Technological makeover urged to keep fan following growing

DOHA: The ‘Beautiful Game’ should be ready for a technological makeover in the coming years to sustain interest of their ever-growing fan-base that relies on social media to follow the sport in the modern era, a top FC Barcelona official said yesterday.

Speaking at the FT Live: Future of Football Summit yesterday in Doha, Javier Sobrino, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at FC Barcelona, said it is time stakeholders addressed the issue to retain the sport’s viewership base.

Making a strong pitch to make the game attractive among the younger generation and sustain their interest, Sobrino said it was time to come up with the desired changes.

Sobrino welcomed the video assistant referee (VAR) system, implemented successfully at the last FIFA World Cup in Russia, but advocated more changes in order to make the game interesting to the tech-savvy fans.

“The introduction of VAR is a good thing we should think about bringing in more technological changes,” Sobrino said while taking part in a panel discussion.

Besides, Sobrino, the other members of the panel, which discussed media rights, large corporate sponsorship deals, capital injections by cash-rich tycoons and global investment groups, included Bruce Buck, Chelsea FC Chairman, Toon Gerbrands, PSV Eindhoven CEO and Sonia Souid, a football agent.

Simon Kuper, columnist at the Financial Times, and co-author of Soccernomics, moderated the discussion.

The daylong summit brought together leaders from the business of football to the venue of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to debate the state of the game and its future development.

Regulators, club and league executives, owners, broadcasters, sponsors and key analysts discussed the continuing transformation of the global football economy, the most important changes in both the advanced and emerging markets, the impact of new technology platforms, and the latest measures to improve trust and transparency.

In his introductory address, Kuper, said that the game viewership pattern is changing.

“The younger generation are no longer watching football for the full 90 minutes and not on television. Most of the younger generation prefer to watch the key moments of the action on Instagram and other social media channels on mobile or on computers,” Kuper warned.

The sessions kicked off with a panel discussion on De-Brief on Russia 2018, Gearing Up for Qatar 2022.

Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General, Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy spoke on the steps Qatar is taking specifically to make sure it is ready to host the World Cup and the short and long-term objectives of hosting the mega event.

Alexey Sorokin, CEO, 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Local Organising Committee spoke about the challenges they faced during the FIFA showpiece event.

The high salaries for players agent also came under close scrutiny with both Sobrino and Buck favouring measures to clamp down on high fees for players agent.

Chelsea’s Buck said that players agent are necessary but said there have been some ‘excesses’ which need to be curtailed.

“Now the club is paying the agent, the player should also pay the agent,” said Buck, as one of the measure to reign in on the players agent.

Sobrino, the Barca official said players agents are part of the game and there is no move to end their services.

“Agents are necessary for football, so, we are saying what expenses we have to pay for agents need to be regulated. Our position is clear, agents are necessary, essential part of the football industry, we are happy with the players agents but our only concern of course is the level of fees sometimes we have to pay,” he said.

Sonia, 32, a former volleyball player-turned-agent, said any moves to reduce the players agent fees will be bad for the small time players agents.

“It will be bad for the game if that happens. It will kill the weakest agent, and will change nothing for the strongest one,” said France-based Sonia, one of the few women players agent dominated by men.