May 28 – Relevent Sports Agency, which sensationally acquired the rights to the UEFA Champions League and other UEFA properties earlier this year, has unveiled the leadership team that will exploit these rights.
Daniel Sillman, chief executive at Relevent since mid-2017, will serve as executive chair at Relevent Football Partners, while Boris Gartner, CEO of LaLiga North America, a joint venture with Relevent Sports and president and partner at Relevent Sports, will take over as chief executive of the Relevent Football Partners subsidiary.
The company has also unveiled eight members of the senior leadership team, including David Baddeley (chief financial officer), Brian Oliver (chief commercial officer), Oliver Holland (chief media rights officer), Amy Phillips (chief communications and marketing officer), Benjamin Blanco (director of commercial strategy, partnerships, sponsorships, and licensing), and Tom Burrows (director of strategy and partnership operations, media).
“Creating Relevent Football Partners demonstrates our complete dedication to elevating the commercial business of the UEFA men’s club competitions and its partners,” Gartner said. “We’ve assembled an exceptional team of business leaders focused solely on servicing our partnership with UC3.”
The partnership between UEFA (acting through UC3, the joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association) and Relevent was confirmed in mid-March. Relevent, based in the US and backed by Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins NFL franchise, has replaced TEAM Marketing as UEFA’s exclusive commercial partner.
This represents a seismic shift in European football’s commercial landscape. TEAM Marketing had served as UEFA’s exclusive commercial agency since the early 1990s, with their dedicated partnership being the founding force behind the phenomenal growth of the UEFA Champions League for more than 25 years. TEAM was instrumental in helping UEFA brand the Champions League in 1991, contributing to the creation of the competition’s iconic anthem, logo, and ‘starball’ design.
For TEAM Marketing, the loss of this contract represents a serious blow to an agency that had been central to transforming European club football into a global commercial powerhouse.
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