Liga Portugal, the body responsible for the organisation of the Portuguese professional football leagues, will host the first edition of the “Thinking Football Summit” from November 18 to 20 at the Superbock Arena in Porto. The event aims to be one of the premier and most highly attended summits in the European football landscape and will feature some of football’s most renowned personalities.

The summit will host debates and panels focused on some of the football industry’s biggest themes such as Technology, Innovation and Entertainment within the football sector, with speakers from many of the world’s most prestigious football clubs, important stakeholders from the sports industry and other major football institutions.

Among some of the confirmed event speakers are Javier Tebas (President of Spain’s LaLiga), Rui Costa (President, SL Benfica), Tiago Pinto (General Manager, AS Roma), Luís Vicente (CEO of Apex Capital and Entrepreneur), Luís Campos (international football consultant and former AS Monaco and Sporting Director of LOSC Lille), Abel Ferreira (Palmeiras coach and two-time Libertadores champion), Marcos Motta (sports and entertainment lawyer) as well as key representatives from FIFA, the ECA, LaLiga, Valencia CF, NBA Europe, the Football Association, Tottenham, Wolves, the European Leagues Association, the Stellar Group, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Futebol Clube do Porto and Sport Lisboa e Benfica (including Benfica Campus – Benfica’s youth academy – twice recognised as the best in the world).

The President of Liga Portugal is very proud to announce the event. “The Thinking Football Summit will be a unique and the last major sporting event on European soil before the World Cup in Qatar. Thinking and debating the industry, as well as all areas that have an impact on it – an essential, structuring and planned mission – is Liga Portugal’s true mission. The challenges ahead are huge. The time is for constant development, and Professional Football must be prepared for the future. On and off the pitch. And it is off the pitch, this time, that the quality of the topics and speakers will allow us to experience a revolutionary event, which will certainly enrich everyone”, said.

The conference will be a valuable networking opportunity for attendees, while also acting as a platform to promote new businesses, with a particular focus on startups and innovation. The “Thinking Football Summit” will have a dedicated area for the pitching and presentation of businesses and ideas in the sports industry. The event will also appeal to a younger audience, with the discussion of subjects like Esports, Web3, Social Media and Fan Engagement in some of the events’ panels.

The “Thinking Football Summit” will be the last big event before the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, kicking off on November 21, and will aim to be one of the top tier events in the world football calendar in the coming years, with the presence of some of the industry’s most influential stakeholders.

European Leagues Association General Assembly to be held at the same time in Porto Alongside the Summit, the European Leagues Association (ELA) will host its General Assembly in Porto, from November 16 to 18, coinciding with the start of the “Thinking Football Summit.” ELA president Alberto Colombo, a confirmed summit attendee, remarked: “The European Leagues awarded the next General Assembly in the city of Porto because this is the best way to combine our work agenda at a political-institutional level with the spectacle of our sport in the stadiums but also the more business side of the professional football industry. At that time, Liga Portugal will be organising the Thinking Football Summit, an event which will quickly become a European Football reference and a space where it will be possible to debate sport at the highest level and from the most varied perspectives.” Colombo went on to praise the development and credibility of Liga Portugal amongst the biggest European leagues.

“The effort and the work that is being done by Liga Portugal, and by its President Pedro Proença, who took the institution to a level of maturity and credibility, is, in this way, recognized by all the different leagues that compose the European Leagues,” Colombo added