaged Gigg Lane itself; the lender is owed £3.7m. This loan allegedly accrues interest at almost £1,500 per day

– a heavy loss for a debt-ridden club and a critical sticking point for C&N during the takeover talks.

A significant proportion of the many businesses that Steve Dale has been associated with have been liquidated or struck off by Companies House. Dale, who confessed that he “didn’t even know there was a football team called Bury”, bought the club for £1, insisting that he had proved to the EFL that he had sufficient funds. Within months Dale had helped to facilitate a heavily criticised insolvency process and asked fans to “chip in” to save the club. The EFL did not enforce its rule that owners must prove they have funds to sustain their clubs.

These owners share a portion of the blame. They appear to have demonstrated a lack of responsibility and have exposed the existing rules’ fallibility. These acts indicate a flawed, cracked system that needs to be reinforced or reformed.

Owners’ responses Day has largely remained quiet in the face of the media criticism, claiming that he never wanted “to rip anyone off”.

Contrastingly Dale released a statement following Bury’s expulsion lashing out at the EFL. Here Dale apologised for failing to save Bury and heavily criticised the EFL and its Executive Chair Debbie Jevans for having an ulterior agenda and for causing Bury’s “devastation”.

Governance – need for an overhaul?

The EFL has come under sustained criticism by many, including Bury MP

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James Frith Bury’s potential rescuerC&N. The main governance criticisms are: • Enforcement of rules; • No independent regulation; and • Punishing the club, not the owners.

The EFL’s first failing was to allow Dale to become owner with such limited evidence he could save the club. Former manager Neil Warnock described this as “criminal”, accusing the EFL of not carrying out the necessary due diligence (i.e. not knowing the extent of Bury’s debts). New owners are supposed to demonstrate “proof of funding”, yet there is no punishment for one who does not.

Clubs, not owners, are sanctioned.

Furthermore, EFL rules are supposed to restrict clubs’ spending to within their means. Stewart Day circumvented this by investing capital into shares, resulting in Bury being unable to repay its debts nor pay players and staff.

The EFL’s allowance in response to C&N’s request for an extension to the rescue process was one working day; this usually takes weeks. The EFL has since committed to upgrade its regulations to ensure Bury’s fate is never repeated. Is this an admission of failure? Will the reforms go far enough?

Despite the EFL commissioning an independent review into the rules regarding clubs’ financial sustainability, it has maintained that its rules are robust and do not require independent regulation; perhaps Bury’s example proves the opposite.

The EFL penalising Bury by suspending games, deducting points and ultimate expulsion does not address the root problems. These sanctions impact players, staff and fans but allow the owners to escape unscathed. .

MP select committee MP Damian Collins damningly described the flaws in the EFL’s regulations as being ‘systematic…structural’ but “avoidable”, needing an ‘overhaul’. The committee demanded: • The EFL compensate Bury for loss of earnings due to its expulsion; • Government intervention if satisfactory reforms are not made; • An updated owners’ and directors’ test excluding buyers with unsatisfactory insolvency track records; • A supporters’ ombudsman for governance concerns; • A ban on clubs borrowing against fixed assets (such as Gigg Lane); and • The EFL apologise to Bury staff and fans for its failings.

Conclusion At the heart of the tragic events at Bury lies a fundamental lack of good governance. The system in place allowed the owners to act how they did; inadequate regulation enabled the irresponsible ownership. Tighter regulation would surely protect clubs and communities from similar scenarios.

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What’s happened since?

December 2019: Robert Benwell, entrepreneur and football fan, proposed to “bring football back to Bury” by either: 1. Rescue Bury from administration; or 2. Repossess Gigg Lane’s ground and start a new club in the lower leagues, apparently for c. £600,000.

Bury A.F.C., a fan-formed phoenix club, applied to the NWCL for membership The phoenix club stated that it has playing grounds available, meeting the criteria 11 February 2020: the CVA deadline.

Bury defaulted on the arrangement, meaning that its future is now uncertain.

Bury’s options? Steven Dale or Steven Wiseglass, the CVA Supervisor, could liquidate the club; this would be the end of Bury. , A creditor could bring a winding-up petition to court . Lastly, Bury could attempt to obtain a new CVA. The club’s current predicament, without both players and a league in which to play, stands in stark contrast to its promotion from League Two in 2019.

27 February 2020: the EFLcommissioned independent review was published. Whilst recommending changes to reinforce EFL governance procedures, it concluded that “a lack of owner funding” was the decisive blow for Bury’s . The review contains an EFL statement saying “any additional [EFL] action would not have made any difference to the eventual outcome, which was ultimately caused by a lack of owner funding.”

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GOVERNANCE

THE RISE OF MANCHESTER CITY & SARACENS: ECONOMIC THEORY IN ACTION

The Saracens salary cap scandal and news that Manchester City allegedly breached UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules have threatened the integrity of the clubs and the sports respectively

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But it should not come as a great surprise. Economic theory predicts that if the rewards are high enough, then there will always be those who are willing to take risks to circumvent the regulations.

In January Saracens, the reigning Premiership rugby champions, were handed a further 70-point deduction which will ensure they finish bottom of the table. The club were initially docked 35 points and fined £5.36 million for breaching the cap between 2016 and 2019 and were subsequently relegated after being unable to prove they could meet the £7 million cap on wages for this season.

In the world of football Manchester City could face sanctions in the Premier League, potentially being docked points, for the similar alleged Financial Fair Play breaches that resulted in UEFA imposing a two-year ban from the Champions League and €30 million fine- the club is appealing the ruling.

Sports teams have always been deeply embedded in social and cultural life. But the perceived economic role of sports teams, and their economic analysis, is a more recent development in the UK. Unlike US team sports, which adopted a commercial model at their inception, professionalism in team sports in the UK developed over the 19th and 20th centuries – with Rugby Union only becoming professional in 1995.

A key driver of this change and the heightened commercialism of team sports was the rapid expansion of the broadcast market in the mid-1980s.

Unlike other industries, sports are governed in two domains. International and national governing bodies have always overseen sporting organisation and rules of competition. But the growth in commercial activities has increasingly brought the economic activity of sports under the scrutiny of competition regulation. Examples of this are the rulings associated with TV broadcast rights, and the Bosman Ruling in 1995 which removed restrictions, like transfer fees, on out-of-contract footballers (and by implication other sportspeople) moving between clubs in Europe.

This ruling contributed to the international freedom of movement of players and the rapid globalisation of the players labour market in team sports. The subsequent Kolpak ruling, extended the rules to countries with European Union Association Agreements and was particularly important for Rugby Union and cricket in drawing playing talent from Commonwealth nations.

opponent. This is an example of an externality in which one team’s actions, such as the hiring of players, has an impact on another’s in the league. This will ultimately influence their relative sporting performance.

Another feature of this externality is that while fans want their own team to be successful, governing bodies must balance the interests of all teams in the league because a concentration of success undermines interest in the sport as a whole. It can also have a knockon effect on how much interest and revenue can be generated, collectively, for the league.

These peculiarities have underpinned the regulations in the labour market that do not exist in other industries.

The salary cap in rugby union is an example of such a regulation and it aims to restrict player wage increases, making players in principle affordable for all teams and to produce financial stability for the league. The logic is that if left to pure market forces “arms races” for the best playing talent take place. This has been shown most pointedly in the football Premier League and explosive demand-driven increases in player wages that track team revenues in the absence of a cap.

These wage increases may be fully justified by the player’s productivity in delivering success and [attracting revenue]. Research in sports has shown that player wages tend to match their on-field “productivity” in the absence of regulations.

But general wage growth reflects how some clubs try to compete beyond their means in seeking to attract better players. The fact is that sporting success and revenue growth are highly uncertain, as they also depend on opponent performances (some teams have to lose, after all). A failure of teams to cover increased wage costs leads to financial vulnerability. It is now not uncommon for teams to go into administration, just as Championship side Bury FC did in 2019.

The salary cap breaches by Saracens show that the concentration of high levels of playing talent – due to unequal spending – can drive individual club success at the expense of others.

It is also interesting to note that the breaches were revealed by investigative journalism which highlights another point long made by sports economists – enforcing salary caps is difficult because, like all taxes, evasion and avoidance strategies can be adopted.

A damaging outcome of these scandals is that the integrity of sport is challenged. The impact that this has on the image of players and sport in general should not be understated. In an era in which rugby is facing enough challenges in recruiting participants and facing concerns about player health, the last thing it needs are for its shining stars to be tarnished.

Saracens’ punishment, then, may seem lenient when compared to what Manchester City could face. But moving forward, more transparent accounting and reporting on the finances of all clubs are going to be needed.

“The salary cap breaches by Saracens show that the concentration of high levels of playing talent – due to unequal spending – can drive individual club success at the expense of others. ”

Economic peculiarities The impact of such rulings and the presence of regulations such as the salary cap and Financial Fair Play stem from long recognised peculiarities of the economics of sport.

Two key peculiarities are that sports teams and leagues rely primarily on their players to deliver their sporting success (other resources cannot be substituted for them if their wages rise). Sporting success also requires the existence of a meaningful

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GOVERNANCE

IMPLICATIONS FOR SPORT

December’s general election victory for Boris Johnson may have settled the long-running Brexit argument, the UK formally leaving the EU at the end of January and triggering a transition period while both sides thrash out a new trading relationship. As is the case with other sectors, the extent of the impact of Brexit on professional sport will depend on the terms the UK agrees for its continued relationship with the EU. But power brokers running the country’s leading sports organisations remain divided.

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33

HOW BREXIT WILL AFFECT ENGLISH FOOTBALL

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or months there has been a battle over how to deal with new immigration rules for overseas footballers playing in England after December 2020, which will come into force when freedom of movement between the UK and the 27-nation bloc ends.

While Premier League players are among the country’s top earners, after the Brexit transition ends those coming from the EU can expect to be treated the same as stars from other parts of the world.

But the UK government has demanded the Football Association, Premier League and English Football League, the body that runs the professional club division below the top tier, make a joint proposal for how immigration rules should affect football once the country has secured a new trade deal.

For the FA, the UK’s departure is a rare opportunity to introduce curbs on the number of foreign players at top clubs.

That will force clubs to develop more local talent that will boost the England national team, initially demanding a reduction in the maximum number of non-homegrown players allowed in each team’s 25-player squad from 17 to 12.

The Premier League is fighting the proposals, suggesting they will harm one of the country’s great international exports, with clashes between teams stocked with the world’s best players viewed avidly across the planet.

One of the most vocal themes throughout Brexit has resolved around increasing restrictions on immigration in the UK, with European footballers expected to meet the same criteria as non-EU nationals to gain a work permit, such as regularly playing for their national team.

The Premier League comprises of more foreign players than any other football league in the world. The recruitment of these players has fuelled the competitiveness of the league and the success that is has become renowned for. A ban on free movement would make

it much harder to get work permits for entry into the country where players of European descent would be treated the same as non-EU nationals. This is problematic as players of EU nationality will need to receive endorsement from the FA, subject to meeting a criterion based on the individual’s performance and involvement at international level.

Alternatively, clubs can appeal for the player to receive an exemption under exceptional circumstances, heavily influenced by the transfer fee, salary and involvement in European competitions, such as the Champions League. Essentially, it will be much harder for players from EU countries, who in the past would not need a work permit, to qualify to play in the Premier League. Before the referendum, the BBC established that 332 players across the top two divisions of England and Scottish top-flight football would be threatened by Brexit, as they would not have meet the

“Once the UK has withdrawn from the European Union, FIFA’s Article 19 would no longer apply to clubs in England and so they would be unable to continue to sign minor players from other EU and EEA countries.

Instead, they will have to have until the player has reached the age of 18.”

criteria. For example, transfers such as N’golo Kante to Leicester City and David De Gea to Manchester United would not have been able to happen, as neither has participated for their senior national team at the time. This is a good example of how clubs would have to adapt methods of recruitment, should these rulings apply. It could see a significant rise in the wages of European players, in order to acquire and retain them in the Premier League. More than half the current playing squads at Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chelsea, Manchester City, Norwich City and Arsenal are EU nationals.

To gain agreement for quota changes, the FA offered to loosen the criteria for all overseas players to gain work permits to play in England. That could open the door to less-established players, such as those from South America, where clubs from Spain and Germany already negotiate good value for money. The FA may use Brexit as an opportunity to create more avenues for home-grown players, supported by the suggestion that they plan to reduce the maximum number of non-homegrown players allowed in each team’s 25-player squad from 17 to 12, with the end goal to strengthen the national side.

Under the new EU immigration rules, homegrown players are counted as those registered with the FA for at least three years before they are 21 years old, regardless of nationality. That has

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BREXIT

HOW BREXIT WILL AFFECT ENGLISH FOOTBALL

PREMIERSHIP CLUBS LOOK TO INCREASE THE OVERSEAS PLAYER QUOTA

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remiership club are seeking to increase the overseas player quota next season to offset the loss of Kolpak stars after Brexit.

From 31 Decmber 2020, a number of players from South Africa, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa will lose their right to work in the UK as the 2003 EU Association Agreement will not apply to the end of the post-Brexit transition period.

Worcester have 12 Kolpak players in their squad this season, and Sale and London Irish are not far behind with nine and 10 each respectively.

Under the existing rules Premiership clubs are limited to having two overseas players in their 23-man match-day squads, and over the course of the 22-match campaign they must have an average of at least 15 English-

qualified players in their squad to qualify for a bonus paid by the RFU as part of the Professional Game Agreement.

Although the RFU’s priority is to ensure a large number of England-qualified players available to national coach Eddie Jones, they also need to preserve the Premiership’s value.

The RFU’s response to Brexit is likely to differ significantly from that of the FA, who are seeking to use the country’s departure from the EU to increase the quota of homegrown players in each 25-man Premier League squad from eight to 12.

Unlike football there is no shortage of England-qualified players in rugby, with 70 per cent of Premiership players eligible, in contrast to 30 per cent of the Premier League available to Gareth Southgate.

allowed top English clubs to scoop up some of the best European players aged between 16 and 18, such as Cesc Fabregas who joined Arsenal from Barcelona in 2003 at the age of just 16. This rule is expected to change with the UK’s departure, so that only players from the UK home nations are counted as homegrown.

Subsequently, it could be inferred, based on the theory of supply and demand, that the transfer fees and wages of UK players could be subjected to a period of hyperinflation, as the demand will have significantly increased while the current supply of world-class UK players remains constant. Is this something that we may have already witnessed with the transfer of Harry Maguire to Manchester United for a reported fee of £80 million?

However, as clubs are to focus their attention onto the development of home-grown talent, through investment into academy structures, the supply of Premier League quality players from the UK would inevitably increase in the foreseeable future. As a result, the demand and thus the value of players would decrease.

Once the UK has withdrawn from the European Union, FIFA’s Article 19 would no longer apply to clubs in England and so they would be unable to continue to sign minor players from other EU and EEA countries. Instead, they will have to have until the player has reached the age of 18.

In turn, this would provide more opportunities for young English talent, but the overall quality of the Premier League, impacting the club revenue generation. It also means that English clubs will miss out on securing young European talent, where continental clubs will continue to benefit. By the time a prospective player turns 18, he may already have signed with another European club and costs associated to the player would more than likely have increased.

Therefore, Premier League clubs may become less competitive in the foreign market as they are no longer able to obtain young foreign talent with potential, for development in the own academies.

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35

STOPPING FORMULA ONE IN IT’S TRACKS

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ormula One is widely regarded as the pinnacle of world motorsport and is an industry worth around $4 billion a year. In total, the ten F1 teams spend around $2.6 billion a year on technology, research and development in order to make their cars that split second faster than their competitors in pursuit of glory.

All bar two of F1’s teams – Ferrari and Alfa Romeo – have at least part of their F1 base inside the UK and they face potential disruption. If Britain leaves the customs union with Europe it would delay the passage of their freight between Britain’s borders and other EU countries, where several rounds on the 2020 F1 calendar plus all of pre-season testing will be held.

One of the primary issues facing F1 is logistics. Jonathan Neale, the chief operating officer at McLaren, explained how: “McLaren F1 takes 40 tons and 100 people and we pop up as an event every two weeks around the globe in 20 countries and five continents, through a variety of customs borders, to put the show on the road. Currently there are well-trodden paths in how we manage customs and borders in order to move seamlessly.”

The real worry is that such “well-trodden paths” and the seamless transition between customs and borders that has previously been enjoyed, will become restricted or

blocked, with extra administrative burdens and costs placed on teams as they travel across the globe to compete in races.

With each team possessing a workforce of varying nationalities, Neale suggests that there is a real risk in F1 teams’ abilities to “deliver the show” given the potential delays that may ensue in light of more restrictive cross-border measures.

Talent acquisition and retention is also at the forefront of uncertainty for F1 teams. McLaren’s F1 team employs over 800 people and in its engineering group alone there are 23 different nationalities.

Obtaining such a diverse workforce is of paramount importance to McLaren and Neale is alive to the real risk of “getting into crazy, administratively costly and time-consuming visa requirements either for retention or for future recruitment”.

Quite rightly, McLaren (as well as the other F1 teams) want to be able to hire

talent on the basis of the right person for the job, and not have to worry about whether that person’s nationality will pose an administrative visa burden.

Aside from the obvious logistical issues and workforce supply, another key area most likely to be affected is the supply chain. An F1 car has about 14,000 parts, with the majority of these parts sources from a number of small-to-medium size enterprises in the UK and across Europe.

Indeed, some complex assemblies will cross many borders before they arrive in the UK. Neale explains that “if every time a border is crossed there is a transaction, it introduces a huge amount of inertia and inefficiency to our supply chain”.

Clearly with inefficiency comes extra cost; which is arguably money that ought to be invested by F1 teams in the supply chain and not in dealing with further administrative and logistical road-blocks.

The risk of Britain losing the jewels in the F1 crown in the event of teams relocating elsewhere in the EU, after a trade deal is agreed, is genuine and would be a huge blow to F1 and the primarily British-focused supply chain that underpins the sport. While we hope we hope that such legacy remains intact and Britain remains the heartbeat of F1, the uncertainties of a no-deal Brexit could well and truly put the breaks on F1 as we know it.

PCA WOULD BACK TWO OVERSEAS PLAYERS PER COUNTY POST-BREXIT

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he Professional Cricketers’ Association announced that it would support two overseas players per club in all formats from 2021 to allow Kolpak signings chances to continue playing county cricket.

Following Brexit, the England and Wales Cricket Board has advised counties that Kolpak registrations will be terminated at the end of the 2020 season. Kolpak deals have been used since 2004 for players mainly from South Africa.

Counties are already permitted to have two overseas players in the T20 Blast- but have been restricted to one in all other competitions, including the Championship, since 2007. Kolpak contracts allow sportsmen from countries with associate trade agreements with the EU, such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and Caribbean nations to be afforded the same right to free movement as EU citizens. They are not classed as overseas players by the ECB under the terms in their contracts, but they become ineligible to represent their country at international level.

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NFL

WHY LONDON APPEALS TO JAGUARS FINANCIAL WELLNESS In 2012, the Jacksonville Jaguars became the first and only team to make a multi-year commitment to play in the NFL London Games, initially signing up for four fixtures from 2013-2016. The popularity of the London market for NFL franchises has grown over the years, but the Jaguars are confident they are ‘the team’ for fans across the pond, which is an important revenue stream.

Team owner Shad Khan and his dedication to the business of his Jaguars’ franchise is paying off with the success of the team. While they have struggled on-the-field the past decade, off-thefield the front office and business team have been hard at work. Though the football results are important to the Jacksonville franchise, the chance to play games in London is also valuable from a financial perspective.

Of London’s role as an important revenue stream, Jaguars president Mark Lamping claimed the team are “going to do everything they possibly can to make sure we don’t lose London as a key contributor to what we’re doing here in Jacksonville.”

The Jaguar’s face a number of financial challenges being a small market team in the NFL, where television, ticket, sponsorship and stadium revenue streams are smaller

than the larger market NFL teams. Part of the strategy to compensate for being in a small market was earning revenue in London.

This year, the Jaguars are moving a second home game to London’s Wembley Stadium in an attempt to further increase their local revenue and escape the bottom quartile of the league in that category.

With the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers and the Las Vegas Raider moving into new stadiums for the 2020 season, the Jaguars felt an additional home game in London – which generates twice the money of a home game at TIAA Bank Field – was the best way to offset the boost those teams will be receiving from those relocations and stabilize the long-term future of the franchise.

The Jaguars are spearheading a proposed $700 million entertainment district development around the stadium that would result in additional revenue, but until that

happens Jaguars president Mark Lamping said adding another game in London is the right action for the team to take.

“For clubs like the Jaguars, we are entering an uncertain time,” Lamping said.

“That uncertain time is related to three teams that in the past were teams that were with us at the bottom of the league in terms of revenue. They have taken steps, steps that we would not consider, but they’ve taken steps to fix their revenue by leaving Oakland, by leaving St. Louis, and by leaving San Diego. That has had an impact in terms of all the other teams that are where we are in terms of the league.”

The Jaguars’ contract with the NFL to play one home game annually at Wembley Stadium began in 2013 and expires after the 2020 season. Khan said previously he wanted to extend the deal beyond 2020 but the league declined to do so because

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“Everything we’re doing helps the city, helps us, and that’s what you need a small-market team to do to get on a competitive footing with all the resources you need to compete with the other bigmarket teams.”

Shad Khan

the collective bargaining agreement with players expires after this season. Khan said on a conference call that he would not rule out possibly playing more than one home game in London beyond 2020, though.

Khan said he doesn’t expect fans to react negatively to a second London home game.

“I think if you go back when the first game was announced and really historically what that’s done for the city and done for the Jaguars, so my expectation is that it should be very positive,” he said.

“Everything we’re doing helps the city, helps us, and that’s what you need a smallmarket team to do to get on a competitive footing with all the resources you need to compete with the other big-market teams.”

The Jaguars have repeatedly stressed how critical playing in London is for their long-term stability in Jacksonville. The deal Khan struck with the NFL for those annual

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games granted the team extended territorial rights in the United Kingdom as well as receiving the ticket revenue from the game at the 90,000-seat stadium. Lamping has said the monies the Jaguars receive from that game account for 11 per cent of the franchise’s local revenue (down from 12 per cent in 2016 and 15 percent in 2014).

While there has been speculation the Jaguars may move to London, Khan is adamant about his dedication to keeping his NFL franchise in Jacksonville. The strategy is now to strengthen the Jaguars’ relationship with London. Owning Wembley was never the silver bullet to financial stability for the Jaguars and the team now focus its attention on trying to find new ideas to help supplement the revenue it needs to be sustainable in the Jacksonville marketplace. And, fortunately, the Jaguars have an owner who is willing to invest.

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GOLF/MLS

The PGA Tour eyes increased engagement with in-play betting With a stated strategy of elevating engagement and expanding the sport’s audience, the US PGA Tour has revealed that it will look to introduce on-play betting at its tournaments in the United States next year.

Commissioner Jay Monahan expressed that the engagement tool could be rolled out this year, underlining its role in attracting new fans to the sport.

Emphasising that engagement is at the heart of the plans, he commented: “When done right, it gives fans the opportunity to engage with your sport over a longer period of time and have more interest in what’s happening across the entire player field.”

In February last year, the PGA Tour revised its regulations on sponsorship deals with gambling brands in light of the changing sports betting landscape in the US, allowing marketing partnerships and title sponsorships with companies in the daily fantasy sports-related category.

MLS gives green light for international sponsorship deals Major League Soccer is set to become the second professional sports league in North America to allow its teams to sign international sponsorship deals.

The industry outlet reports that the ‘beta programme’ was approved by MLS’s Board of Governors in December, allowing franchises in the top-tier soccer league to sell international sponsorship rights outside of the US and Canada from the upcoming 2020 season.

SBJ’s report noted that franchises will not be able to sign global marketing deals with gambling or sports betting companies, despite the fact that MLS last year relaxed guidelines preventing its teams from selling shirt sponsorships to betting firms.

Other restrictions reportedly specify that MLS clubs cannot sign international deals with brands that are competitors of existing MLS sponsors, although there are no constraints in place regarding markets or territories.

The move comes after the National Basketball Association (NBA) opened up two international partner positions per team from the 2019/20 season as part of a three-year trial. It is not yet clear how many international partnerships MLS teams will be limited to.

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JULIAN EVANS Q&A

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No Mountain High Enough Knight Frank’s Head of Healthcare, Julian Evans, reveals how teamwork across all walks of life can help you live it to the maximum One foot in front of the other they will say, as you snake your way up the perilous Death Zone on Mount Everest, the planet’s highest peak at 8,848m. Knight Frank’s Julian Evans knows this all too well, having conquered the mountain in 2019. He was the 378th Briton to summit Everest.

Evans, 48, is a keen adventurer, having reached both North and South Poles (magnetic), as well summitting some of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Vinson (4,892) in Antarctica and Denali (6,190m), Alaska, US. He does this, all the while balancing his role as Head of Healthcare at the world’s leading global real estate consultancy, Knight Frank. Here he gives us insight into how he balances his spirit for adventure with the realities of day-to-day life, and why teamwork provides strong foundations for being able to pursue his dream of completing the ‘Explorer’s Grand Slam’.

What or who inspires you take on such extreme challenges?

A close friend called Matt Hampson became paralysed from the neck down (C4/5 tetraplegic), after a scrummaging accident when practising with the England under-21s squad in March 2005.

His condition requires permanent use of a ventilator to breathe. He subsequently went on to set up The Matt Hampson Foundation which raises funds and assistance for other people afflicted by catastrophic sporting spinal injuries. He is a phenomenal source of inspiration and one of the key charities I raise money for when I take on a challenge.

What’s it like balancing your work and your sense of adventure? Why don’t you do it full time?

You have to be incredibly organised with each expedition taking around 12 to 18

months to plan and prepare for. In truth, adventuring is a hobby – one that I find extremely challenging – but my role as Head of Healthcare at Knight Frank is equally as important to me. It’s an amazing job to have, I work with a bestin-class team every day and I’m genuinely privileged to work in company that supports my endeavours, like mine does.

What’s been your greatest challenge to date?

A tricky question to answer. It’s a toss-up between my expedition to the North Pole and summiting Everest. I think Everest might just nudge it for the mental strength I had to use, especially when you consider number of fatalities suffered when I summited.

How does the business and your family support you?

I’ve incredibly loyal clients and a fantastic employer. You also need an unbelievably supportive spouse and family unit – as you may well imagine, it can be very stressful for them.

You’ve raised so much money for charity; does this help motivate you in perilous situations?

I’m a trustee to The Matt Hampson Foundation and Great Ormond Street Hospital. When you’ve been in those environments you can’t fail to feel humbled or truly inspired.

What would you say to would-be adventurers needing to balance the reality of work with their desire to explore?

Life’s short. If you want to do it, go out there and make it happen – do not make excuses as you’ll only regret it in the future.

Where’s the next adventure?

For 2020 Another North Pole expedition and summit Aconcagua. That will then hopefully complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam of walking to both Poles and summiting the highest mountain on each continent.

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SHIRT SPONSORSHIP & MANUFACTURING

Double the value: Dortmund to have alternating shirt sponsors from next season Dortmund will have two shirt sponsors from next season, alternating between domestic and international competitions - an innovative approach that will be a major boost to the club’s commercial income.

Chemical company Evonik, the club’s current shirt sponsor, will continue to be on Dortmund’s shirts for international cup competitions, while web hosting company 1&1 will join as shirt sponsor for their Bundesliga matches.

The club’s chief executive, HansJoachim Watzke, said the new approach to shirt sponsorships was a milestone for the club - supporting the economic and thereby sporting development of Dortmund.

The two deals, reported to be worth a

combined €40 million annually, will run until the end of the 2024/25 season.

Evonik’s current deal with the club is reported to be worth only €20 million a season.

Evonik started sponsoring Dortmund, listed on Germany’s Xetra stock exchange, in 2006 and in 2014 took a nine per cent stake in the club. The company currently hold 14.8 per cent of the club’s shares.

Dortmund’s commercial income stood at €157.3 million last season, significantly behind Bayern Munich (€288 million). However, their commercial income was still higher than European rivals like Tottenham (€109.1 million) and Arsenal (€106.9 million) in the 2017/18 season.

Soaring income: Bristol City to stop producing own kit after agreeing deal with Danish brand Bristol City will no longer be producing their own kits. The club have agreed a deal with Danish sportswear brand Hummel to become their kit supplier starting next season.

The deal comes at the same time as the club have revealed their latest plans for a new sports and convention centre next to their Ashton Gate Stadium, a monument to their impressive financial growth in the past five years.

“Our sales of shirts are greater than they have ever been.

Hummel’s experience and global supply network will help us to cater for demand and develop our designs while keeping our individuality,” said City’s chairman, Jon Lansdown.

For the past six years, City have - quite unusually - been producing their own kits, though recently they have had problems with distribution, something a company of Hummel’s size is likely to be able to overcome.

City’s turnover today is four times what it was five years ago. Under owner Steve Lansdown, the club’s £7.7 million of the 2014/15 season has grown into the £30.3 million reported for the 2018/19 season.

The increase in turnover coincided with a significant increase in commercial income, from £2 million to £14.5 million over the same period.

However, at £30.6 million, Bristol City now have one of the biggest wage bills in the Championship.

Consequently, the increase in turnover did not make its way down to the club’s bottom line, but after four straight years of posting losses, City finally made an £11 million profit last year.

City are currently seventh in the Championship, but with just three points to second place, which would secure direct promotion, it’s an incredibly close race at the top.

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SQILLER

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SQILLER – THE DIGITAL FOOTBALL GAME Teqball Co-Founder and International Teqball Federation (FITEQ) Chairman Viktor Huszár introduces the app that merges football with AI technology, making an esport an active sport What is SQILLER and how does it work?

SQILLER is a mobile app launched by the International Teqball Federation (FITEQ), which allows players from anywhere in the world to practice their teqball skills, using only a ball and a mobile phone. Teqball Ambassadors, including Ronaldinho and Teqball legends like Cafu, have set a variety of skill challenges within the app. Users must then record themselves accurately recreating those skills to the best of their ability.

SQILLER then uses artificial intelligence, computer vision and machine learning technologies to analyse the player’s movement and ball trajectory to score how closely it matches the skills of the Teqball Ambassador on screen. As players work their way through the stages, the skills become more difficult and more rewarding. There is also a ‘Battle feature’, which allows players to go head to head against other SQILLER players around the world and attempt to outscore them with the number of skills they can perform.

It’s really exciting for the Teqball community because this is has never been done before. It gives players the

opportunity to compare their football skills with friends, random players or even football legends.

What is the target audience for the app?

The initial launch of the app is in Hungary, Italy, Spain and the UK, but we plan to go global within weeks. The target audience is anyone with a ball and a smartphone…anyone young, old, male or female, around the world interested in an alternative way of staying fit and healthy, and practicing their ball skills at the same time. But SQILLER will not only help convert grassroots players to teqball, it will allow elite level players anywhere in the world to practice real skills which they can put to use on the teqball table.

This app is the esport discipline of teqball. And the fact that that the app is free to download from the App Store creates a huge opportunity to welcome thousands of new teqers to the Teqball Family!

How can SQILLER benefit its users?

The app enables teqball and football enthusiasts to practice and improve their technique and control whilst onthe-go. We support staying at home at

these challenging times, be safe, but stay active. SQILLER is flexible to the user’s preferences and only requires a ball and a smart phone before users are connected to a global community staying active through the app. With many countries enforcing social distancing to help combat coronavirus, FITEQ wants to help people maintain and improve their physical and mental wellbeing and we believe SQILLER is the perfect way to do this, whether in isolation or not.

What are your initial expectations and future ambitions for the app?

We first launched the concept at the Web Summit in Lisbon last November, in front of 15,000 people, and received a great reception from both the sports and technology industries. The philosophy at FITEQ is to believe in what we do and let development be organic. We have seen how teqball has grown naturally in the past five years, where a global community with a passion for the sport has emerged. This is what we would like to happen with SQILLER. There are millions of people all over the world who practice ball sports every day and now it’s our job now to make them a part of the SQILLER community!

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TECH

The transformative impact 5G will have on the sports sector Research launched by Vodafone, reveals that more than three quarters of business leaders from sports organisations see improving fan engagement – and delivering new and innovative fan experiences – as key to future success. The research suggests that 5G, more than any other technology, will drive change and enable such experiences.

The research – released at the official opening of the Vodafone Business Lounge at the Ricoh Arena, home of the Wasps Rugby and Wasps Netball clubs in Coventry – sought the views of business decision-makers in the sports sector across the UK. Over three quarters (76 per cent) confirm their organisation will use 5G as a platform for innovation, with 74 per cent believing it will underpin efforts to meet rising fan expectations.

It went on to reveal that 76 per cent believe 5G will have a bigger impact on fan experiences than 4G. The same proportion suggest 5G will enable them to improve fan engagement with applications such as livestreaming video, mixed reality experiences and real-time access to information reinventing the fan experience both for those at the event or watching elsewhere.

Anne Sheehan, Director, Vodafone Business UK, said: “Sport is an area where 5G technology will have a huge

impact. It has the potential to transform the fan experience; change the way sports organisations operate, open up new revenue opportunities; and help athletes improve their fitness and training programmes. Our holographic call with Steph Houghton last year was a great example of how technology can be used to bring fans closer to the action and give them experiences that were previously out of reach.”

Alongside fan experiences, sports leaders highlight innovation (30 per cent),

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75.4%

78%

SAY PLAYER PERFORMANCE WILL ONLY IMPROVE IF WE CAN APPLY 5G EFFECTIVELY TO ITS TRACKING

SAY INNOVATION player performance (30 per will enable athletes to train have a virtual and IN FAN cent) and talent (27 per cent) virtually under more realistic even a holographic EXPERIENCES as their key concerns. However, settings, meaning professionals representation of the WILL SEPARATE while 78 per cent believe the can continue to refine their skills last tackle or scrum.

THE WINNERS sports sector drives incredible despite the bad weather that This enables coaches AND LOSERS IN innovation, 70 per cent believe may have previously prevented and medics can walk SPORT it is behind other industry them from training outside. The round the images, so sectors in adopting new greater data speed and increased that that near-real-time decisions can be technology. connectivity that 5G brings with existing VR used to inform players on how to approach Anne added: “It is hugely encouraging equipment will allow zero-latency training the next play.” that a remarkable 80 per cent of sports and uninterrupted practice which mimics But how will 5G, which was switched on organisations believe 5G will underpin how the conditions of a course or track.” in seven cities across the UK by Vodafone they run their companies. We want to help Mak Sharma, a professor in computer in early July, ‘underpin’ the way in which organisations understand the potential of 5G science at Birmingham City University, sports organisations operate? and benefit from its speed, responsiveness agrees that the teams, athletes and “We’re seeing more sports teams and reliability. We think this technology is a coaches that embrace 5G will accelerate and rights-holders shifting to become game-changer for businesses, the economy their chances of success. entertainment companies, first and and the UK as a whole.”

“It will be possible to ‘wire up’ athletes foremost,” says Mark Lloyd, Planner Kevin Hasley, Head of Product at with multiple tiny sensors that at Dark Horses, a sportsRootMetrics, a performance benchmarking will transmit physiological focused marketing agency. “As firm, said 5G will boost the capabilities body signs, micro-movements consumption of video content of elite athletes, whether through more of joints, limbs, and so on, as rises in line with 5G adoption, rapid data-driven decision, or improved well as acceleration, speed this will only intensify. Teams OF EUROPEAN OPERATORS virtual and augmented-reality applications, and altitude,” he says. “These and rights-holders will be able PLAN TO TRIAL and even better injury prevention and can be modelled in real-time to seek more innovative ways to 5G WITHIN rehabilitation. “Professional teams are using artificial intelligence (AI) capture and distribute content SPORTS AND already tracking their players,” he says and deep-learning techniques to their fans.”

ESPORTS “But greater 5G data speeds will enhance to inform coaches to help Alan Stewart-Brown, viceVENUES BY THE performance tracking even more.” provide nuanced changes to president of EMEA at global END OF 2020 Notably, the Vodafone research shows provide competitive edge. This computer network technology that 75 per cent of respondents think that is only possible by an ultrafast company Opengear, says: player performance will only improve if 5G streaming data connection that “Sports venues have an interest is applied effectively to tracking.

5G can provide.” in making their venues more ‘sticky’ – “For team-based sports, where digital Prof Sharma points to the current Rugby meaning that fans stay longer at the venue communications channels exist throughout World Cup in Japan where, he says, the and therefore spend more money – and I an event such as a Formula One face, 5G top countries are using 5G. “With the data predict 5G-enabled stadia will be rolled could be the difference between first and that can be exchanged simultaneously out more widely over the next two years.” second,” Mr Hasley adds. “Whether you’re with players on the field of play and the Another sporting revolution is brewing – a racing driver, jockey, sailor or golfer, 5G back-office fitness team, it is possible to and 5G is at the heart of it.

94%

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TECH

HOW VIEWING SPORTS IS SHIFTING TO STREAMING, SOCIAL & OTT SERVICES Global sports provider ELEVEN SPORTS launched in 2015, with the mission to serve fans in a new way. Four years on, ELEVEN is an award-winning platform that brings thousands of hours of live sporting action, interviews, documentaries and analysis to viewers across Europe and Asia. We caught up with ELEVEN’s group MD Danny Menken to learn more about ELEVEN’s journey, and where they are heading next.

You’ve been with ELEVEN since the start. What was the thinking behind launching a new sports platform?

Our view was that the traditional sports media landscape had been stagnant for too long. It had become fragmented and expensive and was not delivering for fans in the way it should. We felt there was the opportunity to create a new service that put fans at the centre of things and brought them the sport they loved, however they wanted to consume it.

Tell us a little more about where ELEVEN is today We say at ELEVEN that we are a broadcaster created by fans for fans and that’s at the centre of how we operate. Our focus is on serving fans the sport they love in an innovative, fun and accessible way. We have platforms across Europe and Asia with a fantastic portfolio of rights across the group. These include UEFA Champions League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Premier League, UFC, NBA, NFL and F1. We have recently

been awarded domestic football rights in Belgium too.

ELEVEN is ‘platform agnostic’. Can you explain what that means?

That means that we make our content available through every platform - linear TV (via cable, IPTV and DTH), OTT and social. We also partner with new and emerging platforms like the leading football app One Football - where fans can watch their favourite matches with a PPV offering. We understand that fans want to consume sport in lots of different ways, and we want to be there for fans on whatever platforms they like to use.

Is your OTT offering at the centre of your long-term strategy?

We still think there’s huge value in traditional linear TV and for many groups of fans, that will continue to be the primary way to watch live sport for foreseeable future. But OTT is exciting because it allows us to offer fans a more flexible and personalised viewing

experience. For example, we introduced a new tool called Watch Together last season to our OTT service which allows our viewers to live steam games in the same ‘virtual room’ as their friends. It creates a sense of community between our viewers and that’s something that wouldn’t be possible through traditional linear TV - where viewing experience is a more passive one.

What is your approach to securing sports rights?

It varies from market to market. In some we are focused on bringing together the best premium rights and being a one stop shop for sports fans in that market. So, in Belgium for instance, football fans from next season will have access to all their favourite domestic football with ELEVEN, plus international sport like LaLiga, NBA, NFL and UFC. We also see a big value in local rights, where they are serving underserved fans and our OTT platform allows us to show this content in a way we couldn’t as a straight

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“We say at ELEVEN that we are a broadcaster created by fans for fans and that’s at the centre of how we operate. Our focus is on serving fans the sport they love in an innovative, fun and accessible way.” linear platform. For instance, in Italy, we are showing Serie C and some Serie D matches to supporters who previously didn’t have the opportunity to watch their team play every week on traditional TV. The number of viewers for a Serie C match is obviously lower than for a big Serie A game, but if you happen to be a fan of Palermo, the value to you of that Serie C match is just as high if you were an Inter Milan fan wanting to watch Serie A. What does the future look like for ELEVEN? We are ambitious and we want to continue to grow. We are looking at new markets, some new rights and services in our existing markets, and we have lots of ideas to continue innovating our platforms. If

you look back over the past four years, we have grown pretty quickly and we want to continue that trajectory in the years ahead – all with a big focus on building viable businesses that really serve our fans.

Finally, what are some of the opportunities and challenges you see for rights owners launching their own OTT offerings?

The last few months have seen lots of rights owners’ set-up their own OTT services and there are clear benefits. If you’re a niche sport getting into OTT, you are guaranteeing your content is available to fans in a way that it may not have been through a linear partner. You also get to learn a lot more about your fans and how they consume your content.

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New D2C OTT platforms face some big challenges though. Firstly, it’s hard to set up an OTT platform – both from a technical point of view and building a workable subscriber base. As consumers, most of us will reach saturation point at 4 or 5 subscriptions - and that includes our Netflix and Spotify accounts - so your offering has to be really compelling to bring fans in.

To create that offering requires firstly a great team of people, who understand OTT and how to create a great product that works for users. It also requires a localised approach that speaks to audiences in a way that resonates with them. Localised talent, localised marketing and a strong understanding of local viewing behaviours are all really important. Of course, you also need a content offering that offers viewers something they really want – either because it is not something they have access to already or a great bundling of content that serves fans in a new way. If new D2C platforms get this combination right, I think they have every chance of success!

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CRICKET

Surrey County Cricket’s Premier League-sized ambitions Surrey County Cricket clubs have big plans to expand their historic London home and demonstrate grand ambitions to ‘go global’. Across the capital they have looked at how Premier League clubs Arsenal and Tottenham prosper, with Surrey Chief Executive Richard Gould studiously taking notes, with ambitions for Surrey to be sized up to clubs beyond the boundary rope.

Sold out crowds. Success on-and-off the pitch. Inventive ways to dig out the financial mire and become England’s powerhouse cricket club. It’s been quite the remarkable decade for Surrey County Cricket Club - something that seemed unfathomable at the start of it.

In 2010, Surrey was in financial strife and on the brink of administration.

Twenty staff were made redundant following lacklustre ticket sales and attendances.

Things were rough for the historical club and Richard Gould walked straight into the cauldron when appointed Chief Executive in 2011. Surrey’s home base is the Oval situated in South London- one of the UK’s most iconic cricket grounds and marketing such a popular ground became major priority for Gould.

Most English counties rely on international cricket for financial growthlike Surrey once lived by- but now its success is driven in large part by its $7.74 million conference and events business. Its off-field arm rakes in almost half the club’s revenue.

Underlining its transformation into a financial juggernaut, Surrey’s turnover would put them in the top ten of the English Premier League if television rights were taken out of the equation. And Surrey have bold plans to rival the top football clubs, which are global brands and some of the heaviest hitters in the world’s most popular sport.

Of course, cricket is totally different and

has a smaller supporter base, but a very loyal following. Embracing England’s franchise league, the T20 Blast, while still ensuring the Oval honours its tradition, particularly retaining the much-loved final Test of the English summer- is a delicate tightrope.

Even though it had established itself as a powerhouse, things weren’t quite as rosy on-field. That was until Surrey ended a 16-year jinx by winning the 2018 County Championship title. They also won the women’s Kia Super League competition.

Surrey heads into 2020 in a position of strength it could have only dreamt about a decade ago. The development, quite literally, can be gleaned from the construction of the new stand at the Oval set to be completed in mid-2021. It is the first phase of an expansion set to make it the UK’s biggest cricket ground with a capacity of 40,000.

For some time, Surrey has a dearth of talent underlined by an inability to feed England’s national team. But things have markedly changed with the likes of Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, Sam Curran, having played for England in recent years. Surrey’s 2018 County title featured 14 home grown player. Testament to Surrey being a member-owned club with membership of more than 13,000, no dividends are taken out of the club, so money in recent years has been going back into the playing side and improving the academy.

Surrey will also move into the hotel market with the purchase and redevelopment of the Ovalhouse Theatre beside the stadium. As it enters its 175th year, Surrey has completed a remarkable turnaround and the momentum is set to propel it to new heights next decade and beyond.

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TRAVEL

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What’s the real cost of your Travel?

It’s Euro 2020 year, and for 24 football teams across Europe that means a collective 36 matches across 12 destinations. Not to mention the additional games both home and away for those that make it through to knock-out round and finals.

In travel terms, that means secure air and ground transport for approximately 40 people per team, at least 14 hotel nights in minimum 3* accommodation and F&B allowances for the duration of the trips. This excludes the wider travelling party of families, sponsors and executives.

After a quick calculation, it’s not surprising that the sport travel industry is worth USD$600 billion globally1.

With travel playing such a significant role for athletes and their spectators, managers need to consider the impacts this may have on their bottom line.

Furthermore, they need to understand that spend alone isn’t the only cost of team travel. The time it takes to source the best rates, the energy required to negotiate with suppliers and the stress of managing complex itineraries all come at a cost.

Whether you’re self-managing your travel or partnered with a Travel Management Company (TMC) that’s not hitting the mark, the real cost of inefficient travel management could be more than you think.

Cost: Mismanaged time Years of industry knowledge tells us that most “travel bookers” are usually employed for other administrative tasks, most commonly within the roles of the roles of Club Secretary or Operational Assistant. If this is relevant to your organisation, the time they spend on searching, comparing and booking travel could result in a large cost to their efficiency.

Introducing a TMC and an online booking tool such as CTM’s Lightning could reduce your employee’s booking time from over half an hour to under three minutes. That’s a 90% increase in productivity.

For one CTM client, this saved their PAs over 3,000 hours annually. How much time could your bookers save?

Cost: Lost Supplier Value How can you be sure you are getting the best value with flights, hotels and ground transport? Booking on consumer

websites or direct may mean your organisation is not receiving the best rates and add-ons.

Working with a TMC, such as CTM, allows you to take advantage of their global buying power as well as specially negotiated rates and add-ons that are unavailable to the general public.

For teams with multiple travelling parties, that could mean hundreds of pounds saved on breakfast food alone.

Cost: Non-compliant Duty of Care How seriously do you and your travellers take duty of care while on the road? The Travel Risk Outlook for 2020 lists ‘High profile Duty of Care legal cases’ as one of the top risks expected to increase this year, and sport travel is one industry with plenty of highprofile travellers.

Dealing with VIPs or large supporter groups requires expertise in organising discreet transport methods and managing high volumes of traffic. While negotiating rates with key suppliers can keep costs low, implementing a strict travel policy is essential in ensuring safety remains a priority throughout the entire travel process.

This may include, vetting accommodation suppliers for safe locations, tracking traveller movements in real-time or planning itineraries to ensure there’s enough downtime to rest and recover preand post-game.

The cost of not taking these measures could result in poor-performance from travellers, million-pound legal battles, bad PR or worst case, serious harm or injury.

The answers, or lack thereof, to these three considerations, may indicate the perfect time to engage with a TMC for one or a multiple of reasons.

Now you know the costs associated with ineffective travel management, how does this compare to the cost of implementing a TMC? Contact Sport Travel Management

by CTM to find out more about our cost-effective travel management solutions.

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FIFA

FIFA brings in US Financial Advisor to help drive Club World Cup investment FIFA has hired the Raine Group, a US financial advisory firm, to help secure $1 billion to fund the relaunch of its Club World Cup, it has been reported.

The move comes in the wake of meetings with top European clubs about potentially creating a joint venture to run the competition, according to the New York Times.

FIFA is in the process of revamping the Club World Cup, with plans to expand from seven to 24 teams for the 2021 competition in China. After issuing a tender, FIFA said in December that it had received nine bids from companies interested in acquiring commercial and media rights going forward.

However, FIFA has yet to secure a partner, prompting the appointment of the Raine Group, which has experience in brokering deals in sport.

Last November, the company helped City Football Group, the collection of international clubs headed up by English giants Manchester City, sell a 10-percent stake worth $500 million to Silver Lake Partners, the US private equity firm.

Moreover, it is claimed that last month leaders from a group of leading European clubs, including Juventus, Barcelona and 2019 Club World Cup winners Liverpool, met with FIFA officials to discuss a possible joint venture between the governing body and the European Club Association.

It is understood the meeting focused on financial incentives and the participation of up to 12 European teams in the expanded competition, more than the eight that had been envisioned.

FIFA is seeking new backers for the Club World Cup after an international consortium headed up by Japan’s SoftBank, withdrew from a deal that would have entailed $25 billion in funding for the relaunched competition, and a global Nations League for national teams, the latter of which has been put on ice.

The project is being driven by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who is also behind the restructuring of the

“It is understood the meeting focused on financial incentives and the participation of up to 12 European teams in the expanded competition, more than the eight that had been envisioned.”

Club World Cup, which also involves it switching from an annual to a quadrennial schedule, forms part of the federation’s plan to raise the profile and revenue of the competition, to at least match the level of Europe’s UEFA Champions League.

However, the proposal has resulted in clashes with UEFA and its president Aleksander Čeferin over a perceived lack of consultation and concerns over fixture congestion.

YOUR ANGLE OF ATTACK

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TRAVEL

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For a successful sporting business, the agility of the finance function is as important as anything that happens in front of the crowd; you need systems that provide 360° visibility with minimal manual processes for fast, informed decision making. Eureka Solutions implements business systems that enable finance teams to achieve:

Eureka Solutions works with sports organisations and venues to understand their requirements and ambitions for modernising and streamlining their business software solutions, with a focus on cloud-based Accounting, ERP, CRM and Financial Planning software as well as systems integration.

Sporting organisations are complex ones, and financial visibility across the many facets of the business is essential for informed, timely decision making.

With a customer list that includes St. Andrews Links Golf, Luton Town Football Club, Powerleague Fives, Derby County Football Club, Puttshack, Bounce PingPong and many more, we are leading providers of NetSuite, the UK's number one cloud-based financial and ERP software system that provides a unified platform across business functions.

It’s not just our 16 years of implementing and customising solutions that sets us apart from other providers – for complicated businesses with disparate key systems, it’s also our award-winning integration technology and expertise.

At Finance in Sport 2020, the Eureka Solutions team looks forward to using practical examples to illustrate how our systems and approach deliver transformational results for finance teams.

“Once the Eureka Solutions team demonstrated NetSuite to us it was clear that it would fundamentally improve the way the finance function of our business operates – we’ll save man hours day to day and, for me personally, management reporting will flow smoothly.”

Thomas Schofield, Financial Controller, Luton Town FC

Get in touch and we’ll use our Value Assessment Tool to demonstrate what your particular business could achieve.

Eureka Solutions will get you where you want to be and beyond, future-proofing your systems and giving you visibility to run your business more effectively and efficiently.

www.eurekasolutions.co.uk/sports | enquiries@eurekasolutions.co.uk | Tel: 01355 581960

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F1

Cost cap introduced as F1 details 2021 vision One of the key pillars of the revolutionary new 2021 Formula 1 regulations is the financial rulesthe first time in the championship’s history that such rules have been enshrined…

From the 2021 season, F1 have announced a cost cap of $175million per year is set to be imposed. Curated

by Nigel Kerr, former Honda, Brawn, and Mercedes financial boss, the cost cap is something ground breaking that has never been carried out in F1 before.

Due to its complex nature, a cost cap was never properly addressed before.

However, in order to ensure long term sustainability and stability, whilst maintaining the unique technology and engineering of the F! Extreme lengths were taken, with financial experts Deloitte advising throughout the process, to ensure correct cost control regulations could be implemented to result in a more even playing field, whilst ensuring financial stability. The current figure of $175million, 43.9% lower than the current $312million average expenditure of each team, is based on the idea that there are 21 races in the season, one more than the 2020 season.

Should this number increase, the cap will increase by $1million, with additional increases allowed to account for inflation.

Not all team expenditure is included in the cap, however it does include all expenditure related to the car. Costs such

as marketing, race driver fees and the three highest paid personnel are excluded from the cost.

The cost cap is going to be monitored by an independent Cost Cap Administration, with preparation beginning with F1 working with teams to operate a soft implantation period in 2020. No team will be sanctioned if they do not comply during this time.

However, from 2021 they must submit an provisional account of their expenditure for the period of January and April by the end of June each year, with annual expenditure reported by the end of the March following.

There will be three categories of alleged misconduct, with the first being a procedural breach, such as accounts being inaccurate or late. The second category is a small overspend by less than 5%, whilst the third category is a material overspend breach by more than 5% of the cost cap.

Once a misconduct is identified, there are three forms of penalty. The first is a financial penalty, determined on a case-bycase basis. The second is a minor sporting penalty, which could be a combination of deduction of constructors, driver points, reprimand, ban, limitation of testing (both CFD and on-track) or/and a reduction of their cost cap. The third is a material

sporting penalty, which is the most serious as all of the previously stated can be involved, alongside exclusion from the World Championship.

However, the majority of the rules imposed by this cost cap replicate the Resource Restriction Agreement, which was to limit ‘areas such as staff numbers, size of computer storage space and the amount of days a car can be tested on track. However, there are significant exclusions from it such as marketing costs and engine development which accounts for around $350million of annual spending’ as Forbes wrote for ESPN in 2011, which was believe to have a limited impact in practice.

Although the hope is for this new cost cap to even the playing field of the competition and reduce chances of bankruptcy, it is unlikely that it will impact teams’ costs as much as F1 hope. Research has shown that approximately $1.8billion of their annual expenditure will be unaffected by this new cost cap.

The biggest exemption is the development and production of the cutting-edge 1.6-liter V6 turbo engines, which are known in the trade as ‘power units’. This spending is believed to be the

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biggest single cost across the whole of F1 as it comes to an estimated $980 million annually. The teams only have to declare the market value of the engines which is at most $16.7 million (€15 million) each year.

FIA’s president Jean Todt has stated that ‘only three teams will be affected or will have to restrict themselves” as a result of the cap. He added “it would be better to have a limit that gives all the teams the same chance, but that was not possible.’.

F1’s biggest single cost is paying prize money to the teams, representing 68% of its underlying profits and came to $913 million last year. It is an astronomical amount to receive just to get two cars around a track 21 times a year and worse still, the teams spend every cent of it in a bid for victory. It leaves them with very little money to use as a contingency in case they fall on hard times.

Few individuals would lead their lives like this and it has fuelled the demise of many of F1’s teams. This spending mentality is the real problem in F1 and it has no relationship to the size of the teams’ budgets. Until their ethos changes, the threat of them crashing out of the series will be ever-present.

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NETBALL

NETBALL WORLD CUP DELIVERS MAJOR ECONOMIC BOOST TO LIVERPOOL The Vitality Netball World Cup, which took place at the M&S Bank Arena Liverpool, delivered an £8.18m economic boost to the city’s economy according to new research from UK Sport.

Overall 6.07 million people in Britain attended, watched or followed the tournament which took place in July 2019.

In addition to the economic gains, the research also outlines the benefits of hosting the World Cup across the other four Sporting Futuregovernment outcomes – physical wellbeing, mental wellbeing, individual development and social & community development.

The research, conducted by the Sport Industry Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, calculated the additional expenditure in Liverpool as a result of hosting the tournament from non-local, event specific attendees and event organisers.

The £8.18m boost was generated by the influx of fans (£6.04m), other attendee groups such as the media and event personnel (£1.32m) and the organisers (£0.82m).

The tournament was worth significantly more to Liverpool than either the UCI Track Cycling World Championships of 2016 (£3.41m) or the European Aquatics Championships of 2016 (£4.74m) were to London and is on a par with the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup in London (£8.31m).

Other findings from the research included: • Physical wellbeing – 160,000 British women were inspired by the event to start playing netball or play netball more while 60% of UK spectators

surveyed during the event reported feeling inspired to increase their participation in sport or active recreation as a result of attending the event.

• Mental wellbeing – 68% of UK spectators felt happier than normal when attending the event, and a similar proportion had a sense of doing something worthwhile. In addition, 1.35m GB adults felt happier than normal because of their interaction with the event.

• Individual development – 51% of all GB adults who interacted with the event (and 64% of UK female spectators) acquired more knowledge about netball while 46% of UK female spectators felt more confident about their ability to take part in sport and active recreation.

• Social and community development – 41% of Britons, equivalent to 20.72m of the national population, reported feeling proud about England hosting

the Netball World Cup. Among fans from Liverpool, 97% agreed that they felt proud that Liverpool hosted the tournament.

Commenting on the research, Esther Britten, Head of Major Events at UK Sport said: “The Vitality Netball World Cup in Liverpool last summer is a superb example of the wider societal benefits that the hosting of global sporting events bring in the UK. Not only do fans enjoy the chance to watch their heroes up close, but there are wide ranging positive benefits to the region, local residents and the UK as a whole. ”As we build towards the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer there are still a whole host of world class sporting events for UK fans to get involved with, including the Diving World Series, World Skate Street League Skateboarding Championships and the Canoe Slalom European Championships which have all been made possible with the support of National Lottery funding.

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54

SL BENFICA

S.L. BENFICA: ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

Domingos Soares de Oliveira addresses several current issues of Sport Lisboa e Benfica. He speaks about the transfer of João Félix, praised the financial results, approaches the theme of the naming of the stadium and also the expansion of the Benfica brand.

Biggest transfer ever in Portuguese football “Of course, no one can be sad after receiving 120 million euros. I think we need to be aware of the magnitude of what we have already done. We’ve had years when transfers were around 80-100 million euros, but always with a lot of players.

Even this financial period that ended now, on 30 June, will have a significant amount of money from players’ sales, so it is impossible to say that a single deal that makes 120 million euros is not good. Now, we live today an economic reality that should allow us to say “no” to certain sales and retain players. In my humble

opinion, I would have preferred him to stay here for a year or two instead of letting him go right away. For us, for the player - I don’t know if for Atletico Madrid - it would have been a more desirable situation. But the player’s will is important, it has to be respected. The conditions of the deal, so that it could be done without Benfica being able to oppose it, were presented.

Benfica receives 120 million upfront, so there’s no point in saying whether we’re happy or not. The deal is done.”

Where the value of the transfer is being channelled to “We could invest on signing a mega-star. But we would have

two problems. The first is that these megastar, nowadays, say that the Portuguese championship is less attractive than the Top 5 Leagues main. They like the idea of being able to play in the Champions League, yes, but what I have to be careful about is the balance of the payroll. If I am going to sign a player who is going to win five or six million net salary, I create a huge problem in the dressing room. The money will clearly be used to strengthen our competitive capacity, which does not necessarily mean that it is more purchases or higher salaries, but we can’t keep the money here, say that Benfica is a fantastic entity and that we have 300 million in the bank. The intention is always

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to strengthen our competitive capacity, without compromising the balance, both from accounts and from wages.”

Extraordinary year from a financial point of view “We have always maintained, from the point of view of ratios, our wage cost within the recommendations of UEFA, below 70%.

Maintaining this behaviour, we will be able to present positive results, as we have done in the last five years, and 2018/2019 will again be a year with positive results.

Of course, starting 2019/2020 with an extraordinary revenue of 126 million, with the guarantee that we are in Champions League, we broke records of revenue from annual seats, the Red Pass; the year will be extraordinary from a financial point of view.”

The liability “Nationally, people care a lot about liabilities, and I have never seen anyone care about assets. Three hundred million in liabilities, and 130 is what we have today of what has financial burden; I do not know how we are going to close in terms of suppliers. However, I would say that it will remain at 50-60 million euros, and the rest are the discounts from contracts we’re making, which is acceptable enough for us.”

Naming of the Stadium “We haven’t been able to come to an agreement yet, and it’s not the only case.

Portuguese brands cannot support the investment we consider necessary. As such, looking for an international brand.

“Maintaining this behaviour, we will be able to present positive results, as we have done in the last five years, and 2018/2019 will again be a year with positive results.”

What we see nowadays is that nobody will invest in the naming just to have here the name of its brand, to promote it. The national brands don’t need that, and the major international brands have other vehicles to project their name; they don’t need to do it in a peripheral country such as Portugal. So, we need to find a justification from the business point of view that goes far beyond the brand exposure. And that’s what we’re discussing with more than one partner. Right now, we have two open conversations, I hope to close one.”

Importance of the Champions League “At the request of the big European clubs, the money distributed in the Champions League is much higher than it used to be. A few years ago, for qualifying for the group stage we would receive 8-9 million euros, now we receive €40 to 45 million.

The demand of the big clubs and UEFA’s

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response to prevent the creation of such a European Super League have resulted in increased revenues. At the domestic level, this creates more imbalance, not only in Portugal but everywhere. At the international level, this allows us to maintain a reasonable competitive capacity, although we do not receive the same as a Barcelona or a Liverpool, at least we do not keep only the domestic funds, which would make it impossible to compete.”

Expansion of the Benfica brand “I think we’re in a position to aim for a stronger Benfica than we have today. And I make the comparison, looking at the last 15 years and looking ahead. As the President said, 15 years ago we had no money. All we wanted was a dream, and the ability to make it happen was very limited. But we must mention that we were in a period in which was easy to get credit. And, with the support of the banks, we managed to build the stadium, restructure the squad, settle all the debts we had inherited from the darkest times in Benfica. If today we have, looking back, a financial capacity that is unique, an investment capacity that is unique, a squad that we are proud of in national terms, if we come from a process in which we won five of the last six championship titles, we have a professional structure that is very good, I would say we have all the conditions so that, in 10 years’ time, we can be more and more integrated into the biggest European clubs. I think we have all the conditions for that.”

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INTER MIAMI

DAVID BECKHAM’S MLS TEAM FINALLY KICKS OFF Following six years of excruciating wrangling over stadium sites, investment capital and pleas to MLS bosses not to pull the plug on the entire project Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami – or Inter Miami FC – have finally kicked off their first MLS campaign.

The league’s 25th franchise, partowned by the former England captain David Beckham, travelled to California to play Los Angeles FC for the curtain raiser and while Beckham’s team may have lost their opening game of the MLS, he has done what no other professional athlete has managed to do in a professional league.

It was Beckham’s shock decision to sign for the Galaxy at just 31 that led us here.

His playing contract included the option to purchase a new MLS franchise for just $25 million, when the going rate now is reported to be around £325 million. He put the league on the map and stashed that golden ticket next to his golden youknow-whats.

Miami was the only choice for his new team, the midfielder said when he rocked up in January 2014 and it easy to see why. The initial Miami Beckham United group envisioned kicking-off the 2018 MLS season in a brand new 25,000-seater stadium in the glitzy downtown waterfront area of one of America’s most famous cities.

The local government had ‘promised’ the group prime real-estate for a 100% privately funded stadium. Fans, starved of a professional soccer team since 2001, would march to the match, European style, to an arena overlooking Miami’s skyline. It looked and sounded amazing, but was a complete non-starter.

Thanks to objections from the all-powerful cruise lines and political apprehension regarding stadium projects, downtown Miami quickly dropped off the agenda.

In fact, so has Miami itself, for the time being.

Instead, Inter Miami kick off their inaugural season 35 miles away in Fort Lauderdale in a hastily erected 18,000-seat stadium next to the team’s training complex.

The team want to build a permanent home on a golf course near the Miami International Airport. The 25,000-seater stadium could be ready by 2022, but the lease is still pending and the land itself is contaminated with arsenic.

Tickets for the home opener sold out before reaching general sale, but the novelty of having a team – even one owned by a global superstar – will wear off if Inter Miami perform poorly. As Beckham

himself acknowledges, Inter Miami will need well-known, exciting players, playing competitive team to be successful. Even the beloved but woeful Miami Dolphins aren’t immune to fans voting with their wallets.

Beckham’s arrival assisted the league’s rebirth and MLS continues to grow in popularity, across major metrics. During the 2018 season, average MLS attendances (21,358) were eighth in the world, slightly trailing France’s Ligue 1 (21,556) and Italy’s Serie A (22,967), according to Football Observatory. Thanks to the unstoppable US women’s team and wide availability of the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and MLS on US TV, more people than ever are watching football at home.

11 years on, what initially seemed an ambitious clause in a remarkable deal has finally come to fruition. Team Beckham was smart to leverage his personal brand long-term and while it might look like a great deal for Beckham, it looks as though it’s a huge deal for the MLS as well.

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“As Beckham himself acknowledges, Inter Miami will need well-known, exciting players, playing competitive team to be successful.

Even the beloved but woeful Miami Dolphins aren’t immune to fans voting with their wallets.”

57

L E A D I N G T H E WAY I N E D U C AT I N G P R O F E S S I O N A L AT H L E T E S

LI FE SKI LLS

CONFERENCE

LIFE SKILLS

FRI DAY 17 T H J U LY T HE MAY FA I R HOTEL , LO N DON Having established itself as the number one player welfare network in elite-level sport through bringing together key stakeholders across the globe, Premier Sports Network is proud to deliver the Life Skills initiative that goes one step further to supporting athletes, by delivering its own conference with follow-up interactive workshops taking place throughout the season.

Designed in partnership with some of the world’s most innovative companies, Life Skills provides interactive learning in real-life scenarios to aspirational young athletes within academies, around topics that complement their current education, as they prepare for life at the very top of the game.

LIFE SKILLS CONFERENCE

Friday 17th July The May Fair Hotel, London The inaugural invitationonly conference for young professional sports men and women who are on course to break into the first team.

• Attended by 150+ academy athletes • High-profile speakers • Industry-leading exhibitors

INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS

Following the conference, a series of interactive workshops will be hosted by credible brands, that players have an interest in.

• Interactive learning in real-life scenarios • Opportunity to gain valuable experience in the operations of business covering aspects of marketing, finance, commercial, budgeting and more.

For more information please contact PSN on enquiries@premiersportsnetwork.com

www.premiersportsnetwork.com @SportsNetwork premiersportsnetwork

WELCOME TO MIAMI International Player Care Conference head to the States for 2020 Premier Sports Network is the number one player care network in the world, providing an exclusive platform for key decision makers who are responsible for guiding the careers of elite-level athletes behind-the-scenes.

Over the past five years, Premier Sports Network has hosted eight Player Care conferences within the UK and expanded in 2019 to provide the same education series in Asia and Australia. Given the increase in attendees flying to London in November 2019 and the feedback received, we feel now is the time for athlete welfare to take centre stage in the world of sport and bringing the International Player Care conference to the United States is important for development within the industry.

With elite-level sport capturing the world’s attention with on-field success, it is the clubs, leagues, governing bodies and player agencies who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the athletes are supported with the best-in-class guidance and expertise away from the pitch to reduce the stress and pressures of performing at the top level.

Player Care is becoming the most talked about topic in sport

For more information please contact PSN on enquiries@premiersportsnetwork.com

0208 4191100 enquiries@premiersportsnetwork.com @PSportsNetwork premiersportsnetwork.com