European Leagues is launching a new leadership program. One person from each member league in can apply to be one of 20 people who can attend the training. The communications manager of Swedish Professional Football Leauges Robert Johansson joins the program from Sweden.

“I hope to be able to bring a lot of inspiration back to Sweden”, says Robert Johansson.

ELEVATE is carried out on a total of seven occasions. A total of four physical meetings will be held around Europe between September 2022 and March 2023, as well as three digital meetings. The first meeting takes place in mid-September in Nyon, Switzerland. The list of participants includes everything from general secretaries to communications managers to marketing managers of the leagues in Europe.

The program is very much about benchmarking and knowledge exchange between the different countries and leagues. On the first occasion, the competition format and digital development are in focus. In addition to sessions in the European League’s premises, the participants will visit UEFA’s headquarters and also study a match arrangement in the Swiss hockey league.

“I am looking forward to this very much. Mainly to make many new valuable contacts and to broaden both my own network and that of Swedish Professional Football Leagues. In Sweden we already have a good knowledge exchange with other leagues, but here we will be able to benchmark with the whole of Europe at the same time. It both inspires and develops. One should not underestimate the importance of that for one’s own work”, says Robert Johansson and continues.

“The hope is to gain new approaches to your own business, but sometimes you also learn as much what you couldn’t or shouldn’t work with as things that you can actually implement in your work at home, and that is also a lesson learned”.

The second ELEVATE physical training event takes place in Madrid in November. In 2023, in addition to the digital opportunities, there will also be a visit to London and to a yet to be determined location in Europe.

Participating top leagues at ELEVATE:
Austria – Österreichische Fußball/Bundesliga
Belgium – Pro League
Czech Republic – Ligov á Fotblov á Asociace
Denmark – Divisionsforeningen
England – Premier League and English Football League
Spain – LaLiga
Germany – Deutsche Fussball Liga GmbH
Italy – Lega Serie A and Lega Pro
Netherlands – Eredivise
Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland Football League
Poland – Polish Professional Football League
Slovakia – Unia ligov ych klubov
Switzerland – Swiss Football League
Finland – Finnish Football League Association
Ireland – League of Ireland
Iceland – Íslenskur Topfótbolti
Latvia – Futbola Virsliga
Norway – Norsk Toppfotball
Sweden – Swedish Professional Football Leagues