We received Marco Sansoni, Spectatorship Services Manager at the FIFA. He worked on a lot of major events, especially World Cup, and has now a strong experience. He comes back for us today on these large events and how to engage fans during these ones. With the pandemic going on, he also talks about the new issues and solutions for the clubs or the leagues.

This interview is also available on our podcast channel that you can listen on every podcast platform.

Marco Sansoni, a spectatorship services expert

Within FIFA, I’m a spectator service manager, which is the first of a kind, where I’m working since approximately two years. I got involved in events during the last 15 years. I’ve been traveling around the world and worked in five continents. It was almost always focused on fans, and all aspects of the fan within the operation side as well. It was really a game changer in my career to be the first spectator service manager of the World Cup history, because until then, spectator services was basically an amount of volunteers, quite a big workforce that was allocated either to security or to the volunteers department in previous editions such as Germany 2006, and South Africa 2010.

It was also because of the issues with the crowd on one side, and because in Brazil, the culture in sporting events, especially in some cities, was that the seats were not assigned. Basically, first come first served at the stadium (that would not be acceptable for FIFA standards). So we had the challenge of a cultural change in 2007. It was really challenging. Since then, I’m pretty much stuck in football, except for the Rio 2016 Olympics that I’ve been working on. So I’m very happy to share all of this. Looking back now, I’m 42 and when I was a kid, I wanted to travel for work and I’m happy to have been loyal to that dream.

The Indian Express

Rio Olympics – opening ceremony

The best experiences encountered during his life

Torino is definitely in my heart. When a global event touches your country, you have some chance. And basically, everyone starts with a local global event. So that would be the first. The second, definitely as mentioned, is the FIFA World Cup. To give you an idea of the achievements, we can say that every World Cup is different, every event is different. It’s also in terms of size, think about the size of a continent or country as Brazil with 12 host cities. We have a distance from Manaus to Porto Alegre, so from Amazonia to almost Argentina with six hours flight.

I had 270 staff members that were managing approximately 4500 volunteers. Those volunteers of that world cup won the year after the FIFA Fair Play award (first time that it didn’t went to a player or an association). So this is something I’m really proud of among the 1000s of things that put this event in the top of my list.

FIFA

Brazilian volunteers during World Cup

An incredible experience during the Brazilian World Cup

I have plenty of memories of that World Cup, which are not much related to the competition itself. The most iconic is probably the invasion of the Maracana Stadium, that might be interesting from an operational perspective. We had an invasion of spectators without tickets. It gathered approximately 200 people for Chile, who invaded the Media Center, the weakest point of the stadium.

“What is interesting is talking to the spectators, which is something I love doing while the match is going on or especially ahead of the match.”

The critical points are the entry moments. So basically, by talking to the to the spectators, you find stories which are amazing. Imagine the World Cup back in South America after so many years. We even saw an invasion of caravans from Argentina. The city of Rio, and furthermore, the cities in the south were literally invaded. In Rio, they invented, somehow, as very large camping. This tells you a lot about the Brazilian hospitality, towards the Argentinians again.

So the stories of the spectators, out of which are number one related to a father with his two children from Venezuela, who unfortunately bought fake tickets. And this is one of the issues, especially in high demand events. This person was crying out there, outside duty checker. I got closer to understand what was going on. And basically to know the fact that he had sold his own car to bring these kids there just to show them to be part in the stadium during the match of the national team. Well, that broke my heart. See, seriously, there’s nothing I could do, unfortunately. But these kind of stories that tells you about the passion, the real passion, and what football is all about.

What the pandemic changed and how clubs can engage the fans right now

The pandemic changed a lot of things. Basically, everyone is focused on producing new protocols, because in terms of health safety. We need to define new protocols, of course, but the first need was trying to keep in touch with the fans. So as in every other sector, basically boosting the digital transformation, meaning getting on a regular basis in contact, keeping them engaged through the social media, and in all other means.

“So we’ve seen a lot of activations, which were focused on the community engagement, which was a positive side effect of this virus.”

I’ve seen plenty of teams and leagues delivering even basic goods to get fans. There’s a famous action that my team AS Roma made and became famous, even broadcasted on CNN. It was the provision of basic needs to the oldest fans. This was a very good way to keep the fan base engaged in this period.

CNN

AS Roma helping elderly fans in Italy during pandemic

The different changes that will occur when fans will come back in the stadiums

I definitely believe that there is a positive legacy of this pandemic. The clubs and the leagues understood the power of community engagement, which was well known way before this but is stronger now. There’s a lot to consider here. So first of all, I put the fan in the middle also of my thoughts, not only my strategy. Basically, how was the fans’ loyalty challenged by the distance in terms also of time? In general, at least, the relation was challenged. It’s hard to keep that relation after a few weeks, after one month or two, so imagine after one year, would he or she still be loyal to me?

If we think about the experience we had in the stadiums as an average, especially before, it wasn’t always the best one possible. If we put that in parallel to a restaurant experience, while we will never go back to a bad restaurant, we are almost always going back to the stadium where we had that experience, in terms also of results. Even if your team lose that next sunday, even if you couldn’t buy a sandwich or a beer because the line was too long, or you finally got it but the beer was hot, and the sandwich was cold. The following week, the fan will still be there. This will never happen in any other business, except sports. We’re talking about football here, but this is sports in general. So this is what we need to focus on.

“We have to question what happened to the client, which are their habits, and what we need to do.”

What everyone should have been working on, and I really hope they have been working on that, is to plan a new fan experience at 360 degrees. It would help the entire ecosystem to restart again, as fast as possible.

The different touch points between the fans and the club

It’s basically to define the spectator’s experience. First of all, again, you need to know your fans, for these 360 degrees, because it goes from information, availability, clarity. It means providing an app, which is a fundamental tool to enhance the experience. It means providing entertainment of course but also the workforce on the ground. They have to be knowledgeable, smiling, welcoming and warm, and giving you the feeling that you are attending something special. Not only the feeling, but the reality is that you are thinking something special. That human touch on the ground is absolutely needed and that human touch is one of those touch points.

So knowing the client, you define the personas. And then with that in mind, you map the main touch points of experience, which are: the website, the spectator app, a digital site, the airports, the whole city operations meaning public transportation, rather than specific services. Because what is important for the spectator is to find information throughout its journey. The aim is to have the same level of service in the stadiums but also outside. We should provide a lot of information before the spectators leave home. Because that way we do manage the crowds before even having the crowd.

Thanks to Marco Sansoni who gave us some time to come back on his interesting experiences through major events. A lot of work has to be done in order to engage fans on these so special events and new challenges are also coming in order to engage again the fans.