We joined the online Football in the Community conference yesterday hosted by Geoff Wilson and FC Business.
It was an interesting round-up of the ways in which major clubs within the English game have given rise to community foundations that are working at every level within their local areas.
“We are not a marketing arm for the club,” said Greg Baker of the Saints Foundation at Southampton Football Club. “What we do is based on a mission to do good things within the area in which we are based and there is no pressure to serve as a sales agent to get more people into a match.
The theme throughout was about sharing the experience of what has worked and putting that into different areas of the country.
It very much resonates with the stories we tell each year at our Allianz-backed Sport for Social Good conference which this year starred Matt Rogan and Dan Lambert, the COO of Bohemian FC who lead the way in the community efforts here in Ireland.
We heard yesterday from Liverpool FC, as well as UEFA and Burton Albion, giving a broad mix of content about the work they do and the structures and funding that make it possible.
We will add their presentations below over the coming days as they become available.
