iSportconnect, Author at iSportConnect

LeSports Connects: The China Sports Forum – Final Whistle

The Inaugural LeSports Connects: The China Sports Forum finished on Wednesday evening bringing a close to two days of discussion and insight on the future of the Chinese sports industry. Staged at Mission Hills Dongguan, order the invitation-only event saw over 500 guests from 18 countries enjoy 22 conference sessions involving some 60 different speakers.

WHAT THEY SAID

Former Manchester United and Chelsea FC CEO, pills Peter Kenyon: “First of all, China has a plan and a clear objective which puts them ahead of a lot of people who are entering the sport. They are addressing the education – football is now part of the curriculum – and China has clearly demonstrated through the Olympics that it can host major sporting events, so I’m pretty sure that between now and 2050, the World Cup will come to China. So China has the three pillars that you need, and the question now, is how you fill in the rest that gets them from where they are today to the winning a World Cup in 2050.”

Beatrice Lee, CEO of Baofeng Sports International: “The capability and reach of social media in China enables sporting events to connect with over 1.3 billion people and is revolutionizing the way in which people engage with and experience sport, and how rights-holders and promoters are commercializing their assets. I find that quite exciting.”

International footballer turned publisher, Rio Ferdinand: “The Chinese Super League is taking players in their prime now – that’s a big difference. These players that are capable of playing Premier League football and Champions League football. These are people who can leave a legacy in the same way that Zola, Lampard, Bergkamp and Cantona did in the EPL and have a huge effect on the next generation of players. They are coming for the right reasons, to play football and to improve.

Ma Guoli, Vice Chairman, LeSports: “The key to developing sport in China is time, and if you look at what the likes of the NBA has achieved in China, it didn’t take place overnight. The industry needs to invest in the long term growth of sports in China and if we take soccer as an example, the focus needs to be on juniors, equipment, the coaching and the development of Chinese players for the future.”

Jamie Reigle, Commercial Director and Managing Director, Asia Pacific at Manchester United: “We talk about the underlying demand. Manchester United has 600 million followers around the world, we know where the TV audience is and we also have social media, so we have three points of data to tell us where the biggest pull is coming from and where the growth is. On all three of those metrics, the absolute numbers for China are big and the growth is very significant.”

Xavier Asensi, Managing Director APAC at Barcelona FC: “We always look long term, we think global but we try to act very local and a key partner was always crucial to do that. We have been talking to many people but, in Mission Hills, we have found what was missing to establish the Barcelona FC brand in China. We’re so looking forward to the partnership which will be of interest not just to Chinese football fans but the world of sports in general. It’s going to be state of the art.”

Tenniel Chu, Vice Chairman of venue partner Mission Hills Group: “We have a vision to bring China to the world and the world to China. With our ‘golf and more’ strategy for growth, we recently opened our football training headquarters at our resort in Haikou and in 2017 will be partnering with FC Barcelona to grow the sport in China. In addition, we recently teamed up with Boris Becker to bring the world’s first Boris Becker Tennis Academy to Mission Hills in Shenzhen and in 2017 we will be launching the Becker Cup and take tennis to six cities around China. It’s a very exciting time for our business.”

Lin Xianpeng, Professor & PHD Tutor, Beijing Sport University: “The next twelve months will see significant growth. I expect to see an explosion in winter sports – I think we can expect to see a growth of at least 50% in the next year. We will see technological innovation in the sports industry dominated by major players and at the same time we will see some of the smaller players leave the space. We will also see more participation in outdoor sports. But above all, content is going to be key to driving the industry in China.”

Jasper Donat, CEO of event organizer Branded: “We have been privileged to listen to and learn from some of the most highly regarded personalities in the sports sector over the last two days who have shared their perspective on the future of the Chinese sports industry. LeSports Connects: The China Sports Forum’s debut has been a great success as both an industry conference and networking event and we look forward to coming back to China next year.”

LeSports Connects: The China Sports Forum ran from Monday 28 November to Wednesday 30 November at Mission Hills Dongguan, China. Follow the latest news and updates at: www.lesportsconnects.com

Sacramento Kings reveal cracking jersey sponsor

The Sacramento Kings have announced a new partnership with Sacramento-based Blue Diamond Growers, prostate a leading almond brand.

“For decades, herbal Blue Diamond almonds have been one of Sacramento’s most well-known products around the country, try ” said Kings President Chris Granger. “We are proud of this community’s history of high-quality agriculture – it’s why we’ve committed to supporting local producers by using locally sourced food in our arena and why our players are proud to showcase the Blue Diamond brand on the court and around the league.”

Though the partnership, Blue Diamond and the Kings will be one of the first to experiment with the NBA’s industry-leading jersey sponsorship pilot program. Beginning in the 2017 season, a Blue Diamond logo will be incorporated in all of the Sacramento Kings uniforms.

3 candidates confirmed for 2023 Rugby World Cup bid

World Rugby has confirmed France, Ireland and South Africa as Rugby World Cup 2023 host candidates.

Each union demonstrated within its application that it could meet key criteria critical to a viable Rugby World Cup hosting bid by the 1 September deadline.

Italy formally withdrew from the process last week after the union confirmed it could not guarantee government support with its bid being linked to Rome 2024.

The applicant phase evaluation focused on key criteria such as finance, venues, tournament window and government support in line with World Rugby’s seven hosting objectives:

– Venues and infrastructure commensurate with a top-tier major event
– Comprehensive and enforceable public and private sector guarantees
– A commercially successful event with a fully funded, robust financial model
– Operational excellence through an integrated and experienced delivery team
– A vision that engages and inspires domestic and international audiences and contributes to the growth of rugby at all levels
– An enabling environment of political and financial stability that respects the diversity of Rugby World Cup’s global stakeholders
– An environment and climate suited to top-level sport in a geography that allows maximum fan mobility

– Each application was reviewed in detail by a specialist technical review group and independently assessed to ensure a fair and consistent approach to the evaluation process.

World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont added: “We are delighted by the strong level of serious interest from unions and governments, which is clearly reflected in three strong and impressive applications.

“I would like to congratulate the unions for successfully progressing to candidate status and we welcome further dialogue with all parties as momentum builds towards the selection of the Rugby World Cup 2023 host.”

The application phase was the second stage of a detailed three-phase host selection process following an initial education phase, designed to provide prospective bid unions and governments with all the information required to determine to proceed with a bid.

The candidate process officially opens on 1 November and the Rugby World Cup 2023 host union will be selected by the World Rugby Council in November 2017.

Quotas on women in sports business should be “sledgehammer last resort”

By Christian Radnedge in Rio

Quotas on women in prominent roles in sports business should be “sledgehammer last resort”, adiposity one of the senior figures from Ernst and Young has told iSportconnect.

EY’s global vice chair of public policy Beth Brooke-Marciniak was speaking to iSC at the company’s ‘Women. Fast forward’ event at the World Olympians Association house in Rio de Janeiro, where International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach was also in attendance, recognizing the achievements of women in sport.

There has been debate among the sports business world for some time now whether quotas should be brought in to ensure greater equality at board level. Some fear that it may prevent meritocracy, while others point to surveys taken in European countries showing that national corporate quotas are increasing the number of women in boardrooms.

Norway for example, was the first country in the world to mandate that women account for 40 per cent of its board seats. Last year the country had almost 36 per cent of female representation on the boards of its OMX-listed companies.

But Brooke-Marciniak, who also heads up EY’s Women Athletes Business Network, said that quotas should be a last resort for promoting gender equality.

“I’ve never been a big fan of quotas, but that’s not to say that they won’t be necessary” she told iSC.

“I like to call a quota ‘sledgehammer of last resort’. So I think you have to try everything else. Quotas aren’t necessarily realistic so you have to have sufficient women in your pipeline who can do everything you want them to do, so you can’t always go to the number of the quota automatically.

“We are in favour of an approach that is three-pronged; one is the politics, you need the government to use its voice to call for change, then you need ht e private sector, business, to actually take responsibility and make change and get more women in leadership. The final thing is you need transparency, you need to have numbers, show them to be involved and then share with your stakeholders where you are with percentages of women or whatever and have them use their voice.”

EY secured sponsorship of the Rio 2016 Games in 2011, in a deal understood to be worth more than $100m. The deal sees EY providing the professional services for the Games, but Brooke-Marciniak maintains that the women athletes business network is a big part of their activation here in Rio.

“We’re the professional services sponsor of the Games so we’re very involved in the delivery of the games. But in terms of our activation this was really a big platform project around our women athletes business network. The values of the IOC and the values of EY are very closely intertwined, we are committed to building a better world through sport and building a better working world.

“Our values on inclusion are completely in line so we came together and really focused this on women because we do think we have an opportunity to change the world by getting more women in leadership.”

The event on Wednesday evening was certainly boosted by the appearance of IOC president Bach who spoke of his wish to promote a more active role for women in all levels of sport. Bach confirmed in a speech that women athletes would reach parity with the men in terms of numbers competing for the first time at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in two years’ time.

Last week at the IOC session, Bach confirmed the appointment of Winter Olympic champion Angela Ruggiero as the new chair of the IOC athletes’ commission, replacing outgoing chair Claudia Bokel.

Brooke-Marciniak said that the importance of having a role model such as Ruggiero in a prominent position was “huge”.

“We need more Angelas!” she said. “We need more women in those kind of positions. You need the role models, you need a voice at the table, you need enough voices, you need to get around 30 per cent around a table so their voice actually gets heard. I’m very proud of her.”

There could be many more following in Ruggiero’s footsteps fairly soon as Brooke-Marciniak confirmed that EY was taking on nine athletes after the Rio Games who would be ending their sporting careers.

Although she couldn’t name the athletes going on to be mentored in the women athletes business network, the American did highlight the strength of character these women had from their sporting careers: “They are unbelievable. Are they trained at what we do, no. Will they figure it out, yes. Give them a goal and they’ll figure it out on that very day.”

Although great strides have been taken in increasing gender equality there still remains a number of challenges. The US women’s soccer team, for example, playing here at the Olympics, could certainly use some help in their fight to be paid the same as their male counterparts. Recent studies suggested the USWNT received a quarter of what the US men’s team gets, and a fraction of their bonuses too.

With a female prime minister in the UK, a female chancellor in Germany and a possible first female president of the United States, the opportunity for change has never seemed more timely.

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AIBA sign ‘joint venture’ with AliSports

The Amateur International Boxing Association have agreed a joint venture with Alisports, discount the sports segment of the Alibaba Group.

The venture will focus on AIBA owned IP, viagra pharmacy exclusive matches and events, asthma commercial development rights, operational funds, internet technology, big data mining and application, massive platform membership services and extended e-commerce product lines.

Dazhong Zhang, CEO of Alisports, said; “The creation of this Joint Venture aims to support the continuous development of AIBA and its competitions by bringing in our extensive expertise in internet and e-commerce.

“Our proven capacity to target hundreds of millions of clients represents an immense opportunity to promote boxing. We are confident we can achieve global progress and advancement of the sport of boxing in the world through this unparalleled collaboration.”

AIBA President Dr. Ching Kuo-Wu added: “AIBA has made remarkable progress in evolving our sport recently, and this future joint venture with a major player in the digital world will bring efficient synergies and provide the perfect platform for the promotion of our sport and our boxers,”

Basketball Champions League appoints CEO

The Basketball Champions League has made a key appointment with Patrick Comninos becoming its Chief Executive Officer.

Comninos, who had headed UEFA’s Club and National Team Operations since January 2012, will be in charge of establishing and administering the Basketball Champions League – the innovative 50-50 partnership between FIBA and 10 top European leagues – as a top level competition in Europe, set to tip off in September.

“I look forward to this new challenge and to the opportunity of contributing to this unique project that is the Basketball Champions League. I feel confident that my experience can be useful in this new project which aims to deliver a great competition for the participating clubs,” he said.

Markus Studer, the Chairman of the Basketball Champions League’s Board of Directors, welcomed Comninos’s appointment.

“Patrick Comninos has proven himself to be the ideal candidate for this position. He has the leadership qualities and know-how required to head up the Basketball Champions League and provide the boost required to make this truly pan-European club competition a reality,” he said.

Prior to his time at UEFA, Comninos spent more than five years as General Manager of Superleague Greece, the highest professional football league in Greece. He had previously served as Director for the Olympic Football Tournaments of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

iSportconnect team up with World Football Forum for Paris Directors’ Club

iSportconnect, the world’s largest global private network of sports business executives, is delighted to announce our Paris Directors’ Club will take place on 7^th July.

The second Directors’ Club of the year will take place at Dentons offices in Paris.

The event will be part of this year’s World Football Forum which will take place from 7-8^th July in the French capital.

The event takes place just days before the final of Euro 2016 in Paris at the Stade De France.

The central theme of the World Football Forum in 2016 is the ‘New Geography of Football’ – the high-growth new markets for the international game.

The globalisation of football is being felt just as strongly in new markets – from China, FIFA World Cup host nations Russia and Qatar through to India and South-East Asia.

The World Football Forum will offer the first chance to chart the opportunities and challenges ahead for the international football industry.

Dentons is the world’s first polycentric global law firm. A top 20 firm on the Acritas 2015 Global Elite Brand Index, the Firm is committed to challenging the status quo in delivering consistent and uncompromising quality and value in new and inventive ways.

Driven to provide clients a competitive edge, and connected to the communities where its clients want to do business, Dentons knows that understanding local cultures is crucial to successfully completing a deal, resolving a dispute or solving a business challenge.

The event will be the second Directors’ Club of the year with a successful London Directors’ Club taking place in March this year.

iSportconnect has previously held Paris Directors’ Clubs at the French Football Federation and in 2013 at PSG’s Parc des Princes with previous panellists including: Arnaud Simon of Eurosport France, Pascal Grizot President of the Ryder Cup 2018 organising committee, Thibaut Potdevin from Euro 2016 and Jeremy Botton from the French Tennis Federation.

iSportconnect chairman Michael Cunnah said: “We are delighted to announce our latest Directors’ Club this edition taking place in Paris. It will be a fantastic occasion in partnership with the World Football Forum and in a summer where sport will be in the spotlight as the European Championships reach their climax.

Edward Cowell, Event Director, World Football Forum: “We are very excited to be working with iSportconnect and, in a first for the World Football Forum, to be hosting a special edition of the Directors’ Club at our 2016 event. The format of the Directors’ Club will be an ideal fit for the Forum, and will add a very welcome extra dimension for our participants.”

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World Rugby Chairman Lapasset to Step Down to Focus on Paris 2024 Olympic Bid

World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset has confirmed he will not be seeking re-election in May in order to concentrate on his role as co-chairman of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games bid committee.

Lapasset has enjoyed two successful terms as chairman which included the recent 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The Frenchman informed his World Rugby Executive Committee colleagues of his decision in Dublin this morning

“After careful consideration I have taken the decision not to seek a further term of office as Chairman of World Rugby, health ” he said.

“I feel that this is the right time for? me to complete my current term and pass on the ball to one of my superb colleagues.

“My decision will allow me to stay connected to the game I love while now devoting more time to my role as co-chairman of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid.

“We are now entering into the heart of the campaign and nothing would give me greater pleasure than bringing the Games back to Paris ?for a real centenary celebration of Olympism in 2024.”

World Rugby Chief Executive Brett Gosper added: “Bernard Lapasset is a wonderful ambassador for our sport, a great leader and a true visionary, who has presided over unparalleled growth and success in our sport.”

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NCAA President Handed Contract Extension Until 2020

The National College Athletic Association (NCAA) has confirmed that Mark Emmert will continue as its president for another three years.

The NCAA board of governors voted to extend Emmert’s contract through October 2020.

More info HERE.

Sophie Goldschmidt to Leave RFU and Become Managing Director at CSM

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has confirmed that Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer Sophie Goldschmidt will be leaving her role to take up a new position as Group Managing Director at CSM Sport & Entertainment.

Goldschmidt, drugs who has been at the RFU since 2011, asthma will be taking up the new position from March 2016.

More info HERE.