Industry Shorts: Boa, The Fa, UK Sport

Hugh Robertson has been re-elected as Chair of the BOA and will oversee the organisation until after the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

He was unchallenged during the nominations period after declaring his intention to run for a second term, but will stand down from the role after the Paris Games.

Robertson was first appointed in 2016, taking over in the role from Sebastian Coe. He held the role of Vice Chair prior to taking up his current role, and also played a role in Coe’s campaign for election as IAAF (now World Athletics) President.

The FA has launched a new four-year strategy which aims to create a ‘sustainable future’ for for women’s and girls’ football in England.

Entitled Inspiring Positive Change, the strategy outlines eight objectives to be met by 2024, including aims for both grassroots and elite sport. 

Among the eight objectives, The FA says the strategy will aim to give every primary school-aged girl equal opportunity to play football; create world class professional women’s football competitions; recruit a diverse range of local leaders to organise women’s and girls’ football in their communities, and see England win a major tournament. READ MORE

UK Sport will change the way it handles funding of Olympic and Paralympic sport, and will switch to taking into account medal potential over a 12-year period instead of the current four.

The change will take place after the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – rescheduled until summer 2021 – and will apply in the build-up to the Paris 2024 Games.

The Rugby League World Cup 2021 (RLWC21) has announced the appointments of three agencies as part of a new marketing and PR drive ahead of the tournament.

McCann Manchester, Hatch PR and Goodform have all been appointed by the tournament organisers. 

According to the RLWC2021, McCann has been appointed to handle brand strategy, creative, media planning and buying, digital and content strategy, as well as activation-led PR, with data specialist Goodform to help deliver insight-led marketing campaigns and power a customer-first ticketing strategy.

Meanwhile, PR agency Hatch – which has been working with the tournament for the past 18 months – has been retained to oversee PR, social media strategy and community management for RLWC2021 social channels, working closely with McCann to maximise key moments for the event. READ MORE

Camden Town Brewery has released a new limited-edition subscription service for Arsenal fans as part of its role as the club’s Official Beer.

The brewer says this is its first ever subscription service and is aimed at fans who are missing their ‘in-stadium beer experience’. 

It will see Arsenal Hells lager bottles delivered for £35.00 each month, with subscribers becoming official ‘Beer Season ticket holders’, which gives members access to competitions, free beers, monthly offers at some of Camden’s pub partners, 10% off Camden’s Brewery Bar and online discounts on the web shop. Three lucky subscribers will also win the opportunity to have their first box delivered to their door by former Gunners midfielder Ray Parlour.

The Harlequins Foundation has partnered with Kingston University and school sport organisation Sport Impact in a new agreement which will see the trio work together to provide primary schools in London with learning solutions. 

A new initiative, called Move.Learn.Grow, will see experienced sport teachers, coaches and educators from the three organisations use the appeal of sport to help children with numeracy, literacy, PHSE and STEM lessons. 

The programme will initially work in Hounslow, Richmond and Kingston, and will see the organisations run extra-curricular clubs and inter-school competitions while also providing valuable teacher training opportunities. The launch comes amid fears that children’s physical exercise has fallen sharply since the pandemic.

The R&A has announced that its hospitality packages for The 150th Open, taking place at St Andrews in July 2022, have gone on general sale.

According to the organisation, a pre-sale window for members and past purchasers saw a ‘high number’ of packages sell out. Origins Hospitality, The Open’s official hospitality experiences organisation, has now placed remaining packages on sale for fans, with information on general sale tickets not yet announced.