14 Nov Business of Football Conference in South Africa
I attended the landmark Business of Football in South Africa on 9 November 2024. The event was well attended by agents, clubs and players. Excellent presentations were made by Carrie Delaney, Managing Director at Mscsports, Tommy Makhobela Founder and CEO of Seasoned Agency, Indira Albuquerque and Jack Kearns to name a few. Some key takeaways from the events:
- Football stakeholder brand attractiveness for sponsors involves partnership and engagement.
- Building a brand involves thinking out of the box and developing tools which cultivate grass roots community buy-in and foster rapidly developing technology.
- Brand and sponsor development needs regional intervention which should include mechanisms to include broadcasters.
- The state of woman’s inclusion in sports, particularly football requires urgent intervention and redress.
- The new FIFA regulations pertaining to Agents is attracting controversy and international litigation. It is an area to watch in sports law.
- Communities can be empowered through sports, which can act as a bridge across cultures and socio-economic factors.
This is a developing and exciting field and I look forward to more events of this nature.