This is episode 9 of ReThinking Sport, our series created in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity.  

One of the big ambitions of this series has been to look at the football market through the eyes of the people who own and control the clubs and the people in charge of the leagues and the sports’ governing bodies. 

So previous episodes have featured Ricky Parry, the chair of the EFL, Mark Bullingham, CEO of The FA and Kelly Simmons, head of the women’s professional game at The FA and the WSL.

On the club ownership side, we’ve had guests including Andy Holt, owner of Accrington Stanley, and Paul Conway, head of Pacific Media Group, one of the leading proponents of a multi-club ownership model, which is a feature of today’s conversation with our guests Brett Johnson and Fabrice Bocquet. 

Brett Johnson is a founder and partner of property development company Fortuitous Partners which invests in professional sports and is the Co-Chairman of the Phoenix Rising Football Club, a professional soccer team, based in Phoenix, Arizona and which plays in the USL, the league below the MLS in the States. More recently, Johnson bought the rights to a new USL Championship franchise in Pawtucket, Rhode Island which is set to begin in 2022 at a new stadium. 

And earlier this year, Johnson was a member of the consortium that bought Ipswich Town Football Club, one of the founder members of the Premier League team but who currently reside in League One, the third tier of English football.

My other guest is Fabrice Bocquet, who is a Partner at Portas Consulting.   Fabrice leads the Global Football Practice and was formerly Managing Director of French club FC Lorient, having begun his tenure at the Ligue 1 team as Chief Financial Officer in 2011. 

Every episode of ReThinking Sport can be found by searching Unofficial Partner via the big podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or via your favourite podcast app. Alternatively, you can go direct to unofficialpartner.com and search ‘Portas’ and you’ll find series one and two in their entirety. 

And if you don’t already get the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, you can join thousands of busy sports biz execs who receive it direct to their inbox every Thursday, subscribe via unofficialpartner.com

Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry.
To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner

We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday.

These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport.

Our entire back catalogue of 400 sports business conversations are available free of charge here.

Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app.

If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.