Football as business

On the 6th of October, 2009, Arthur Nitsevych and Nikolay Melnykov, the partners of “International Law Offices” visited the first international conference Football as Business organized by the Ukrainian agency Sport Agent.

The Conference took place in Opera Hotel in the centre of Kiev.

The organizers invited Ivan Bravo, Director of Strategic Planning Department of FC Real (Madrid) and Sergey Palkin, General Director of FC Shakhtar (Donetsk) but, unfortunately, they were not able to be the speakers there.

Andrey Simonov, Marketing Director of FC Dynamo (Moscow), opened the conference. In his report Mr. Simonov touched upon such issues as FC strategic planning, subscription programme, development of fans, sponsors and partners of the club. The main peculiarity of the Russian clubs is a rate ruling at fans. The priority is given to the fans being the main and constant “clients” of the club.

The next speaker was Sasha Empaher, Head of the Austrian Sports Agency Spocs. His agency co-operates with various German and Austrian Clubs, such as Bavaria, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Hoffenheim, Rapid. His speech was dedicated to Recruiting and Club Transfer Politics. Spocs Agency has started to develop the African players market.

Maria Lysenko, General Director of the Ukrainian Company Poverkhnost Sport-TV was the third speaker. This company owns three TC channels: Sports-1, Sports-2 and Planet-Sports-Ukraine. The report was entitled Football Club Interaction with Mass Media, Purchase and Sale of the Rights to TV Broadcasting and Air Structure of Sports Channels. This is one of the most important and profitable sectors being the “golden dream” for most clubs of Russia and Ukraine.

In the second section Marko Vjetrovi?, PR Manager of FC Partizan (Belgrade), made an amazing speech. His perfect oratory skills drew the attention of all participants. The budget of FC Partizan makes 15-17 mln US dollars every year. About 800 children are trained in the club. Partizan is a club-farm breeding the stars to be resold to the top clubs of the world. Due to the famous brand and branched scouting Partizan can engage the most talented football players from Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Serbia. Partizan’s matches look like a football fair where you may find a “natural diamond” that can be sold at a profit. Every season the club’s management presents a new team, as Partizan sells 7 or 8 players after every championship. The statistics is impressive, isn’t?! Even so, the club manages to get high positions in championships.