Last week, Swedish Professional Football Leagues (SEF) and the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) met with the aim of obtaining inspiration from each other’s activities. An important exchange as the organizations face many similar challenges and opportunities. Swedish Professional Football Leagues hosted the event, which consisted of lectures, group discussions and a Allsvenskan game.
The day started with a presentation where representatives from Swedish Professional Leagues gave an insight into how elite football works with, among other things, sustainability, anti match-fixing and match preparations. The participants were then divided into different groups to discuss their challenges and solutions within the respective work areas; finance, sports, communication, security, commercial or digital.
“I felt that we had a good exchange, especially during the group discussions. Discussions opens up to get inspiration and learn from each other. In our group, we discussed, among other things, challenges around season planning, agents and contract issues, says Svante Samuelsson”, Sports Director at Swedish Professional Football Leagues.
The evening featured a Allsvenskan game between AIK and BK Häcken, where all participants had the chance to get to know each other even more.
“From the Swedish Hockey League’s side, we are very happy that we have been able to exchange experience with Swedish Professional Football Leagues. Even though we are dealing with two different sports and different conditions, we still share the same types of challenges and opportunities. This time we focused a bit on the sustainability work of Swedish Professional Football Leagues, which was very interesting. Football and ice hockey represent a large and important social work as the biggest sports in Sweden”, says Johanna Alba, Head of Communications at the Swedish Hockey League.
The joint arrangement between Swedish Professional Football Leagues and the Swedish Hockey League has laid a good foundation for continued cooperation. The talks and exchange between the organizations will continue in the future.