Senior Manager, Commercial Delivery

The Company 

Asia Football Group (AFG) is the exclusive commercial agency for the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) competitions from 2023-2028. AFG's partnership with the AFC covers the commercial rights for all major AFC National Team and Club competitions, including the AFC Asian Cup™, AFC Asian Qualifiers™, AFC Women's Asian Cup™, AFC Women's Olympic Qualifiers, AFC Champions League Elite™, AFC Women's Champions League™, and AFC Champions League Two™ as well as AFC youth and futsal competitions. 

Driven by a shared passion and dedication to Asian football, our industry experts have a wealth of experience in global, regional, and local football marketing and are devoted to delivering exciting and engaging Asian football content to fans on the ground, on screen, and online. Working closely with the AFC and its stakeholders, Asia Football Group strives for the success and growth of Asian football, as well as redefining Asian football’s commercial standing within global football by addressing the shared business objectives of the AFC, its sponsors and media partners with solutions derived from optimising brand activations, fan engagement and digitally driven innovations.

The Role

The AFG Commercial Delivery Team is responsible for planning and overseeing the operational delivery of AFC’s Partners’ commercial rights at all mandated AFC competitions.

Reporting to the SVP, Commercial Delivery, this senior role demands both strategic oversight and direct operational leadership, focusing on three core areas: competition planning, venue operations, and workforce management. The Senior Manager will coordinate with key stakeholders, including the AFC, its Member Associations, participating clubs, and sponsors to ensure the timely distribution of information, documents and requirements for seamless delivery.

A critical aspect of the role is providing leadership to Venue Teams, equipping them with the knowledge, guidance and resources to execute matches seamlessly. The Senior Manager will also take on an operational leadership role on-site at stadiums across Asia, serving as the Commercial Manager to ensure the highest standards of delivery.

This crucial role fits someone motivated to think strategically and act operationally in a fast-paced setting. The ideal candidate excels in football events, demonstrates a successful history in event management or sponsorship activations, possesses strong planning and project management capabilities and leads diverse teams to operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Operational planning

• Development of comprehensive and accurate venue operational plans for AFC matches


• Ensuring that these operational plans are delivered to the on-site Venue Teams on time


• Compiling, assessing and approving matchday requests in relation to sponsor activations, ticketing, accreditation, access, VIP attendance, etc


• Development and coordination of site visits and reviewing of site visit reports


• Driving communication with the internal departments (e.g. Partnerships Teams), enabling efficient and effective information sharing and workflows


• Establish, track and enforce deadlines to ensure accountability across all stakeholder groups


• In collaboration with teammates, developing strategies and tools to ensure commercial delivery quality and consistency standards are being met on-ground


• Reviewing pre-matchday, matchday and season reports and ensuring issues or areas for improvement are identified and addressed


• Escalation of issues and dissemination of reports to the wider department and other stakeholders as required


• Take ownership of specialised subject areas (e.g., accreditation, ticketing, sponsor activations, etc), serving as the point of contact for internal and external coordination


• Working with the Operations team to identify workforce training needs and contribute to the development of training materials for Venue Operations staff


• Assisting the VP Commercial Delivery and the Sponsor Services Department as required

Workforce Management

• Review and enhance processes, procedures, templates and documentation to continually improve the tools and guidance provided to the Venue Operations workforce


• Support the AFG Commercial Delivery and Broadcast teams with the development of their core venue team management principles (Headcount capacity and rostering principles, venue site visit planning, budget scoping) including the processes, procedures, templates and other documents that are required to support these


• Develop and confirm the total workforce demand for the delivery of matchday services


• Identify, interview and negotiate fees with the individuals who will become part of the Venue Team workforce to deliver these matchday services


• Ensure contract is sent out and signed by contracted freelancers and update trackers


• Arrange travel logistics for the contracted freelancers and inform them of their travel plans

Commercial Manager 

• Attend site visits as assigned and provide complete, accurate and detailed site visit reports


• Assume overall responsibility for all commercial operations at assigned match venues


• Manage all on-venue activities related to commercial delivery (signage implementation, ticketing management, delivery of clean stadium, general coordination as the venue team lead, main contact point with the Host Organisation).


• Coordinate with the signage supplier onsite

Skills, Experience and Qualifications

• At least 3 years of sport events or venue management experience, ideally within football


• Strong understanding of sponsor rights and broadcast operations delivery in the sports and stadia contexts


• Proven ability to develop and deliver comprehensive operational plans


• Hands-on experience delivering sponsor activations at major sporting events


• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to build and maintain effective relationships


• Fluent in English, knowledge of another Asian language an asset


• Experience working within an AFC market will be an advantage


• Solid project management skills with a proven ability to prioritise and deliver under pressure


• Ability to operate in a dynamic environment and prioritise work in order to meet deadlines


• Detail-oriented operator with an ability to produce a high volume of quality work on an ongoing basis


• Able to continuously seek innovation and ways to create efficiencies, challenging the status quo


• Effective communicator (both spoken and written)


• Strong sense of accountability, responsibility and commitment to continuous improvement


• Flexible mindset with the ability to absorb and implement new concepts

Interested parties please apply with your application letter, resume, current and expected salary, and availability by clicking "Apply " 

Deadline of application:

Applicants who are not invited for interviews within 6 weeks may consider their applications unsuccessful. Personal data collected will be treated strictly confidential and be used for the purpose of recruitment only. All collected information will be kept on our files for 12 months.