LaLiga takes centre stage at the Sporting Events Forum

Fernando Sanz, LaLiga's MENA office manager and director of international projects, and Adolfo Bara, LaLiga’s managing director of sales, marketing and sponsorship, took centre stage on the first day of the Foro Eventos Deportivos (Sporting Events Forum), which is organised by daily newspaper AS and held at the Spanish Olympic Committee headquarters. Both representatives focused on analysing just how much LaLiga has developed in recent years.

LaLiga's MENA office manager believes LaLiga's ambassador project is one of the keys behind the competition's international expansion: "We have the best players and the best clubs, so we name them ambassadors in order to promote LaLiga. It has been so successful that it is now a model that others copy which makes us feel proud. The ambassador project is among our most successful ones on the international stage."

Sanz went on to clearly point out the figures that demonstrate LaLiga's growth: "Three years ago we had 800 million followers. We've grown hugely since Javier Tebas's arrival and that figure is now well over 2 billion. We can't neglect the fans that LaLiga has abroad, which is why we always cater for them, while still considering our Spanish supporters."

Bara started by analysing the way LaLiga conducts itself in the countries where it looks to expand and why it is the path to follow: "We arrive in a country, we speak to the government, the league and the federation. We explain that we're there to share experiences and want to grow together. We work alongside the broadcasters to boost audience figures before looking for sponsors. We aren't just after money, we're working on expanding the brand and reaching out to more supporters."

LaLiga has various globalisation projects including LaLiga World Challenge, which was also discussed at the event: "It's a platform to strategically take Spanish teams to different corners of the globe. We have to cut down the distance between the Premier League and us. We've taken big strides forward, but our aim is to keep developing and for our clubs to receive more money. If we don't manage that, the best players will leave. We have to work on the differences between clubs and we've already reduced that gap. We're going down this path in search of more equal competition," concluded Bara.