Building on a fantastic year of data growth, Goodform and Six Nations have once again been working together in 2019, the eighth year of their partnership, seeing fantastic results off the pitch as the action hots up on it, with the 2019 Tournament culminating in Super Saturday this weekend when the Championship will be decided.

Goodform’s work with Six Nations during the 2018 tournament saw a significant increase in database size with over 150,000 new fans signing up. Email campaigns achieved an average open rate of 47% whilst sponsor content via email received excellent exposure with over half a million views.

As the official CRM agency of the Six Nations, Goodform’s remit remains to drive data growth, increase fan engagement, and encourage traffic to the official website, mobile app downloads and participation in the fantasy game.

This year, work has taken place on the data infrastructure to fully integrate all data sources, resulting in deeper audience understanding and facilitating automated journeys, as Goodform and Six Nations seek to view fans in a more holistic manner by understanding all fan touchpoints with the tournament.

Goodform’s work this year is also focusing on delivering value to Six Nations partners, including Guinness, with whom Six Nations announced a title partnership deal in advance of the Championship.

Shane Whelan, Digital Manager, Six Nations, said: “We have worked closely with Goodform for a number of years now and have been extremely encouraged by the progress we have made in that time. We have had a very successful 2019 to date. One of our key objectives is to grow an extensive fanbase that we know and can communicate to with the right messaging. We have enjoyed an upward curve in terms of growth over the last five years with Goodform’s consultancy and services helping to achieve that.”

“Once again, we’re delighted to extend our partnership with Six Nations, now into its eighth year,” said Alexandra Kyrke-Smith, Head of Research & Insight, Goodform. “Our focus for the 2019 Championships remains not only on data growth, but also on creating an environment that allows for a much deeper audience understanding across the Six Nations fanbase. The insights this creates will be used to deliver targeted, creative campaigns to fans and to continue to drive value for Six Nations, the National Unions and commercial partners alike.”

UEFA proposals to change part of the Champions League format would be “catastrophic” for soccer but FIFA plans to overhaul the Club World Cup will be a boon for the sport, La Liga president Javier Tebas told Reuters.

The exclusive report by Reuters continues:

Tebas lashed out at changes he said Europe’s governing body is considering making to the Champions League, saying they would damage domestic competitions.

Accusing UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA) of plotting in secret, Tebas said the body wanted to play European games on weekends rather than in mid-week and expand the group stage to have four groups of eight teams, rather than the current format of eight groups of four sides.

“UEFA and the ECA are negotiating behind closed doors so that the others don’t know about the reforms which put national leagues in danger,” said in an exclusive interview.

“They are making reforms to the Champions League which are very dangerous for football. It’s a model which is very damaging for national leagues and also for them, as they don’t understand business.”

UEFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tebas earlier this year made headlines for attempting to switch a La Liga game between Barcelona and Girona to Miami, a move which was opposed by FIFA.

While he remains committed to taking domestic league games abroad to widen La Liga’s global appeal, Tebas said his priority was stopping UEFA’s proposed changes.

“Playing a game in Miami is much less important to La Liga than the catastrophic reforms of UEFA and the ECA,” he said.

“FIFA has been transparent in the last few weeks and changed its position, so we support them (in their Club World Cup plans), meanwhile UEFA and ECA are doing the opposite and we are very worried about that and don’t support them.”

FIFA’s ruling council meets on Friday in Miami to discuss and vote on president Gianni Infantino’s plans for the revamped Club World Cup, which would take place in 2021, replacing the Confederations Cup.

The new-look competition would see 24 teams taking part instead of the current, annual tournament between six continental champions and an invited team, which has been dominated by the winners of the Champions League since 2013.

Tebas initially opposed Infantino’s plan for an annual, expanded Club World Cup, calling it “irresponsible” last year. But he said the Spanish league and other major European leagues have radically shifted their position on it.

“In the last year FIFA has made some changes and we are on the path to a good Club World Cup which fits well into the calendar and can be supported by national leagues,” Tebas said.

“It still needs to be polished, but they are discussing distributing the money more evenly to smaller leagues and that’s very important. FIFA have also been more transparent about it.

“They’ve also committed to playing it every four years which affects national leagues a lot less.”

The proposed shake-up to the tournament has been rejected by UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin and the ECA Chairman chief Andrea Agnelli, who is also the chairman of Juventus.

The FIFA council in Miami will also explore the possibility of expanding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from 32 to 48 teams, which could see the number of host countries also increase.

The tournament will take place between November and December rather than the traditional slot of June and July due to Qatar’s scorching summer temperatures, which is set to disrupt domestic leagues across Europe and around the world.

“We always opposed the change of the dates and now La Liga is preparing ourselves for the break in the season,” Tebas said.

“We also must decide what we do with all the players that are not going to the World Cup, of which there are many, not just in Spain but around the world and who didn’t figure in decisions like this.

“We’ll have to wait and see what FIFA decides but in principle, we at the Spanish league are not in favour of increasing the number of teams at the Qatar World Cup or any World Cup.”

In one of the most significant changes to the administration of motorsport in the UK, the governing body has adopted new articles of association, which bring it in line with Sport England’s Code of Governance and best practice.

Motorsport Council Members voted unanimously to approve the new articles during an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at the Royal Automobile Club in London (12 March).

The new articles see the Motorsport UK Board become the ultimate decision-making body in the governance of UK motorsport. This has historically been the role of the Motorsport Council, who will now become the body that informs and advises the Board on key issues affecting motorsport, helping to shape strategy and promoting the sport in the UK. The Board will be made up of a greater proportion of independent non-executive directors, in addition to the members representing the sport’s direct interests.

The Council will expand significantly to include representatives of a wider range of stakeholders, including motorsport venues, broader motorsport activities such as commercial karting and the motorsport industry in general. This will allow a greater range of views to be considered and ensure the governing body better reflects the whole sport.

A new Rules Committee, drawn from across the disciplines, will be established to review regulation changes proposed by the various specialist committees. Meeting bi-annually, the Rules Committee will review proposed regulation changes and ensure that full consideration is given prior to submission to the Motorsport UK Board.

David Richards CBE, Chairman of Motorsport UK, said: “This is a very significant moment in the history of Motorsport in the UK, as we commit to becoming a modern governing body that is truly representative of our members and motorsport in general. The changes approved this week have come about after lengthy debate and meet the objective of ensuring that we will now provide the highest standards of sports governance.

“This is a journey of modernisation that over 50 sports governing bodies in this country have already taken. As sport has developed from its amateur roots it has become highly complex, commercial and multidisciplinary. Motorsport is no exception and these changes now provide the foundation for the future development and promotion of motorsport in the UK.”

Another important decision taken by the Board was the appointment of Tom Purves as the new Chairman of the reformed Motorsport Council, taking over from Tony Scott Andrews at the end of his nine-year tenure. Purves has previously served as a Director of Motorsport UK and is also a former Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club.

Purves said: “As a stalwart supporter of motorsport for decades, it is an honour to be appointed as the next Chairman of the Motorsport Council, especially at this pivotal moment when its role is being redefined. By including a much wider range of stakeholders and views, the Council will become the ultimate conscience of motorsport governance, advising the Board of the key issues affecting our community’s ability to enjoy fun on four wheels.”

Motorsport UK extends its sincere thanks to Scott Andrews for his many years’ excellent service as Chairman of the Council and as a valued member of the Board.

The UEFA Champions League match between Bayern Munich and Liverpool yesterday evening gave Sky Deutschland its biggest ever audience.

The pay-tv provider pulled an average audience for Liverpool’s 3-1 away win was 1.41 million viewers.

The game attracted 810,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic for an audience share of 9.3%.

There were also 370,000 viewers for FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyon on a record evening for Germany’s Sky.

In Italy, where Sky Italia pulled its biggest-ever audience for a club match with the Champions League on Tuesday, public broadcaster RAI 1 topped the ratings with Wednesday’s action as the number one show.

The Bayern-Liverpool match averaged 3.593 million viewers and a share of 14.5%.

In The Netherlands, the same match on Veronica was number three of the day with 1.32 million viewers and a share of 22.8%.