As the market leading football conference, the Convention unites international experts and thought leaders for three days of best practice learnings, industry revelations and insight.

Due to take place from September 26 to 28 at the Manchester Central Complex, next year’s event combines a conference, exhibition and a programme of structured and social networking opportunities.

The Convention will focus on delivering insight into four core sectors which drive football business; commercial, stadia, finance and law, and performance.

It will aim to do so through three diverse conference facilities; the Studio, the Academy and the Corporate Social Opportunity (CSO) Zone.

The Studio is said to bring together the biggest names in football addressing the hottest topics in the game today. 

Offering a programme of insight presentations and best practice panel discussions grouped together to deliver blocks of expert content for each of the four core sectors, the Academy is the Convention’s centre of learning.

Meanwhile, the CSO Zone is the Convention’s platform to promote social development in, through and around football.

Combining exhibition pods, presentations and a programme of activations, it brings together a mix of rights holders, agencies, government bodies, Non-Governmental Organisations and social initiatives that reflect a range of topics and causes from around the globe.

"Soccerex is in my opinion the premier football conference event," said Ian Ayre, chief executive of Liverpool Football Club.

"It’s a great opportunity to meet with lots of people from within the industry and that’s good for our business and good for us as a football club."

New for next year’s Convention is the Academy Networking Lounge, an extension to the Academy structure that will host focused networking sessions linked to the grouped block of content, offering enhanced and better targeted networking opportunities.

In 2013, Soccerex hit out at the Rio de Janeiro State Government following claims that its Convention was cancelled due to the organisers being unable to secure enough funding.

The event was cancelled just weeks before it was scheduled to take place at Rio de Janeiro's Maracanã Stadium, leaving the London-based Soccerex furious.

It left both sides blaming each other with Soccerex continuing to insist that it was cancelled because the Rio State Government feared civil unrest.


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