Chief commercial officer Thomas to leave FIFA

FIFA’s chief commercial officer, Simon Thomas, is to leave the organisation a little more than a year after taking the role.

FIFA has confirmed to insidethegames that Thomas is to depart at the end of next month, as reported by SportBusiness.

A former UEFA Champions League marketing executive, Thomas last year replaced Philippe Le Floc’h.

“We can confirm that Simon Thomas has decided to leave the organization at the end of October, he will continue in his current role until the end of October to ensure a smooth transition whilst FIFA recruits a new Chief Commercial Officer”, a FIFA spokesperson said.

“FIFA would like to thank Simon for his contribution and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.”

When hired, Thomas was tasked with shaping a commercial strategy for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

FIFA’s 2019 annual report showed that marketing revenue was “slightly below budget”.

The organisation’s marketing programme has stalled since FIFA’s reputation was damaged at the end of the Sepp Blatter era.

The coronavirus pandemic is unlikely to help revenue growth and much of Thomas’ time at FIFA will have been spent reacting to the crisis.

Before FIFA, Thomas was chief executive of TEAM Marketing, where he was instrumental in driving major growth in UEFA’s main club competitions, including the Champions League.

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He had also worked for Nike and was responsible for the sales, production and broadcast of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

Le Floc’h is now a senior commercial strategy consultant for World Table Tennis, the International Table Tennis Federation’s new commercial vehicle.

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