Football Partnerships

By Alex Kotler

Do you remember your first birthday? When milk was more exciting for you than cake and your parents waxed lyrical about your learning to walk and talk?

Well, as the proud parent of Football Partnerships, I’m devoting this week’s Offsides piece to gushing about my little baby and remembering its first awkward steps and indecipherable sounds.

One year ago (Friday), I created a LinkedIn group to maximize my networking opportunities within the football industry. Having recently completed my MBA, I sought a new role within the soccer environment to apply my business development, management and branding expertise. Courtesy of collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps, or so I’d like to think, that position never presented itself.

Meanwhile, LinkedIn nurtured a premature Football Partnerships, which suckled the social networking tit to survive.

The first week saw only a few applicants, with a handful more in the second and third. By the fourth week the group had attracted its first of many highly visible and respected representatives of the football industry: Stephen Constantine, then an out-of-work coach seeking a new job at the highest level.

That same week Football Partnerships produced its first newsletter, a cruder version of the current iteration. The group had 11 members as of 18 July, 2008.

And baby FP crawled along.

At 250 members we took our first steps, branding the project and building a dedicated website. The standalone website, www.footballpartnerships.com, would now integrate the LinkedIn group and (attempt) to foster member interaction.

Later that month, FP spoke its first words with the launch of the Football Partnerships podcast. Interviewing first Paul McDonald of America’s Team FC, then Dan Wood of Streets United and Misha Sher of Soccerex, the sounds became more intelligible.

In late November, FP made a splash at Soccerex and returned with resolve to continue its growth, expanding to provide advisory services to businesses within the football industry.

Early 2009 saw a redesign of the Football Partnerships newsletter, a more appealing and user-friendly interface than the previous version and one that aligned aesthetically with the website. It also saw the launch of two networking events, a mixer at the NSCAA Convention in St. Louis and KICKOFF 2009 in New York City. Both went off with aplomb.

With membership growing through the spring, FP launched the Football Partnerships Network to activate its worldwide membership across 64 cities in North America and Western Europe.

All of a sudden FP was drinking formula straight from the bottle.

So, Happy Birthday Football Partnerships!

You now have over 1,500 members – all dedicated football industry professionals from all sectors of the business. You have produced one newsletter per week since 18 July, save the last week in December. You have prepared 32 episodes of the highly-rated Football Partnerships podcast. Your advisory services have taken on upwards of 10 solid clients. And you have an upcoming event in England with others in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and elsewhere to come.

But, for all of your growth FP, you’re still a baby. After all, you never let daddy get any sleep.

It’s back on again this year, for the night before the draft. Wednesday, June 24, at 6 p.m., at Sara D. Roosevelt Park Chrystie and Houston streets in New York City.

Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Chris Bosh and Raja Bell are on the list of NBA players who are probably somewhere right now working on foot skills.

Read the rest of the article

By Alex Kotler

George Weah, the 1995 FIFA World Player of the Year, is waiting for me at Soccerex 2008 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Now a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and Liberian politician - Weah lost the 2005 presidential election to Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson - he undoubtedly has no idea that I’ll even be at Soccerex. Neither do the other football luminaries there, like Glenn Hoddle, John Barnes, and Bryan Robson. But being a New Yorker, I’m accustomed to - and even sometimes enjoy - anonymity. However, by the end of Soccerex, I hope to be at least slightly more recognizable (but less irritating) than one of Nicolas Anelka’s hand-fluttering goal celebrations.

What is Soccerex 2008?
Soccerex is a business convention for the global football community. The event, which takes place from November 23-26 in Gauteng, South Africa, will provide over 4000 delegates and 300 exhibitors from over 95 countries with a forum in which to network and exchange ideas and services.

It’s one of those “anybody who’s somebody will be there” functions, and boasts the endorsement of FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who hails Soccerex as the “…must-attend event in the football calendar.” Nevermind, of course, that he likened Cristiano Ronaldo’s $238,000 per week contract with Manchester United to being a “slave.”

Mr. Blatter’s reputation is underscored by his tendency to say the outrageous, yet Soccerex’s impressive lineup of keynote speakers and panelists suggests that he is spot-on this time. Its starting eleven includes Jérôme Valcke, General Secretary of FIFA; Gerard Houllier, Technical Director of the French Football Federation; David Dein, former Vice-Chairman of Arsenal FC; Horst R. Schmidt, Consultant for the 2010 FIFA World Cup; and former Argentina international, Ossie Ardiles - and these are only the names familiar to the general public.

Presiding over discussions about financing club ownership, developing and maximizing revenue streams of stadia, and identifying and cultivating new talent, are the mostly faceless names known to industry insiders: the chairmen, partners, commercial directors, business development managers, and technical directors of football brands and sponsors like AC Milan, Glasgow Rangers FC, Liverpool FC, VfB Stuttgart, and Ericcson, Gulf Air, Motorola, Satyam, and VISA. Also scheduled is a discussion on Brand Beckham, whose namesake is rumored to be making an appearance.

But why am I going and who gives a [Joey Barton]?

Who the heck am I?
Like you, perhaps, I’m a New York salmon swimming against the forceful currents of rising rents, stiff competition, and long Pinkberry lines. I’ve been in the city long enough to know not to get onto an empty car in a full train - because it’s either oppressively hot or putridly smelly - and I can remember when North 7th Street in Williamsburg was actually dodgy. I’ve worked more jobs in New York than Djibril Cisse’s had hairdos, including stints as a photo assistant, talent rep, travel agent, producer, bartender, barista, teacher, writer, graphic designer, and now - amidst the backdrop of a global economic crisis - an entrepreneur. (Thank goodness then that most salmon can navigate through brackish waters.)

As a footballer, I was fortunate to play on competitive travel teams throughout my youth. Though lacking exposure to the international game, I had an influential coach who brought foreign methods into our practices. By the 10th grade I had college scholarships waiting for me. But, a move in high school from the suburbs of New York to the suburbs Atlanta rattled my confidence on the pitch, I never adjusted, and I abandoned the sport senior year to work at Target. Expect More, Pay Less. Wrong.

After college, I returned to New York, which somehow restored my love of football, and I joined teams in the Cosmopolitan and Metropolitan Leagues. A few years later, I even launched a women’s team, Appletown FC, with a good friend and teammate. The venture was a success, although the timing for me was poor and so was my gage on how committed I was to being a spectator. I wasn’t, and ultimately I left Appletown to focus on other activities - namely my career as a graphic designer, the type of job that yields as much financial security as Bobby Zamora does goals for Fulham.

In 2006 I moved to Madrid to learn Spanish, but returned to New York later that year to complete my MBA - the sure path to landing a high paying job. Wrong again.

Working by day and schooling by night, effectively abdicating my social life for two years, I molded myself into a candidate for brand management and business development positions in the football industry - a more mature attempt to revive what I had started with Appletown. The condensed, Mel Brooks version of the outcome is that I finished and there were no jobs. So, I did what any prudent, recent graduate with student loans would do: I wagered my future on a business without a proven revenue model in the hopes of hitting it YouTube.

Football Partnerships in a few words
The less snarky version of my story is that following a conversation with a high-level manager at Major League Soccer, one of several people within the organization that I had been trying (unsuccessfully) to court for the better part of a year, I learned that without an established contact list I stood little chance at breaking into the industry.

So I sought to build one on LinkedIn, the online professional network. I leveraged relationships and soccer group memberships to connect to commercial directors and brand managers around the world. To find those seeking the same, I started my own group, Football Partnerships, and just one week on I attracted a big name: Stephen Constantine, former Head Coach of the Malawi, India, and Nepal National Teams and holder of a UEFA Pro License. Because he’s not a Premier League coach, he’s not well known by fans; however, as a FIFA-certified instructor, he’s well-respected within the football industry. Connecting with Stephen legitimized the Football Partnerships group, and I saw the potential of launching a business-oriented, football network and resource.

Since June, the group has gone from having a hack website attached to my personal portfolio to launching a dedicated URL, www.footballpartnerships.com, replete with original and republished soccer-business articles, job postings, event listings, and a private directory which lists the profiles of hundreds of members - including representatives from MLS, EPL, KNVB, FIFA, UEFA, adidas, Puma, Nike, and youth league administrators in places like Columbia, South Carolina and Torino, Italy.

Football Partnerships has also recently launched a podcast, available for download on iTunes and via the website, featuring interviews with influential members of the football community. Misha Sher, Director of Business Development at Soccerex and a member of Football Partnerships, appeared on last week’s episode. A frequent guest on World Soccer Daily, Misha and I discussed the interrelationships of various sectors of the football business, as well as the influence of foreign ownership on the game and the presence of women in the business of soccer. He also detailed what I, as a Soccerex 2008 delegate, have to look forward to in Jo’burg starting on the 23rd.

Taking holiday from my day job, I travel to South Africa and Soccerex to personally connect with existing members, to expand the Football Partnerships network, and to explore synergies with industry players from around the world. Monetizing this labor of love without exclusively relying on advertising revenue poses a great challenge - but one hopefully less difficult than getting George Weah to know who I am.

Follow my journey, from New York, New York to the land of Bafana Bafana, as I watch, listen, learn, and kick around Football Partnerships with the best in the business at Soccerex 2008.