Football CEO of the year Mark Catlin and former England rugby union player Damian Hopley are two of the senior sports executives completing the speaker line-up for the upcoming Player Care seminar, held at London’s Royal Garden Hotel on November 25.
The invite-only Player Care seminar will see hundreds of delegates converge to discuss and debate the best ways to protect, support and educate professional athletes to the best standard possible. It has been positioned as a platform for members of the support network, from a variety of sports, to learn and adopt best practice from their peers.
Portsmouth CEO Catlin – who was named CEO of the Year at the 2016 Football Business Awards – will join Paul Barber (CEO of Brighton & Hove Albion FC) on a panel discussing how CEOs and directors from professional club teams prioritise player care versus other areas of club business.
Hopley, who is now CEO of the Rugby Players Association, will give a presentation about the off-the-pitch challenges facing current and retired professional rugby players in England, and will also reflect on his own experiences, having been forced to retire from the game in 1998 following a series of knee operations. He set up the RPA the same year because of the lack of support available.
Also confirmed as speakers are Gareth Jennings (Academy Director at Premier League club Stoke City) and Michael Johnson (Assistant Manager of the Cardiff City U21 team), who’ll both sit on the Youth Development panel session, identifying the best approaches to working with sport’s young talent.
Additionally Richard Mathers, Player Welfare Manager at English rugby league side Warrington Wolves, will take part in the ‘Settling Sportsmen and Women’ session alongside Paul Irwin (Player Liaison Officer at Arsenal), Tim De’ath (Player Liaison Officer at West Ham United) and former Notts County manager Jamie Fullarton.
Premier Sports Network events are free to attend for clubs, federations, agents and governing bodies, however November’s Player Care seminar has now reached maximum capacity. To get your name on the delegate waiting list, or to register your interest in 2017 Premier Sports Network events, please get in touch by calling 0208 419 1100 or sending an e-mail to enquiries@premiersportsnetwork.com.
ENDS
About Premier Sports Network
The Premier Sports Network is a series of invite-only events for senior executives from clubs, federations, event organisers, sponsors and suppliers. Each Premier Sports Network event has a different theme and gives attendees the chance to network, do business and discuss commercial challenges and opportunities in the sector.
The Premier Sports Network was launched by David Bull and Spencer Hidge, two specialist sponsorship and commercial sales consultants that together specialise in creating unique partnerships for the sports and live entertainment industry. In addition to running the Premier Sports Network, David and Spencer work with several international sports federations, including the World Bowls Tour, for which they are the exclusive sponsorship sales agents.