The Relevent Sports Agency, the global commercial rights-holder for the array of top-tier pan-European UEFA soccer competitions between 2027 and 2033, has now unveiled the leadership team tasked with exploiting these rights.
The rights, formally secured earlier this year, will be managed by the newly created Relevent Football Partners, a wholly-owned subsidiary to be based in London with satellite offices in locations including New York, Miami, Doha (Qatar), and Southeast Asia.
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Daniel Sillman, the chief executive at Relevent since mid-2017, will serve as executive chair at Relevent Football Partners, with Boris Gartner, Relevent president since 2022, in as chief executive at the subsidiary.
Overall, eight members of the senior leadership team have been unveiled, including David Baddeley (chief financial officer), Brian Oliver (chief commercial officer), Oliver Holland (chief media rights officer), Amy Phillips (chief communications and marketing officer), Benjamin Blanco (director of commercial strategy, and partnerships, sponsorships, and licensing), and Tom Burrows (director of strategy and partnership operations, media).
The tie-up between UEFA (acting through UC3, the joint venture between that body and the European Club Association) and Relevent was confirmed in mid-March. Relevent – based in the US and backed by Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins NFL franchise – has replaced long-time UEFA partner Team Marketing, for which the loss of this contract represents a serious blow.
In terms of previous experience within the sports business sector, Baddeley spent six years at sports subscription streaming service DAZN between 2016 and 2022, while Holland spent 12 years at Team (the last two, as MD for media rights), Oliver has led corporate partnerships for golf’s PGA Tour since the end of 2017, Blanco has worked for major brands including Heineken and Samsung, and Burrows’ last role was as global head of rights at DAZN.
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By GlobalDataPhillips, meanwhile, most recently served as vice president of communications for Disney’s business across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
In addition to these hires, Laurence Anthony has been brought in as chief legal officer, while Georgie Cleeve will serve as chief people officer.
The UC3-Relevent deal covers the elite UEFA Champions League, second-tier Europa League, and third-tier Conference League, as well as the annual Super Cup showpiece match, UEFA Youth League youth category competition, and the Futsal Champions League – also organized by UEFA – for six seasons between 2027-28 and 2032-33.
Media, sponsorship, and licensing rights are covered, and the sales process for these packages is “expected to launch” by European summer this year, UC3 has said.
Garner said: “Creating Relevent Football Partners demonstrates our complete dedication to elevating the commercial business of the UEFA men’s club competitions and its partners. We’ve assembled an exceptional team of business leaders focused solely on servicing our partnership with UC3.”
Team had held the full set of UEFA club competition rights, up until the last few years, globally, since the top-tier UEFA Champions League was created in 1992, a milestone that marked the start of the modern era of UEFA’s pan-continental competitions.
The agency had been the worldwide rights holder until 2022, when rights were sold in the US to Relevent – this broke Team's hegemony over the properties for the first time, although it did still retain rights in all other countries.
Three years ago, when Team lost global rights for the first time and Relevent swooped in the US, the latter agency prevailed after offering $250 million for that specific package, it was reported at the time.
The CAA Eleven agency handles the sale and distribution of the portfolio of rights for UEFA’s various international tournaments and competitions, while Two Circles does the same for the body's array of women's club competitions.
