Relevent Builds Leadership For New UEFA Commercial Rights

With UEFA’s top-tier club competitions heading into a new commercial era, Relevent Sports has unveiled the senior leadership team that will steer the global monetisation of these rights between 2027 and 2033 through its newly launched subsidiary, Relevent Football Partners (RFP).

The team will be charged with exploiting an unprecedented portfolio of media, sponsorship, and licensing rights across the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Conference League, UEFA Super Cup, Youth League, and Futsal Champions League.

These rights, secured via a historic deal between UEFA’s joint venture with the European Club Association (UC3) and Relevent earlier this year, mark the end of TEAM Marketing’s decades-long control of UEFA’s club competition rights globally—a seismic shift in European football’s commercial landscape.

Relevent Football Partners will be headquartered in London, with satellite offices in Miami, New York, Doha, and Southeast Asia, reflecting the global footprint the agency intends to leverage in its sales strategy. CEO Boris Gartner will lead the operation, reporting to Daniel Sillman, Relevent’s long-time chief executive, who has now become executive chair of RFP.

The leadership group blends European football pedigree with global media and sponsorship experience. Former DAZN executives David Baddeley (CFO) and Tom Burrows (Director of Media Strategy) bring OTT acumen, while Oliver Holland, formerly MD for media rights at TEAM, joins as Chief Media Rights Officer—a notable acquisition from the very agency Relevent has replaced. Amy Phillips, ex-VP of communications for Disney EMEA, takes charge of marketing and comms, while Brian Oliver (ex-PGA Tour), Benjamin Blanco (Heineken, Samsung), and Laurence Anthony (Chief Legal Officer) round out the core commercial and legal team.

The UC3-Relevent agreement represents UEFA’s most significant shake-up of its club competition rights operation since the creation of the Champions League in 1992. With Relevent now in full control of global sales for six seasons from 2027, the industry is closely watching how the US-based agency—backed by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross—translates its aggressive North American model to a more traditionally cautious European landscape.

Relevent’s entrance to the UEFA ecosystem began with a bang in 2022, when it secured U.S. broadcast rights for Champions League matches in a reported $250 million deal—breaking Team’s global monopoly for the first time. That was a strategic beachhead. Now, with full rights control across all markets, Relevent’s ambitions are on full display.

The formation of Relevent Football Partners, Gartner said, reflects “complete dedication to elevating the commercial business of the UEFA men’s club competitions and its partners.” With sales expected to begin this summer, the company is poised to test the ceiling of football’s most valuable media property.

Insideworldfootball.com