Won’t anyone think of The Butcher’s Hook?

Jimmy Worrall has built Leaders in to the big beast of the sports business conference circuit (get the podcast here). Whether you go to it or not, Stamford Bridge in the first week of October is one of the industry’s hardy perennials.
But this year is different and Leaders is moving to Twickenham.

No more hanging around Earl’s Court station waiting for the District Line to Fulham Broadway. And no more conversations starting with the phrase, ‘You going to the Butcher’s Hook later?’, the code for getting shitfaced on free drink under the guise of networking.
That was the start of the conversation with Jimmy in this week’s podcast. We go through his whole career, from doing an MBA under Rogan Taylor, working for ENIC and through to getting a job at The FA where he started building the network of colleagues who are familiar faces across the industry today.
Then we get to the Soccerex question. I’ve heard loads of things about how and why Jimmy left Duncan Revie’s company, much of it just industry rumour and conjecture. So I wanted to ask the man himself and I found Jimmy’s answer unexpectedly poignant.
One of the reasons we started the Unofficial Partner podcast was to spend time with people and to let the conversation ramble a bit, not restricted by the need to turn it in to something more formal, that fits the usual conventions of the interview genre of a conference or magazine article. And this episode is one of our best so far in my opinion.
Next week: Martin Bayfield talks Rugby World Cup, Sport Industry Awards and Harry Potter.

If you like the podcast and want to join us, get in touch via richard@unofficialpartner.co.uk or sean@unofficialpartner.co.uk