Fernando Sanz and Pedro Malabia round off LaLiga's participation at Soccerex

The second day of the Soccerex Global Convention took place on Tuesday 27 September, with the international football event running in Manchester from the 26th until the 28th of the month. It brings together representatives from the most prestigious leagues in the world and the football industry in general.

To kick off the proceedings on the second day, LaLiga once again took centre stage as a shining example of fine management, in this instance because of its international expansion. On this note, Fernando Sanz, LaLiga's MENA office manager and director of international projects, delivered a presentation on internationalisation. The LaLiga head explained how the competition works to promote itself on the international stage as well as the way it exchanges experience, ideas and projects with other leagues, federations and governments in a bid for mutual progress. LaLiga currently has a considerable international presence with two offices in China, the United States, Africa (with bases in South Africa and Nigeria), Dubai and India, while Singapore and Mexico are set to join the list in the near future. Sanz revealed the keys behind LaLiga's internationalisation and referenced the top target areas where LaLiga is planning to expand in the short term.

Pedro Malabia, the head of women's football at LaLiga, gave a presentation outlining the advantages and disadvantages associated with supporting the development of the women's game, alongside Phil Rawlins, owner of Orlando City, Bianca Rech, Bayern Munich Women's sporting director, and Gavin Makel, head of Manchester City Women. "Our president made the decision to help the development of women's football and collaborate in its growth. Women's football was dead, nobody was being proactive. Clubs wanted to achieve something, but couldn't do so alone," Malabia explained. "There's a great opportunity to move forward in our country in this area, it's about believing in the product. Considerable progress has been made since LaLiga stepped up its commitment to women's football," stated Malabia.

Adolfo Bara, LaLiga's managing director of sales and marketing, was on a panel discussing sponsorship opportunities at football-related events, alongside Andrew Curley, head of sponsorship and events at Vauxhall, Kathy Carter, president of Soccer United Marketing, and Felipe Martin, marketing director at Santander. The conversation centred upon how to obtain the maximum benefit from sponsorship at sporting events.