Unofficial Partner Podcast

This week's guest is Lucien Boyer who we interviewed at the private members club, Home House.Lucien is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Global Sports Week, which launches in February 2020 in Paris. We talk about his time as global head of Havas Sport and Entertainment, the difference between the British and French sports markets and got in to the politics of the Olympic Games, comparing the role played by London 2012 to that expected of Paris 2024. Global Sports Week is backed by President Macron, so we talk about sport as a political asset, ask whether Macron is an Olympique Marseilles fan in the true sense of the word, or if it's like David Cameron's 'love of Aston Villa', or was it West Ham, they both played in claret and blue, so it's confusing. For the record, Macron knows the names of OM's players. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

This week’s guest is Martin Bayfield, the former England International rugby player who is now one of the busiest and most popular presenters and after dinner speakers. We talk about the upcoming Rugby World Cup, his hopes and fears for the sport he loved since his days balancing a playing career with being a police officer in the amateur era. It was at one speaking engagement that his career as film star began, when the man from Warner Brothers asked him if would become Hagrid’s body double in the Harry Potter films. For fifteen years, Martin hosted the Sport Industry Awards and we ask him what the sports business looked like from the stage.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

This week’s guest is Jimmy Worrall, founder and CEO of Leaders in Sport, the conference and event business which he created in 2006. We talk about his career in sport which has included successful stints at The English FA, Soccerex and ENIC. The interview took place at Leaders’ offices in Wimbledon. During our conversation, Jimmy referenced Toby Hester, the leading sport sponsorship executive who had sadly passed away the day before we spoke. We join Jimmy in sending our deepest sympathies to Toby’s family.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Lynsey Hooper is a sports journalist and broadcaster who is one third of the Offside Rule podcast, with fellow Sky Sports reporters Hayley McQueen and Kait Borsay, which has been taking football to a majority female audience since 2012. The idea came from conversations the three had while working at Sky in the Andy Gray and Richard Keys era.If this is your first time with us, feel free to dive in to our archive via UnofficialPartner.com where you can hear our interviews with a wide range fo guests from Charlie Sale, Dame Heather Rabbatts Rory Sutherland, Steve Martin, Ed Smith and a host of other people who make their mark in and around the business of sport. If you’re a regular listener, it would help us enormously if you rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. This helps more people find us and broadens our reach.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Football fans are rarely invited to talk about fan engagement. So we changed that.Very few football rivalries match the north London derby for intensity. In this week’s podcast we bring the supporters of Spurs and Arsenal together to talk about the role of fans in the business of football. Katrina Law is co-chair of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust, and Tim Payton plays a similar role for Arsenal’s official fan group.We talk Baku, Madrid, club ownership and why fans would welcome a data revolution.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

In this week’s podcast, Richard and Sean take Harry The Talented Intern to visit the brand new London HQ of The Athletic, the sports publishing launch that has caught the attention of everyone in the sports media world. They sit down with editor in chief Alex Kay Jelski, one of the main architects of the new service and who was instrumental in the company’s rapid recruitment of some of the best writing talent in British football journalism. Alex was formerly sports editor of The Times and The Daily Mail.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

This week’s guest is Dame Heather Rabbatts Heather began her career as a Barrister at Law, before becoming a government advisor and chief executive of Lambeth Council, making her the youngest local authority CEO in the UK.She was a Governor of the BBC followed by an appointment as a senior executive at Channel 4She has held many senior roles in football including Executive Chair of Millwall Football Club and in 2012 was The FA’s first female non-executive Director and Board member where she chaired The FA Inclusion Advisory Board.She was previously a member of FIFA’s Anti-Discrimination Taskforce and has worked with UEFA on their women’s leadership initiatives. Rabbatts was appointed a (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to football and equality.In November 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.Today she is chair of Vero the marketing agency founded in 2006 by her husband Mike Lee OBE who led the business until his untimely death in September 2018.The interview was carried out at City & Islington College. Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Elliot Richardson is co-founder and chair of Dugout, the football media company co-owned by some of the world’s biggest football clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. We talk about the changing media ecosystem around football, the economics of branded content and what the insurance industry knows about data.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Faris Yakob is an award winning advertising strategist, creative director, writer and public speaker.He was chief innovation officer at Naked Communications in the noughties and his book Paid Attention is a great primer on the way media and marketing are evolving.He’s also very good on Twitter. We talked to Faris at City and Islington College in London.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.

Ed Smith is the former test cricketer turned writer and TMS commentator who is now the chair of England cricket selectors and co-founder of the Institute for Sports Humanities.We spoke to Ed at the Mortimer Club in London before the recent Cricket World Cup, which England won in such dramatic fashion at Lord’s. We talk about leadership, the commercial history of sport and the role of luck in cricket and team selection.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.