Record for the Annual Network Arena of Swedish Professional Football League

The fourth edition of the Network Arena broke a new participant record. The insight is that the relationship and benefit of the collaborations between the clubs, the leagues and its strategic partners has been strengthened, at both club and league level.

A total of just over 140 people gathered in Berlin for two days with meetings together with representatives from Swedish Professional Football Leagues, the partners of Allsvenskan and Superettan, representatives from 15 clubs and their strategic partners. During this year’s conference, Elitfotboll Dam was also involved together with clubs and strategic partners. The latest Network Arena before Berlin was launched in Milan in 2020, after which the pandemic put an end to more conferences, until now.

“The feeling is that all stakeholders in the Network Arena have seen and experienced the benefits of the platform and the concept. The clubs see the benefit of offering their partners the opportunity to network with other partners and be able to exchange experiences on how to make the best use of their partnership. In addition, we all have a very nice time together.” (…) “It is extremely inspiring to meet everyone again after the pandemic. We have all longed for it to meat each other in real life. We have had an exciting and varied program and it has been incredibly stimulating to meet here in the middle of Berlin.”
Jan Karlsson, sales director at Swedish Professional Football Leagues

During the conference, lectures were mixed with inspirational speeches as well as with networking. Among other things, Swedish Professional Football Leagues informed how the league works centrally to increase the value of Allsvenskan and Superettan and how the organization has grown over the years and how the league interact with the clubs.

Another topic at the Network Arena was sustainability and the interaction between elite football in Sweden and the public sector. Football is a strong social force that is good for everyone, both regions and municipalities.

“It is of great joy to be here in Berlin as the main partner of Swedish elite football, and to meet all the other partners. We have a good dialogue with the league and the clubs, but there are many local partners represented that we do not know since before. Here you really get to see the value of what football does for society and that is a big part of why we think it is so fun to work with football, to be able to be involved and influence society and also have an opportunity to reach out to our core target group.”
Philip Lagström, Country Manager Sweden at Unibet

Martin Carlsson Wall spoke together with Daniel Beiderbeck from Borussia Dortmund about strategic club development in an international perspective. Sofie Sagfossen together with Martin Pohl from Hertha Berlin raised the topic of fan experiences and match arrangements.

“The great benefit of the Network Arena is new angles, new people and new experiences together that result in new contacts that we can use for learning, but of course also in our own commercial development going forward.” (…) “There are very many differences between the clubs in how they act and cooperate with their partners, which I take home with me as a lesson. Because we have similarities in our world between us as Nordic Choice and our hotels that also operate in different markets with different conditions, but still with a common goal in mind”.
Johan Henningsson, director of sales, Nordic Choice and continues

The last conference sessions were devoted to the sport. Patrik Andersson, former national team player and international player in clubs such as Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona, spoke about his football career and his way current carrier within the sports industry.

In conclusion, the participants in the Network Arena witnessed the match Germany – England in the UEFA Nations League together. The match was talked about by Alexander Axén and Marcus Allbäck, both on site in Berlin.

Next year’s Network Arena is to be located in Amsterdam.