TGG Live 2025
The annual conference for insights, ideas and networking.
October 7th—8th, 2025
Old Trafford, Manchester
Overview
TGG Live 2025 proved our biggest event to date, featuring 35 elite speakers, more than 450 delegates and 15 sponsors across two days at Manchester United’s iconic Old Trafford stadium.
The objective of our annual conference, now in its third year, is to bring together different departments and organisations under one roof.
Our themes on Day One of TGG Live 2025 (October 7th) were leadership, analytics and recruitment, and performance, development and alignment on Day Two (the 8th).
However, the one golden thread that ran through the whole two days was the importance of people and relationships in every process and discipline. Most of the talks touched on this, while several focused on it specifically.
You can read a report about the conference HERE. And there are profiles of our speakers and sponsors – plus a highlights video – below.
Speakers
Day One
Ged Roddy MBE
FIFA Technical Expert, guiding staff around the world as part of Global Player Development Project. Former Premier League Director of Football Development, masterminding the Elite Player Performance Plan, which has transformed youth development in England. Awarded MBE in Queen’s New Year Honours in 2000 for contribution to UK sport.Day One
Polly Bancroft
Has 20 years’ experience working in high-profile organisations including The FA, UEFA, Brighton and Manchester United. Currently the CEO of Grimsby Town and a Director on the Club and Foundation Boards. Has oversight of both sporting and commercial functions, including setting the strategic direction, responsibility for the financial health of the club, squad planning, football operations, fan engagement and commercial development.Day One
Christian Nourry
Chief Executive of QPR since January 2024. Had spent the previous five years as an advisor and consultant to clubs including Real Madrid, AS Roma, Anderlecht and Athletic Bilbao as Managing Partner for Europe of RETEXO.Day One
Sarah Guilfoyle
Has worked for Wigan for almost a decade, becoming one of the youngest Managing Directors in the English game. Sarah started her career with the Latics as Academy Secretary, rising up the ranks to become Head of Football Administration and then MD in February 2025.Day One
Dr Daniel Beiderbeck
Sporting Coordinator at Borussia Dortmund, designing structures, processes and innovation within the club for four years. Joined the black and yellow after seven years with strategy consulting firm McKinsey, where he co-led the football department and published various articles around team value management and leadership in pro sports organisations.Day One
Francisco Belo
Head of Football Data Insights at Nottingham Forest, where he leads the use of data to support decision-making and enhance performance across key football departments and teams. Collaborates with multi-disciplinary staff and senior stakeholders to define performance metrics, benchmark progress and build tools that inform strategy and improve efficiency throughout the club.Day One
Oliver Dehnhardt
Worked as an international youth scout for Ajax and FC Copenhagen before joining Eyeball as Head of Strategy in January 2025.Day One
Nnamdi Emofo
The Chief Executive of Afriskaut - a platform that enables the discovery of Africa’s top talent using data and AI. Has a background in software engineering and product management.Day One
Joe Mulberry
Key driver of the growth of Right to Dream, the purpose-driven group that owns FC Nordsjaelland, San Diego FC and Academies in Ghana, Egypt and Ivory Coast. Worked for R2D for a total of almost two decades, latterly as Head of Strategy and Innovation, up until April 2024.Day One
Liam Bailey
Performance Data Analyst with SkillCorner, the broadcast tracking specialists. Will be analysing different player profiles within transition phases - and how clubs might identify players for each profile.Day One
Mariela Nisotaki
Head of Group Talent Acquisition for Southampton and their owners Sport Republic. A female trailblazer who previously worked for Norwich City, rising to become their Assistant Head of Recruitment. Has also worked for Swansea City and Atromitos in her native Greece.Day One
Zaheer Shah
Became Tottenham’s first Head of Football Methodology in the summer of 2025. He is responsible for embedding and aligning the club’s game model across the Men’s, Women’s and Academy teams, ensuring a consistent style of play and coaching methodology.Day One
Jamie Osman
Founder of The Football Analyst, which offers bespoke player analysis, and has more than 15 years' experience in Premier League football. Former Head of Performance Analysis at West Ham and Ipswich Town.Day One
Sam Scott
Worked for Southampton for almost 13 years, becoming First Team Sport Scientist. Left in April 2025 to set up his own company, SSc Performance, which delivers movement-led training.Day One
Azeem Amir
Born with a visual impairment, Azeem has turned adversity into a platform to inspire and empower others. He is a member of the England Blind Football Team, founder of Learn With ESS (Education, Sport & Speaking) and an accomplished public speaker.Day Two
Andrew Trimble
Former professional rugby union player, who played 229 times for Ulster and won 70 caps for Ireland. A co-founder of Kairos, Andrew is now Senior Director of Performance at Teamworks, leading content and thought-leadership initiatives across the elite performance space.Day Two
Sarah Batters
Managing Director of London City Lionesses - the first independent club in the Women’s Super League. Also a Board Trustee at Kick It Out and Lecturer in Commercial Football at PFA Business School. Previously Director of Pay to Play for City Football Group, Strategic Development Consultant for Brighton & Hove Albion and Partnerships & Marketing Director at Southampton.Day Two
Lee Dykes
Technical Director at Brentford and a key figure with the Bees for more than six years. Joined as Head of Recruitment in 2019 and helped gain promotion to the Premier League in 2021. Heads up the multi-club model for Brentford and is founder of the 'effective score' data model.Day Two
Adam Underwood
Sporting Director of Leeds United, whom he has served for more than a decade. Was previously the club's Academy Manager, leading their return to Category One status.Day Two
Mladen Sormaz
Sporting Director at Barnsley since February 2024. A pioneer of data science in football, having been Leicester CIty's first Head of Analytics and then Director of Analytics for 777's portfolio of clubs.Day Two
Lee Darnbrough
Head of Recruitment and Talent ID at Port Vale and highly experienced after two decades in the game. Started working for performance analysis pioneers Prozone and went on to be Head of Recruitment at West Brom, Burnley, Norwich, Hull and Stoke.Day Two
Marc Garnica
Lead Data Engineer for Gemini Sports. Specialises in complex data environments for scalable and secure data engineering for Artificial Inteligence. Has worked with pro sports clubs, international health corporations and research institutions.Day Two
Lee Johnson
Appointed Head Coach of Belgian side Lommel SK, part of City Football Group, after a successful spell in interim charge. More than a decade's experience as a manager, with Sunderland, Bristol City, Hibernian and more.Day Two
Phil Jones
Played for Manchester United for more than a decade and won 27 caps for England, representing his country at Euro 2012 and at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups. Since retiring last year, has been busy preparing for life after football - completing his UEFA A Licence and also gaining the Diploma in Sport Directorship from the PFA Business School.Day Two
John-Mark Sisman
Data Scientist for Teamworks Intelligence (previously Zelus Analytics) - a sports analytics company that provides data-driven insights to help teams make better decisions. Prior to this was a Data Scientist for City Football Group.Day Two
Louisa Collis
Academy Manager at Birmingham since 2023 and helped the club return to Category One status this summer. Blues' Academy is now regarded as one of the best in the country. Louisa was previously Club Secretary at Birmingham, Nottingham Forest and Burton. She is the only female Academy Manager in the country.Day Two
Paul Balsom
One of football's most experienced performance leaders. Was Performance Manager for the Sweden national team for 26 years, spanning 340+ matches and nine major tournaments, and Head of Performance Innovation at Leicester City for almost a decade. Currently a consultant for Tigres in Mexico and Head of UEFA's Football for Fitness Advisory Group.Day Two
Dr Stacey Emmonds
Associate Professor in Sports Performance, Senior Lead for Performance Education at the Football Association and is part of UEFA's fitness advisory group. Also has applied experience as a practitioner in both mens' and women's football and is currently a Physical Performance Coach working with the England women's youth national teams.Day Two
Simone Lewis
Simone has been a people developer in elite sport for more than two decades. She was Head of Learning during seven years at the Premier League and then Chief Culture Officer at Right to Dream. Simone now runs her own people development business, Performance Focus, which offers bespoke solutions for sport and business.Day Two
Ryan Giggs
The most decorated player in British football history, having won 34 major trophies (including 13 Premier League titles). Played for Manchester United throughout his career, making a club record 963 appearances. Went on to become Interim Manager and Assistant Manager, as well as being Manager of the Wales national team. Was most recently Director of Football and co-owner at Salford City.Day Two
Tom Heaton
The Manchester United goalkeeper has made more than 300 senior appearances and won three England caps. Came through United's Academy and returned to the club in 2021, going on to play an important leadership role. Is qualifying to be a Sporting Director and also working through his coaching badges.Day Two
Tony Strudwick
A pioneer of performance in British football. Worked for West Ham and England before becoming Head of Performance under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Worked for Arsenal, Sheffield Wednesday and Wales after that, before taking on his current role with West Brom.Day Two
Michael Caulfield
One of the UK’s most experienced sport psychologists. Has been involved in football for more than 20 years, working for Head Coaches including Sir Gareth Southgate, Steve Bruce, Dean Smith, Thomas Frank and Michael O’ Neil. Based with Brentford for the last eight seasons and is someone who connects, listens and understands the emotional demands on players.Host
Sarah Mulkerrins
Sarah returns to host TGG Live after fronting our St George's Park event last year. Sports broadcaster known mainly for her work over the last decade on BBC TV and radio, where she has covered World Cups, Olympics, World Championships and many of the biggest sports news stories.Sponsors
Headline Sponsor
The leading operating system for high performance, powering more than 7,000 sports teams and military organisations worldwide. Teamworks’ suite of best-in-class products drives winning by enabling data-driven talent acquisition, seamless operations, and holistic performance development.
The layer between what happens on the field and how the world engages with it. Our solutions across the global sports ecosystem are underpinned by our next generation big data and artificial intelligence platform, GeniusIQ.
Gemini helps elite sports team front offices streamline roster management decisions with intuitive, customisable, AI-powered workflows, all in one simple, easy-to use mobile-first app.
Driven in our aim to redefine and modernise scouting at the highest level of youth football, Eyeball provides the first video scouting platform to optimise the future of scouting and aid in unearthing the next generation of new talent.
BeSoccer Pro is a performance analysis and management tool for pro football scouting that monitors 1,200 competitions and more than 300,000 players worldwide. Its development, backed by the largest database in the history of the sport, has enabled clubs, scouts, analysts, Sporting Directors, agencies and media to improve workflows.
SkillCorner’s automated technology captures and delivers tracking data for all players and the ball from any single camera broadcast or wide-angle video. This tracking data is integrated into their analytics packages to provide actionable insights on player and team performance. Over 200 of the world’s leading clubs, leagues, federations and agencies trust SkillCorner data to support decision-making.
Afriskaut is Africa’s leading platform dedicated to discovering top football talent across the Continent, With powerful data and AI technology, it revolutionises football talent discovery in Africa.
STATSports is a sports technology company that specialises in the development of wearable monitoring devices for athletes across every level of sport. Has partnerships with teams including Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Brazil and England.
Collinson Tensile create inspiring and modern custom-built football training facilities that help people perform to the best of their ability. With over 20 years’ experience in the sports and leisure construction industry, Collinson have built a strong reputation as an indoor football training facilities specialist.
Performance on and off the pitch is critical to any club’s success. Modulek’s bespoke design of professional training pavilions can take your club to the next level. Modulek design, deliver, and install training pavilions that accommodate multiple uses for maximum benefits to top tier clubs.
ORRECO.AI are the leaders in Agentic AI for Pro Sport. We are pioneering novel advancements in applied physiology, biostatistics and cognitive computing to arm coaches, medical practitioners, trainers and athletes with knowledge and actionable insights to maximize availability and sustain peak performance. With decades of experience at the highest level of sport, we deliver meaningful results.
Sportable is the global leader in Smart Ball technology, using patented sensor technology and proprietary analytics to transform every ball, player, and play into a digital blueprint of performance. By combining ball and player tracking data, Sportable delivers real-time insights into athlete and team performance, skills, officiating, and fan engagement.
SmartCart Technologies are passionate about driving change with top-tier selections that enhance the coaching, broadcast and streaming experience, setting new standards in the industry.
Veo lets you record your match without a camera operator. Automatic recording and video-editing enable coaches and players to watch and share their sport. Veo was founded in 2015 in Copenhagen with a vision of democratising video broadcasting and analytics. Veo is offered for clubs, players, coaches, scouts, families and fans to give access to quality video.
Footovision develops advanced AI data collection, performance analytics and risk management solutions for football clubs, leagues, media and sports betting operators. We collect tracking data, ball and non-ball events from any video feed and provide interactive and fully customisable performance metrics and analysis dashboards.
VIDEO RECAP
Delegates
Last year we welcomed attendees from dozens of clubs and federations, including the following
Job titles of attendees included
Sporting Director
Chief Executive
Head of Analytics
Head of Technology
Head of Recruitment
Head of Scouting
Head of Talent ID
Head Coach
Pathway Development Manager
Head of Coach Education
Women’s National Coach Developer
Technical Development Manager
Academy Manager
Head of Academy Operations
Head of Development Centres
Head of Performance
Head of Research and Development
Head of Innovation
Head of Player Insights
Testimonials