WFS Europe, the international congress of World Football Summit‘s global football platform was held in Madrid last September, and has now been named Best Sporting Event of 2021 by the Madrid Sports Press Association (APDM) at a gala that also honoured Karim Benzema, LaLiga and the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida.
WFS Europe, the international congress that annually brings together the global football industry in Spain, has been recognised as the Best Sporting Event of 2021 by the Madrid Sports Press Association (APDM). The award-winning event, held at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid on September 22 and 23 last year, brought together more than 1,400 industry professionals in the Spanish capital after the mandatory break in 2020. The gala was held on January 31 and was attended by prominent figures from the sports, political and economic world.
José Damián González, president of the APDM, said: «The recognition of WFS is becoming commonplace, as it is an event that moves many important people and so many protagonists of the world of football, an evident appeal for all of us who love this sport.»
«This award makes us especially happy, for the collective effort in organising a useful and safe event, and it renews our enthusiasm and responsibility towards an industry which is probably experiencing the most transformative moment of the last forty or fifty years,” added WFS director Marian Otamendi after receiving the trophy.
???? It's an honour to be named the Best Sport Event 2021 by @prensadeportMAD.
Thank you to our wonderful team for all their efforts and to Asociación de la Prensa Deportiva de Madrid for this prestigious prize. pic.twitter.com/2mgpupD1yU
— World Football Summit (@WFSummit) February 1, 2022
Since 2016, WFS has annually brought together in Madrid the leaders of this powerful sector, which in Spain moves 1.4% of GDP, in addition to having organised conferences on other continents. Starting in 2022, WFS Europe will move its headquarters to Seville for three years; during two days, September 28 and 29, the Andalusian capital will be the epicentre of the football industry, where more than 2,500 face-to-face attendees and another 1,000 virtual attendees, most of them international, will address the current situation of the most popular sport on the planet at the Palace of Congresses (FIBES). Among them will be some of the most relevant executives, experts and ex-players in global football.
WFS was born as an international congress, but has now become a global business platform for both companies and institutions to exchange knowledge, contacts and commercial opportunities. In addition to serving as a business ecosystem, World Football Summit generates content for companies and universities and provides advisory, communication and training services. It held its first event outside of Spain in 2019, with WFS Asia, which took place in Malaysia, and had it not been for the pandemic, additional editions would have been held in South Africa and Latin America in 2020. The new dates for these events will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, for the city’s election as World Sports Capital in 2022, Atlético de Madrid, champion of LaLiga Santander 2021-22, Real Madrid’s French striker Karim Benzema and LaLiga were other winners during the gala, held at the Beatriz Auditorium in Madrid.
