Liverpool FC today announced that Billy Hogan has been named Chief Commercial Officer for the Premier League club.

In this position, Hogan will work closely with Liverpool’s Managing Director Ian Ayre and be responsible for all club-controlled revenue and business development, including sponsorships, ticketing and hospitality, retail and merchandise, club memberships, club tours and friendlies as well as Liverpool FC’s Soccer Schools.

Prior to joining Liverpool FC, Billy served as Managing Director for Fenway Sports Management (FSM) with responsibility for the company’s day-to-day business operations and strategic growth. FSM is the global sponsorship sales arm of Fenway Sports Group, whose properties include Liverpool Football Club, the Boston Red Sox, New England Sports Network (NESN) and Roush Fenway Racing. Hogan’s responsibilities at FSM consisted of securing high-level sponsorships for the Boston Red Sox including assisting in the development of an impressive client roster of leading national brands, such as LeBron James/LRMR Marketing & Branding, Boston College Athletics, and PGA TOUR Playoff event the Deutsche Bank Championship. Hogan also oversaw all online sales activities for Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the online and interactive media division of MLB.com and MLB’s 30 individual club websites.

Ian Ayre, Managing Director, said: “The role of Chief Commercial Officer is a key role for the Club as we continue to grow our commercial activity on a global basis and we were keen to appoint the right candidate who will be able to take the Club to the next level of its development. Having worked at a senior level within Fenway Sports Management, Billy has been working alongside LFC for the last 18 months on a number of partnership projects and brings with him a rich pedigree of expertise and resource. In many respects this appointment reflects the great spirit of partnership between Fenway Sports Group and LFC.”

In his first year with FSM, Hogan oversaw sponsorship sales for its first client, Boston College Athletics, tripling the Eagles’ revenue, inked a major deal with CVS/pharmacy for Green Monster signage at Fenway Park and secured a multi-year/multi-property sponsorship agreement with Waste Management.

While at FSM, Hogan also directed many other notable initiatives including conceiving and executing Football at Fenway, a historic soccer match at Boston’s Fenway Park featuring perennial Scottish Premier League contender Celtic Football Club and the Sporting Clube de Portugal; the Winter Classic, the National Hockey League’s storied outdoor tradition, held at Fenway Park on January 1, 2010; and Sun Life Frozen Fenway, the first-ever outdoor college hockey doubleheader. In January 2012, Hogan secured the second annual Sun Life Frozen Fenway, a 16-day ice hockey event featuring a number of college, high school and community hockey games as well as two free community skate days. Most recently, Billy played a key role in helping to establish the Warrior kit deal for Liverpool, and helped coordinate its upcoming North America summer tour.

“I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Ian and Liverpool’s talented executive team for more than a year, and it’s truly an honor for me to now lead the business development efforts for the most successful club in English football history,” said Hogan. “I’ve witnessed firsthand the passion and loyalty that fans have for this club and I look forward to working with the staff, partners and future sponsors to grow and develop Liverpool’s brand and commercial presence globally to help ensure the long-term growth of this storied club.”

Hogan joined FSM in 2004 as the company’s first official hire after two years as Director of Sponsorship Sales at ANC Sports. Prior to that, he served as Director of Film Distribution at Giant Screen Films. At Giant, he was responsible for the widest distribution of any film in the company’s history when he successfully marketed “Michael Jordan to the Max” to more than 75 percent of IMAX Theaters Worldwide.

This announcement comes after iSportconnect reported Jen Chang as their new Communications director last week.

Irish broadcaster, viagra order RTÉ Sport has confirmed that it will no longer have the rights to television coverage of the Premier League.

A statement from RTÉ Sport said: “In a period of significant financial pressure RTÉ Sport, along with all other areas of the organisation, has been required to deliver significant production and personnel efficiencies.

“As part of an organisation-wide cost cutting initiative RTÉ’s Director General has publicly stated that the cost of sports rights must be reduced by 25% from 2011 levels by 2015.

“Many efficiencies have already been delivered while continuing to deliver quality programming with significantly less resources. However, it has not been possible to manage the financial deficit without an impact on output.”

RTÉ’s Group Head of Sport Ryle Nugent said that national teams and games will remain the priority of the broadcaster.

He said: “This is a hard choice to make. The relationship with the Premier League has provided us with programming that has been the backbone of our output for many years and there is a real affinity with the output.

“However, RTÉ TV Sport has had to adjust its commitments in line with every other area of the organisation.

“My strategy has been, and will continue to be, the protection of our national teams and national games programming such as GAA, Horse Racing, the Airtricity League and so on.

“Despite the difficult news today, we are still in an extremely good place with regard to our TV sports output by comparison to any public service broadcaster in Europe.”

Nugent added: “We have been very successful in our rights negotiations in recent times, despite extremely tough targets, with new contracts delivered for television in soccer output with the European and World Cup qualifiers, home and away, until 2018 and the World Cup Finals of 2014, 2018 and 2022.

“In rugby we have secured the national teams matches in the 6 Nations and Autumn Internationals until the end of 2017.

“This summer we will begin the process of renegotiating with the GAA and I hope to have definitive news on the Summer Olympics in 2016 in the coming weeks.”

Results from the Sport England’s ‘Active People Survey’ reveal that adult participation levels in football is higher than it has been during any time in the past five years.

It is estimated that 2, generic 184, symptoms 600 are now playing the sport, which is the highest participation figure since the organisation began conducting the survey in 2005/06, giving the impression that programmes such as FA Mars Just Play, GetIntoFootball Officers have done wonders for the game, as well as the extensive work done within higher education.

In addition, the total aged 16+ playing the beautiful game once a week has increased by almost 40,000 since 2007/08.

The 20+ age group has witnessed a rise of 178,000 partakers overall, while the 25-34-year-old age group has also seen a large increase.

Despite a small increase in participation, both recreationally and in higher education, 16-19 youth involvement is still quite a distance away from where it should be.

The number of disabled people playing the game has also increased by 22% to over 120,000.

To continue to boost the numbers, Sport England and County FA will continue to work through the FA National Game Strategy and the Whole Sport Plan 2013-17.

Francesco Ricci Bitti, health President of the International Tennis Federation, order was unanimously elected as the President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) at its General Assembly in Quebec City, erectile Canada.

Ricci Bitti will take over from Denis Oswald, President of the World Rowing Federation, on 1 January 2013 and become only the third President of the organisation in its nearly 30-year history.

Oswald said: “We have made significant progress during the last 12 years, and seen sport and the role of the International Federations grow greatly in its importance on the global stage. I am very pleased that ASOIF will be in the capable hands of Francesco and the organisation is lucky to have someone of his great experience to lead the International Federations forward.”

ASOIF, founded in 1983, is made up of the 28 International Federations on the programme of the Summer Olympic Games and protects their common interests on all issues in international sport, particularly representing the International Federations within the Olympic and global sports movement.

Ricci Bitti paid tribute to the work of Denis Oswald who will remain in place through the end of the year, including the Olympic Games in London where he is Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission.  

Ricci Bitti said: “It is a great honour for me to be elected to this important role by my colleagues from the International Federations and I will focus on strengthening their position and influence by harnessing the massive experience and expertise, which our members collectively hold, for the benefit of all. The next few years will see major changes in world sport and I aim to ensure that ASOIF and the International Federations are at the forefront of the decision making process.”

“The return to the Olympic movement in 1988 was a very important step for tennis. We at the ITF have worked hard to make the Olympic Tennis Event one of the most aspirational and influential events in our sport and in the Olympic Games,” added Ricci Bitti. “The honour to be elected ASOIF President is one that I share with the ITF family, including our 210 member nations, and I hope that they will take this election as a compliment for our sport from the members of ASOIF.”

Also amateur boxing chief Wu Ching-Kuo has been nominated for a spot on the IOC executive board in a vote by ASOIF.

Wu, the Taiwanese president of the International Amateur Boxing Association, beat out International Cycling Union president Pat McQuaid 20-8 in a vote.

The IOC will vote on Wu joining the board at meetings in London ahead of the opening of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) has secured media rights for the FIS Nordic Ski World Cup events taking place in Finland through a new deal with Infront Sports & Media.

The new contract adds to SVT’s existing media rights agreement for the global series and runs for the 2013/14 to 2015/16 seasons. It covers the rights for live, prostate delayed and highlights coverage of all Finish FIS World Cup events in Cross Country, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined.

This season SVT has transmitted around 120 races across all FIS disciplines with Cross Country featuring as the most popular in Sweden. The ‘Tour de Ski’ event in 2013 achieved an average share of 50% and the Cross Country World Cup overall gauged an impressive 44% share which peaked at 70% for the La Clusaz event in France. In total over 50 hours of broadcast coverage of cross country races was aired into Sweden throughout the season – mostly on a live basis.

This extended contract follows the recent agreement between Infront and the Finish Ski Association for the media rights to the FIS Nordic Ski World Cup events in the country.

As partner to most national skiing federations that host FIS World Cup events in the Alpine, Nordic, Freestyle and Snowboard disciplines, the sports marketing company handles the media rights to more than 90% of the series on a collective basis and has helped to continuously increase the reach of the FIS World Cup events over the years. In the 2012/13 season the Nordic disciplines reached a cumulative audience of 2.5 billion.

Brighton and Hove Albion’s Friday night game was notable for setting new Amex attendance record as well a record consumption of food and drink.

Brighton supporters set a club record in terms of total consumption at a single game, smashing previous best and setting the record for the biggest-ever spend per head at any match at the Amex.

Supporters ate 12,000 pies and drank 14,000 pints of beer, and a pre-match meal deal contributed to the highest-ever burger sales at the stadium. Fans were also offered 15 percent off pies after the final whistle.

Chief Executive, Paul Barber, said: “We launched our new early-bird and post-match offers to encourage fans to arrive early and stay later, and these proved extremely popular.

“Fans will be pleased to hear that we will be continuing with these and will have different pre and post-match offers at future games.”

Barber was keen to praise the support from Albion’s fans.

“To have a record crowd, such a fantastic match and to go top of the table made it one of the most special nights yet at the Amex,” he said.

“The team was superb and thanks to the fans too, who played their part, as ever. They were in great spirit, good voice and impeccably behaved.”

Jen Chang has become Liverpool’s new director of communications, according to PRWeek.

Chang will replace Ian Cotton, who left on 13 May after 16 years with the club.

Chang is currently a senior editor at Sports Illustrated and headed up the editorial coverage of football for the US soccer section on ESPN.com.

The news comes after a tumultuous week for the club, which saw it part company with manager Kenny Dalglish, director of football Damien Comolli and communications director Cotton.

Liverpool FC declined to confirm the appointment, saying that an announcement was imminent.

The big names on and off the field are all set to descend on AMSTERDAM in December 12-13, ask 2012.

12 months to go and the organisers – Sports Development Marketing (SDM), clinic have 90% of the INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT EXPO 2012 Conference Programme confirmed.

• How to develop football talent?
• Best practice on football development issues?
• What are the drivers in developing elite players, both on and off the field?
• Did the FIFA World Cup Leave a football legacy?
• How does Barcelona FC develop football talent and why the culture is nearly as important as player development?
• Social inclusion in football, racism in football – what needs to change?
• The development strategies from KNVB, German FA, The FA.
• Coaches BV, Dutch Professional Coaches Association to give major insight.
• The future of football development in 20 years.

The above issues are only some of the topics with world class leaders in their respective fields already confirmed.

Over 500 professional clubs will be invited, as well as 208 football associations and numerous football leagues.

Confirmed speakers are: Robin Russell (Sports Path International), Gerard Houllier (Former Liverpool and Aston Villa Manager), Willi Hink (DFB), Piet Hubers (KNVB), Mick Baikke (The FA), Les Reed (Executive Director, Southampton Football Club), Chris Fortuin (South Africa football specialist), Piara Power (Chief Executive, FARE Network – one of the leading individuals advocating social inclusion and the issue of why racism is still an issue in global football).

European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) and many other national associations present in the INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT EXPO 2012 Conference Programme. The world’s most northerly professional football club will be represented – Tromso FC, Norway – to give a global overview of their club and community activities.

The INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT EXPO 2012, scheduled to be a part of the AMSTERDAM 2012 EVENT – the world’s largest Sports Exhibition and Conference(s) Event in 2012.

www.footballdevelopmentexpo.com

www.amsterdam2012event.com

For details and bookings please contact:

E-mail:  info@amsterdam2012event.com
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