(ATR) Four days before every football fan’s attention focuses on South Africa for the World Cup draw in Cape Town, the game’s leading executives and marketing men – as well as all the frontrunners in the 2018/2022 World Cup bid race – are converging on Johannesburg for the annual Soccerex convention.
These are the sort of affairs where football ceases to be referred to as a game and becomes known as a "business" or "industry". This parlance – where fans become "consumers" and pay-TV viewers are viewed greedily by executives as the ultimate cash cow – can invite cynicism.
The three-day Soccerex conference, preceded by a two-day football festival, which kicked off on Saturday, is slightly different.
Its founder and CEO Duncan Revie is son of Don Revie, who was one of the English game’s defining figures of the 1960s and 1970s.
To spend an hour in his company – as World Football Insider, ATR’s sister publication, did a couple of years ago when writing about his late father – invariably evokes memories of the illustrious and elusive former Leeds and England manager. Not just physically (for the resemblance is strong), but with the insight and passion with which he talks about the game.
Such knowledge and experience invariably informs the Soccerex agenda, which gives more than a nod to the men on the field, instead of focusing entirely on those off it.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter kick off Soccerexproceedings with a keynote speech on Monday. Such figures as German football legend Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Sven Goran Eriksson, Ruud Gullit, Bryan Robson and Gerard Houllier will make appearances.
There is a strong focus on the 2010 South Africa World Cup, with presentations by organizing committee CEO Danny Jordaan and one focused on Soccer City, the World Cup final venue located on the city’s outskirts.
There is also a preview of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, with CBF President Ricardo Terra Teixeira speaking and representations by all the Brazilian states involved in hosting matches.
Of course, behind the scenes, football’s power brokers and executives will network and hatch the deals that will witness football’s next great wave of commercialism.
Over the weekend, WFI walked around Nelson Mandela Square, located in Sandton City – Africa’s largest shopping mall – where Soccerex is hosting its football festival. Freestylers competed for attention with 5-a-side games staged in a makeshift arena. Johannesburg’s late afternoon shoppers seemed largely disinterested by these events.
But the display has seemingly served its purpose in spreading word, for every local WFI has spoken to seemed very aware that the Soccerex football business jamboree is in town.
World Football Insider is a publication of Around the Rings (www.worldfootballinsider.com)
Written by James Corbett in Johannesburg - james@worldfootballinsider.com
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