The global commercial rights-holder for the top-tier pan-European UEFA competitions, Relevent Sports Agency, has recently unveiled its leadership team. This team is tasked with managing the rights to these prestigious competitions from 2027 to 2033. These rights will be managed by a newly created subsidiary, Relevent Football Partners. This wholly-owned subsidiary will be based in London and have satellite offices in various locations including New York, Miami, Doha (Qatar), and Southeast Asia.
Daniel Sillman, who has been serving as chief executive at Relevent since mid-2017, will take on the role of executive chair at Relevent Football Partners. Boris Gartner, president of Relevent since 2022, will serve as chief executive at this new subsidiary.
The senior leadership team of Relevent Football Partners comprises eight members: David Baddeley as the Chief Financial Officer, Brian Oliver as the Chief Commercial Officer, Oliver Holland as the Chief Media Rights Officer, Amy Phillips as the Chief Communications and Marketing Officer. Benjamin Blanco has been appointed Director of Commercial Strategy and will oversee partnerships, sponsorships, and licensing while Tom Burrows will serve as Director of Strategy and Partnership Operations for media. In addition to these appointments are Laurence Anthony as chief legal officer and Georgie Cleeve as chief people officer.
Wealth of experience
The new hires bring a wealth of experience from within the sports business sector. Baddeley previously spent six years at sports subscription streaming service DAZN between 2016 and 2022 while Holland spent twelve years at Team Marketing AG (Team). Oliver led corporate partnerships for golf’s PGA Tour since late 2017 while Blanco worked with major brands such as Heineken and Samsung. Burrows' last role was global head of rights at DAZN. Phillips served as vice president of communications for Disney’s business across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The deal between UEFA (acting through UC3, a joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association) and Relevent covers several competitions including the elite UEFA Champions League, second-tier Europa League, third-tier Conference League as well as the annual Super Cup showpiece match. It also includes the UEFA Youth League youth category competition and Futsal Champions League for six seasons from 2027-28 to 2032-33.
Media, sponsorship, and licensing rights are covered in this deal. The sales process for these packages is expected to launch by European summer this year according to UC3.
New era for UEFA rights management
This partnership marks a new era in managing rights for UEFA's pan-European soccer competitions. Relevent Sports Agency replaces long-time partner Team Marketing AG which had held full set of rights since 1992 until it lost global rights three years ago when Relevent swooped in with an offer of $250 million for US-specific package.
Relevant's commitment towards elevating commercial business of these competitions is evident from their dedicated team comprising exceptional business leaders focused solely on servicing their partnership with UC3.
