Industry Shorts: Onefootball, Uefa, Cake

Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur, along with Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund and the German Football Association (DFB) have become shareholders of media company OneFootball.

The trio join a number of other football clubs as shareholders of the business following the company’s acquisition of online football platform Dugout in 2020.

Dugout’s founding shareholders, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Olympique de Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, all became OneFootball shareholders following the deal. 

UEFA has launched a new campaign to raise awareness of clean air efforts throughout the European Under-21 Championships, which will get underway in Hungary and Slovenia this week.

To highlight the ‘growing threat’ of air pollution on public health, ‘Clean Air, Better Game’ will see UEFA lead a range of pilot initiatives to highlight its ‘commitment to making the championships a carbon-neutral event’.

The group stage takes place between 24th – 31st March, while the knockout stages will take place in May and June, during which time the confederation will launch a dedicated Count Us In initiative to invite fans to commit to small lifestyle changes to help improve air quality ranging from walking or cycling more, moderating domestic heating or reducing food wastage. Each pledge will be added to a counter that converts fan commitments into real-life carbon savings. 

Commonwealth Games England has appointed Cake, Havas UK’s sport, culture and entertainment agency, to create and implement a digital communications strategy, PR and content production for Team England for the Birmingham 2022.

The brief will focus on digital communications and PR activations, and will celebrate key milestones in the lead up to the Games as well as Games time and post-Games work. Cake says it will take an ‘agency-wide approach’ to the brief, with work being delivered by the communications, partnerships, creative, social and strategy teams.

Birmingham 2022 is set to take place from 28th July – 8th August 2022, and will showcasei the West Midlands’ strengths and celebrate its diversity. The carbon-neutral Games is set to have the largest ever female and para sport programme in history and marks the first time that a major multi-sport event will feature more women’s than men’s medal events.

Alistair Kirkwood will step down as Managing Director of NFL UK on March 31, ending a two-decade career at the NFL.

Kirkwood joined the League in 2000 and has played a pivotal role in bringing 28 regular-season NFL games to London as well as increasing the sport’s fan base and broadcast audience in the UK and building its commercial portfolio and community profile.

The news follows the NFL’s appointment of Brett Gosper, who joined the league as Head of UK and Europe after a nine-year spell as CEO, World Rugby.

The ECB will begin its search for a new Independent Non-Executive Director, recruiting for a successor to Delia Bushell, whose three-year term as an ECB Board member ends in May.

Bushell has decided not to seek a second term on the Board given conflicts that might arise, as she is now engaged in advisory and investment work for the sport and media sectors.

The ECB says she will still be available to operate in an advisory capacity to its executive team in the future.

Production agency Shoot the Company has announced five key new hires as it expands key accounts across its business. 

Production Coordinator, Karl Inglis; Production Manager, Roz Gilman; Assistant Producer, Simone Stewart; and Producers Leisha Coutinho and Ben Jones have all joined the film-maker, as it bolsters its team to work with clients such as FIFA, UEFA, Barclays, and McDonalds.

RaceNation will offer all UK mass participation races and events a free advertising spot at the National Running Show. 

The news comes as the running event and the online race organisation platform partnered to launch an Events Village at the show, which will see races from across the country listed on a giant map of the UK and accessed via a QR code. 

RaceNation will then promote the race and encourage bookings on the day as it seeks to support the return of the mass participation sector.

Nissan has cofirmed that it will commit to Formula E for the Gen3 era of the sport, which begins in Season 9.

The Japanese brand aims to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations as well as the life cycle of its products by 2050, and will electrify all new Nissan vehicles by the early 2030s to achieve this goal. The manufacrurer says it will use Formula E as a proving ground to do so, and aims to bring transferrable knowledge and technology from the racetrack to the road to develop better electric vehicles.

Nissan joined Formula E in Season 5, and finished as runners-up last season