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SIMON CHADWICK

By day, university sport business professor.

By night, sport business writer, speaker, monologue-r.

Best pitch presenter you’ve ever seen: 

Scott Bowers who, I think, could pitch anything to anyone.

 

Best sports marketing campaign (that wasn’t yours): 

GuinnessNike Joga Bonito…2006, yet still fresh and more relevant today than some of its contemporary peers.

 

Best Agency (that isn't yours): 

I owe a debt of gratitude to the good folk at Weber Shandwick, who altered the course of my career.

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Best young industry talent: 

Currently being charmed by anyone working for either Copa90 or Tifo Football..

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Best sporting event attended: 

Champions League Final 2010: Inter Milan v Bayern Munich. Was a guest of Mastercard, for which I had been doing some work. A bonkers, overwhelming three days in Spain.

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Best sporting event on TV: 

Any FIFA World Cup, though 1974, 1982, 1990 and 2006 particularly come to mind.

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Best brand ambassador: 

My mid-career development as an academic was largely based upon talking about David Beckham.

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Best industry event or conference: 

Sport Business Campus, which my university (at the time) hosted in 2007. Gone but not forgotten – a great way of bringing the business and academia together.

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Best film containing a scene depicting the sports business: 

Back in the day, I used to love the film American Flyers. Later, I got hooked on Barca Confidential.

 

Best book recommendation: 

Non-sport: Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe. Sport: The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, Joe McGinniss.

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​Best bar or pub: 

I don’t drink alcohol. So, any café in the Middle East that serves Turkish coffee and dates (and preferably has a view of the sea).

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Best restaurant: 

Brasserie Georges, Lyon – the ultimate art deco eating experience.

 

Best holiday resort: 

Not a resort, a hotel: The Opposite House, Beijing. Stunning.

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Best box set: 

No particular preference, though the more obscure and more foreign the better. Polish dramas are often very well written and shot.

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Best influence on your career: 

An ex-professional footballer called Graham Parker, with whom I shared an office in my first university job. In 1995 he asked a simple question: shall we write something about football. The rest is history.

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Best dinner companions (min 4, max 6): 

Groucho Marx and five others. I’m a big fan of one-liners.

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Best job in the sports biz: 

I’m inclined to say ‘mine’, which has generally given me enormous freedom to roam the nether regions of the global sport industry.

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Best professional regret: 

Taking too long to understand and accept that I was capable of hitting sixes.

 

Best skill you most covet: To be a team player.

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Best trait you admire in others: Ability to be a team player.

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Best overrated virtue: To be a team player.

 

Best ambition: 

In 2007, I was asked who I would like to be working for in 2017. I said an organisation like UEFA. I’ve since been involved with them since 2008.

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