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Watch WFS Live Day 4- Takeaways and Highlights
Watch WFS Live Day 4- Takeaways and Highlights 895 460 WFS Live

Day 4 of #WFSLive was packed with insightful, exciting, emotional and also passionate panels, with Samuel Eto’o reflecting on his tough childhood in Cameroon and his long journey to success, President Javier Tebas sharing plans to re-open LaLiga stadiums early next year and super-agents Jonathan Barnett and Mino Raiola taking the stage to strongly dismiss FIFA’s reported plans to implement salary caps in football.

“WE WANT TO HAVE 3,000 FANS PER STADIUM IN JANUARY-FEBRUARY”

Javier Tebas – President, LaLiga

“More than a percentage, we’re aiming at a number. I think having 3,000 spectators at a football stadiums would be reasonable. It’s already happening in some theatres in Madrid. Why not in football stadiums?

“IN SOME REGIONS WE COULD ALREADY BE OPENING STADIUMS”

Javier Tebas – President, LaLiga

“In some regions of Spain such as the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands or even Madrid, I think we could already have a percentage of fans back in venues. The Spanish Government wants to do this in the whole country at the same time, but this is something we need to discuss because it’s going to be imposible. We can’t have all stadiums closed just because some regions have more infections than others.”

“FIFA HAS NO IDEA WHAT AGENTS DO”

Jonathan Barnett – Vice-President, The Football Forum

“Not one member of the FIFA hierarchy has ever set foot in an agent’s office. Not one of them really knows what an agent does. How can they make rules? We agree there have to be rules. We are quite prepared to sit down with FIFA and help to write the rules. They have never wanted to do that. They just want to impose a set of rules on us.”

“SALARY CAPS WOULD MEAN GOING BACK TO RUSSIAN COMMUNIST TIMES”

Mino Raiola – President, The Football Forum

“This cap would be going back 75 years ago in economically Russian communist times, it is not of this world anymore… Should we do a cap when clubs earn more money than a normal company? Real Madrid and Barcelona last year almost made a billion. Do we ask them to cap? Do we ask them to say the tickets are too high? Or the shirt rights are too high and you cannot sell the shirt for 100 million?”

“5G IS GOING TO CHANGE HOW FANS EXPECT US TO INTERACT WITH THEM”

Mike Sutherland – Chief Transformation Officer, Real Madrid

“5G is going to bring up an entire new world of bandwidth which is going to bring with it a greater capability to provide richer content and to provide more and more data coming to your personal devices. As a consequence, consumer expectations are going to change. The role of 5G in a long term is going to change how fans expect us to interact with them.”

“ATHLETES DRIVE MORE ENGAGEMENT THAN THE ORGANISATIONS THEY REPRESENT” 

James Dobbs – Managing Director, SNTV

“If you create content with a top level athlete like LeBron James or Lionel Messi then it will perform well. Athletes now, more so than the organisations they represent, are the drivers of engagement.”

“WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE OUR CONTENT IS WORTHY OF FAN’S ATTENTION”

Winnie Chan – Chief Commercial Officer, Malaysian Football League

“For me the top commodity is the fans’ attention. We have to have a strategy to make sure the content is worthy of their attention. You can have thousands of hours of content, but if you don’t get the attention you’re waisting your effort. We have to have a proper plan to ensure that our content is worthy of attention. “

“ATHLETES IN GENERAL ARE SCARED TO SHOW VULNERABILITY” 

Thomas Beattie – Former footballer

“As an athlete you’re expected to be this robot and any size of weakness in that is prayed upon and it can be difficult for people to go around it… Athletes in general are scared to show vulnerability because something is always willing to take your space and that can redefine your career. Sport is a difficult environment to be honest and show emotion and it is toxic and damaging, and it’s not authentic “

“AFRICAN CLUBS NEED A PLATFORM TO COME TOGETHER”

Hicham El Amrani – CEO & Co-Founder, HEA Sports

It’s time to have a club platform in Africa where clubs can share their own best practices and their own examples and so on. Clubs are always connected when they trade payers and when they play in competitions, but they are not in my view connected enough among their own administrators to work together and get to know each other and get to know their own environment and learn from each other. That I think together with education requirement is extremely important.”

“WE’VE HAD NO SUPPORT FROM THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT”

Neil Doncaster – CEO, Scottish Professional Football League

“Around 60% of the league’s income comes from fans. Roughly there’s around £70m losses incurred across our leagues and that’s likely to rise to £100m by the end of the season. Despite that, we’ve had no support from the Scottish government.”

 

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Day 5 highlights: Drogba, Carney, Collina, Infantino, Ronaldo, and more
Day 5 highlights: Drogba, Carney, Collina, Infantino, Ronaldo, and more 1236 566 WFS Live

Day 5 of WFS Live was packed with action and relevant discussions. African leaders such as CAF General Secretary Abdelmounaim Bah or football legend Didier Drogba discussed the best strategies for the game to continue growing in the continent, Pierluigi Collina, Chairman of FIFA’s Referee Committee, addressed how VAR is changing the game for the good, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino shared his plans for the future with Ronaldo Nazário in a unique live conversation. And as a special treat for our Spanish fans, we had Vicente del Bosque, Fernando Hierro, David Villa and Juan Mata sharing their memories on the 2010 World Cup, in which the Spanish National Team conquered the world with their unique “Tiki Taka” style.

Gianni Infantino on hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup every two years
“One idea that came in this period, and even before as well, is that maybe we should organise the Women’s World Cup every two years instead of every four years. For the next Women’s World Cup in 2023, we had a lot of interest around the world. We’ll go to Australia and New Zealand. Then, what happens next? Should we go to South America? Or maybe Europe or North America want to organise it again? Why not South America? Why not Africa? So, we need to see what we can do.”

Ronaldo Nazário on fighting against racism every day
“The fight against racism is not just a fight for black people, it’s everybody’s fight. We have to fight it every day. Nobody is born racist, but somehow people learn to be racist. We have to fight to teach those who learn that when kids. But, it’s everybody’s fight.”

Santiago Solari on the mental challenges faced by players during the Covid-19 lockdown
“During the lockdown, players have had to rely heavily on self-discipline and self-motivation. They have worked for weeks without the control of any staff and without the motivation of the daily competition and also without their teammates. For the first time in their careers, they’ve experienced the harshness and the loneliness of the preparation for an individual sport, which is much more difficult.”

David Villa on why Spain has to quit looking for the new Xavi and the next Iniesta
“It would be a huge mistake to try to find the new Xavi, the new Iniesta, the new Villa or the new Casillas. Spain has great players and great coaches. They are different to the ones that won the World Cup in 2010, but they are perfectly capable of building an excellent team. If we want to succeed in the future, we have to stop comparing the current players with the past players. If we do so, Spanish football has an enormous potential.”

Didier Drogba on the need to educate football players in Africa
“Education is the key. We need to educate the players because, for example, in Ivory Coast some of them don’t know how to read, how to write. Education is vital, it is crucial because you can’t focus just on creating good football players. This is a career that lasts 10, 15 perhaps 20 years, but after that there is a life and the move can be very difficult.”

Karen Carney (Visa) on the importance of long-term partnerships in women’s football
“When I first started playing I don’t think there was any partners, there wasn’t really big sponsors. Nobody really cared if I’m honest. Then, as England started to get to major tournaments, you saw sponsors and partners drop in at key times, maybe a year before the tournaments and then they would drop out. There wasn’t really any consistency. And what I noticed since now is that for instance with Visa’s seven-year partnership, which is incredible, Nike, Barclays… This stops those peaks and troughs of coming in at the key moments and then dropping out. How can the women’s game ever really develop like that? Visa’s seven-year plan shows confidence in the game and it shows believe and that’s massive for other brands as well.”

Pierluigi Collina (FIFA) on how VAR is forcing referees to change their mentality 
“Referees today grew up as referees without VAR, so this generation is in a process of big change. They have to adapt their mentality. To be clear, a referee on the field of play has been educated to defend the decision taken against everybody. Today he has to change this mentality because he has to understand and accept that his decision on the field can be overruled based on something that can be shown on the monitor. It’s a matter of mentality.”

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Day 4 highlights: Simon Oliveira, Al Guido, Joe de Sena, the WFS StartCup and more
Day 4 highlights: Simon Oliveira, Al Guido, Joe de Sena, the WFS StartCup and more 1097 521 WFS Live

Day 4 of WFS Live powered by R9 saw leading social media experts discuss why athletes are becoming powerful influencers and why this trend is only just starting. Successful entrepreneurs like Alejandro Agag (Extreme E) or Joe de Sena (Spartan Race) exchanged views on what football can learn from other sports, whilst Barça’s Marta Plana and Pixellot CEO Alon Werber addressed the crucial role of technology in the “New Normal”. Plus, we had the semi-finals of the WFS StartCup by GSIC.

Simon Oliveira (KIN Partners) on who can become the LeBron James of football:
“If you look at the audiences of Messi, Ronaldo or Neymar I think they have the power of a Ferrari in their hands but they’re still learning to drive. They have enormous potential, some individually have more than the combined audience of The New York Times, The Washington Post and the LA Times put together. However, I think where LeBron was very clever was he very much identified what the content slate would be from his perspective. It was built around American black culture and things that he was passionate about. I think any footballer going to this are needs to be very clear as to what their identity is and what the content stream and platform should be for.”

Al Guido (49ers) on the need to embrace user-generated content
“We have 20 people on our content team capturing 49ers and other sports every single day. However, we have 10 million fans all over the world capturing 49ers content, so you have to embrace it. User-generated content is just another form of our 49ers Studio team. Last year, Live Nation and Ticketmaster had more reaction for tickets going on sale for the NFL season based on user-generated 30-second advertisements versus studio-recorded production quality, because people want to be in the action, they want to see what happens there.”
Alon Werber (Pixellot) on how automation and AI can save clubs post-Covid
“A lot of clubs in the world live on venue tickets and are going to lack revenue streams in the coming season, in which there are going to be severe restrictions on stadium attendance. Bringing quick and low cost production to allow them to continue connecting with their fans via a subscription model or through sponsorship deals can be almost a matter of life or death for these clubs in the coming season. At Pixellot we’ve been engaging AI and computer vision to film, produce and stream completely automatic games for 4 years and today we are installed in around 8,000 fields of 16 different sports. Last January we were producing live 100,000 hours of life events.”
Ricardo Dias (Ambev) on bringing content to people’s homes
“It’s time to stay at home. We are taking the opportunity to create new occasions for consumption. We are investing in e-commerce, lives and bringing them to people’s homes. It was not part of the plan, but it will certainly add a lot of value in the future.”
Diogo Kotscho (Orlando City SC) on creating and engaging digital communities

“At Orlando City, what worked was creating and engaging an entire community. As a result, today it is easier to see Orlando City flags, shirts and stickers around than Orlando Magic, the traditional NBA team and more related to tourism. We brought Kaká in the first year, which was important to start our journey with the fans.”

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LaLiga and Johan Cruyff Institute join WFS Live as official partners
LaLiga and Johan Cruyff Institute join WFS Live as official partners 1617 1365 WFS Live

LaLiga and Johan Cruyff Institute will be partners of WFS Live powered by Octagon, the online summit that will bring football’s biggest names together from July 6-9 to address the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the global football industry and the challenges and opportunities that will arise in this new and unprecedented scenario.

Both brands have a long-lasting and fruitful relationship with WFS. They’ve been a part of every summit since 2016, and have helped produce some of the most memorable moments, fostering insightful discussions and bringing top leaders to the stage.

LaLiga, Spain’s top tier, is one of the world’s most popular sports competitions, with a global audience of over 2,7 billion and more than 100 million followers across social media platforms. It’s powered by the likes of Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, two of the biggest clubs in the world, but as its slogan says –it’s not football, it’s LaLiga– it has become much more than a sport competition. It is a global reference in innovation. Initiatives like #LaLigaSantanderChallenge (a virtual FIFA20 competition involving real football players) or #LaLigamusicfest (an online music festival that brought together athletes and musicians) are just two of the latest examples of its cutting edge approach to fan engagement and digital content.

Johan Cruyff pictured with a group of graduates from the Johan Cruyff Institute.

Johan Cruyff Institute, who joins as Academic Partner, is an academic institution specialising in educating athletes, sport and business professionals to become leaders in sport management. More than 9,000 students from all over the world have experienced their online, onsite and on campus learning programs in Sport Management, Sport Marketing, Sponsorship, Coaching and Football Business. Edwin van der Sar (current CEO of Ajax), Michael Reiziger or Gianluca Vialli are among their alumni. Founded by Johan Cruyff, one of the game’s biggest legends, it currently runs institutes in Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Mexico and Peru.

“We are delighted to have two leaders such as LaLiga and Johan Cruyff Institute on board for this new and exciting event. Both have played an important role in the growth of World Football Summit and I’m sure they will continue to do so in this crucial moment, in which we are all facing new challenges”, said Jan Alessie, director of World Football Summit.

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Warm up for WFS Live by “Talking Sport” with football’s leading figures
Warm up for WFS Live by “Talking Sport” with football’s leading figures 1342 1065 WFS Live

World Football Summit has partnered with Eleven Sports to launch “Talking Sport”, a new webinar series dedicated to looking at how the sports industry tackles the global pandemic and builds for the future.

The weekly webinar will bring together leading figures from across the world of sport, to share their insights and opinions with the wider industry.

Hosted by Sky Sports presenter David Garrido, Talking Sport will feature a panel of three respected speakers each week from across the sport’s ecosystem. Federations, clubs, media publishers, e-sports platforms, investment experts and commercial partners will all be represented.

The debut episodes will be streamed LIVE and for FREE on Thursday 21 May at 5.30pm (CET time). The session, which is titled Sport’s great comeback – Fighting back from COVID-19, will feature:

  • Luis Vicente – Eleven Sports, CEO.
  • Peter Hutton – Facebook, Director of Sports Partnerships.
  • Ricardo Fort – Coca-Cola, VP, Global Sports & Entertainment Partnerships.
  • Ralf Reichert – ESL, Co-Founder and Co-CEO.
  • Dominic Quantrill – Founder of The Quantrill Partnership – Moderator.

Guests can register to watch the event now HERE.

Eleven Sports Group CEO Luis Vicente said of the series: “Now more than ever, the sports industry needs to walk together and work together to fight for a better future. For many years I have dedicated my professional life to transforming sports for the better and at Eleven Sports, I am proud to lead an organisation with that same missionary zeal.

“Through our new Talking Sport series, we will bring together leading figures from across the world of sport, to share expertise and insights with the wider industry. Our sessions will help to equip us all with the information we need to come through this period stronger than ever. I’m very excited to launch the series on Thursday.”

World Football Summit Director Jan Alessie said of the series: “At World Football Summit our mission is to bring the industry leaders together to network, share knowledge and best practices, and ultimately generate growth opportunities. This has never been as important as it is today due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. We are grateful to Eleven Sports and to our long-lasting partner and friend Luis Vicente for sharing their platform and we’re confident that this series will start paving the path to a bright future for the sport and the industry.”

Eleven Sports and World Football Summit will partner for a total of six webinar episodes over the next two months.

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WFS, Ronaldo and Octagon Brasil join forces to kick off football’s new beginning
WFS, Ronaldo and Octagon Brasil join forces to kick off football’s new beginning 2048 1365 WFS Live

The sport industry is facing its biggest challenge in history due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. All major competitions have been forced to pause for over two months and it is highly likely some of them will not resume at all, enforcing multi-million losses across the industry. Among others, the UEFA Champions League, the NBA and the NHL have had to postpone their respective plans to restart several times over the last few weeks and it remains uncertain when and under what conditions they will be able to resume. Until a vaccine is available, travel and restrictions on large public gatherings will remain in place all over the world.

This “new normal” will inevitably lead to a significant decrease in some traditional revenue streams, forcing all stakeholders to rethink business models and pursue new opportunities. This will require the industry’s major players to come together and join forces like never before in order to overcome these obstacles and explore new opportunities.

That communal response will begin at WFS Live powered by Octagon – the first virtual event that will bring together the entirety of the global football industry’s leaders in one place. Top executives from clubs, leagues, federations, broadcasters, agencies and sponsorship brands from every continent will band side by side to lay sound foundations for the sport to continue growing into a new era.

“The importance of World Football Summit for the global football industry is irrefutable. I have been to the summit with Real Valladolid and now I am honoured to promote the event with Octagon Brasil.” – Ronaldo Nazário

From the 6-9 July, more than 50 leaders will address crucial issues such as; how to adapt mass events and venues to the new sanitary context, the need to enhance digital tools to further monetise fan engagement, the best strategies to capitalise on the growing eSports industry, and how to develop new non-linear content formats to engage fans and add value to sponsors while competitions are paused.

WFS Live powered by Octagon will include all features that make the WFS Series the largest and most appreciated networking events in the global football landscape, attracting key decision-makers over the years such as Fatma Samoura, Secretary General of FIFA; Andrea Agnelli, Chairman of Juventus and the European Club Association (ECA); Peter Moore, CEO of Liverpool FC; and Javier Tebas, President of LaLiga; as well as leading partners like Amazon, Banco Santander, Budweiser, and Facebook. This time, however, to the top speakers and the premium networking it will add an entire new range of opportunities powered by the latest AI-driven tools, as well as unprecedented participation from a truly global audience.

WFS Live powered by Octagon is the result of a unique partnership between three global benchmarks in the sport industry: World Football Summit, football’s leading networking platform and event organiser; Octagon Brasil, global leader in sports and entertainment management and marketing; and Ronaldo Nazário, one of the best players the game has ever seen, President of Octagon Brasil and owner of LaLiga’s Real Valladolid. Ronaldo is at the forefront of the new wave of young executives storming the industry thanks to both a deep knowledge of the game and their solid training in the field of management and administration.

NET PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

“The importance of World Football Summit for the global football industry is irrefutable. It provides a multi-stakeholder dialogue; encourages networking; fosters discussions about technologies, innovations and the future of that market; and generates business opportunities. I have been to the summit with Real Valladolid and now I am honoured to promote the event with Octagon Brasil. We are in a pandemic scenario and there are many social, economic, cultural and political impacts. Unsurprisingly, football has not escaped the effects of the outbreak and, therefore, the event is even more necessary. WFS Live powered by Octagon have already confirmed the participation of big names in the industry and will have an unprecedented reach-from home, everyone will be able to follow, contribute and enjoy a whole world of possibilities.” – Ronaldo Nazário.

“Combining Octagon’s enormous prestige and unmatchable network, the unrivalled leadership of Ronaldo and our experience hosting and managing events, we are sure that WFS Live powered by Octagon will kick off a new era for football.” – Jan Alessie

WFS Live powered by Octagon aims to contribute to the growth of the industry, but also to help those communities that have been most severely hit by coronavirus. That’s why all net proceeds will be donated to Fundação Fenômenos, created by Ronaldo in 2012, which supports social projects aiming to improve living conditions of communities across Brasil, and the Common Goal COVID-19 Response Fund, which will support community organisations across the world to deliver essential services during the COVID-19 crisis and to continue supporting vulnerable young people in the aftermath of the crisis.

“At WFS our goal has always been to provide the industry with the best possible platform to come together and explore new growth opportunities. We believe that in the current context this role is more important than ever. Unprecedented challenges call for unprecedented action. That’s what this unique partnership, as well as our commitment as members of Common Goal, is all about. Combining Octagon’s enormous prestige and unmatchable network, the unrivalled leadership of Ronaldo and our experience hosting and managing events, we are sure that WFS Live powered by Octagon will kick off a new era for football.” – Jan Alessie, Director of WFS.

“It is very important for us at Octagon Brasil to be involved in an event of this magnitude, especially at a time like the current one. It is a unique opportunity to connect the market, share content and, of course, contribute to the debate about what the world of football will look like in the coming years. Besides, of course, the unique opportunity to form a partnership with World Football Summit, a reference in football congresses in the world, and to be side by side with Ronaldo, with whom we share so many projects at Octagon.” – Eduardo Baraldi, CEO of Octagon Brasil.

Tickets for WFS Live powered by Octagon will be released in the coming days. In the meantime, you can register your interest here.

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