Meet The Team: Simon Rowbotham

In this series, we'll be introducing you to the great people who work at FIFPRO .

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Tell us about yourself, what is your current role, and what’s your background?

I’ve been working in FIFPRO’s communications department for over a year as Web Editor & Writer.

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I come from a journalism, copywriting, and content background. Before I joined FIFPRO, I spent nearly seven years at FIFA where I was a Digital Content Manager and was fortunate to work on the ground at tournaments such as the Men’s World Cup and Women’s World Cup.

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Before that, I covered sports (but mainly football) for the Manchester Evening News and their regional titles, and I also had a stint as a copywriter in marketing.

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I’m originally from Northern Ireland but went to university in England and never really left. I’m currently based in Manchester.?

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What do you do at FIFPRO? What does an average week look like?

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One of the exciting things about communications is that your work differs week-on-week. But typically, most weeks I will be planning content, writing articles, managing the website, conducting interviews with players and union representatives, and liaising with different FIFPRO departments to help amplify the great work they are doing.

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As I work remotely, I usually carry out those tasks from my home office. Roughly once a quarter I’ll report live from a FIFPRO event or travel to the head office in Amsterdam for workshops and face-to-face meetings.

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What are you aiming to achieve with the work you do?

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I see my core role as amplifying the important work that FIFPRO, its member unions, and players around the world are carrying out. So, that could be in the form of interviewing and writing an op-ed on behalf of a player, doing a Q&A style article with a union representative, building website pages, or writing a standard story for web or media.?

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I also see the website as a library of content for FIFPRO: we have over 70 landing pages on a host of different industry and player-focused topics, a report section with research that FIFPRO and partners have conducted, and resources such as the Player Workload Monitoring Tool where you can track the workload of elite players.

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Professionally, what are you excited about right now?

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It’s always exciting interviewing footballers and it’s rewarding whenever they trust us to tell their story.

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Being part of content campaigns from the ideation stage right through to the go-live is also exciting.

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I also enjoy doing interviews linked to the Drake Football Study , a 10-year medical project tracking the health of footballers. I always learn a lot from those interviews.

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If you could change one thing about football, what would it be?

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To have temporary concussion substitutions in all leagues. Concussions can seriously affect a player’s wellbeing and at the end of the day, people’s health is the most important thing.???

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What do you do to relax?

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Football! I usually take in a match every weekend in England, whether it’s Premier League or Non-League. I’m also a complete nerd when it comes to football history and stats: I could name you Parma's 1999 side before I could tell you what I had for dinner two nights ago.

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I also enjoy going to the gym, listening to comedy or history podcasts, binge-watching shows, spending time with my partner, and catching up with mates over a beer.

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How can people follow what you get up to?

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I’m on LinkedIn , and Twitter – sorry Elon, I’m still not calling it ‘X’ – on @SiRowbotham .