David plays the game
David Ciclitira, the genial entrepreneur who originally sold Rupert Murdoch the company which was to become BSkyB, and later brought professional golf tournaments to China, has set himself new goals. As chief executive and 21 per cent shareholder of AIM-quoted sports marketing group Parallel Media, he hopes to clean up on football’s second FIFPro World XI Player Awards in October and sell lucrative sponsorship deals for the 2012 Olympics.
According to Ciclitira, Parallel stands to take 20 per cent of money raised for the FIFPro Awards, ‘the Oscars of football’. The company, usually associated with ‘executive’ sports such as golf, draws revenue from venue fees, sponsorship deals, TV rights and text-message voting by the gullible public. Parallel fixes up golf tours in Asia and elsewhere and handles Grand Prix motor racing and other sports.
During the first Kazakhstan international tournament President Nazarbayev ordered his cabinet to take up golf and his heavily-handicapped prime minister tried to join the national team.
Together with fellow AIM counter RAM Investments, Parallel is to develop championship golf courses in Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Ciclitira has also discussed possibilities in Greece. Citing a recent £3 million convertible investment in Parallel and hinting at interest from new investors, Ciclitira suggests Parallel, which lost £2.7 million last year, is ‘moving towards profitability in the medium-term’.
He emphatically rules out becoming an agent for players. Holding the hands of temperamental sports celebrities is one role he is happy to leave to others.
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