Member Article

Back of the net: former Foxes CEO delivers successful campaign with Midlands' brand agency

A prominent Leicestershire businessman has paid tribute to a leading brand agency after partnering on a successful book launch.

Barrie Pierpoint, former chief executive of Leicester City Football Club, has commended the success of his new book Minding My Own Football Business, after teaming up with Midlands-based Champions (UK) plc as part of ongoing marketing support.

The book, which retells the story of Leicester City in the 90’s, discusses the ups and downs of The Foxes both on the pitch and off the pitch, guided from the viewpoint of CEO Barrie as he took the helm in 1991, helping guide Leicester into the Premiership with four successive top ten finishes from 1996 onwards.

With anecdotes from some of the biggest names Leicester’s history, including Emile Heskey and Steve Walsh, the book has proven to be a hit with Leicester fans, a wider football audience and business enthusiasts alike, to which Pierpoint acknowledged the credentials of East Midlands agency Champions (UK) plc, with whom he partnered to elevate the success of the project.

“Over the course of the past six months, Champions UK plc has done a sterling job in promoting, launching and raising the profile of my new book,” said Pierpoint, who recently marked 30 years since his arrival at Leicester City FC, a point in history when Leicester had been on brink of relegation to division three, had it not been for the ingenuity of Pierpoint and prominent managers including Brian Little.

“Expanding its reach across not only regional and national media spheres, but also internationally, with coverage reaching as far and wide as Australia, from dedicated footballing titles to fan forums and podcasts, I’ve been simply staggered with the reception, with the team consisting of Scott Giles, Georgia Haslam, Geoff Sanders and Francesca Prince, taking the assets available to them and deploying ingenuity, creativity and intuition to truly deliver the inside story on my time at Leicester City FC in the 90s.”

Minding My Own Football Business has been praised by its Leicester fanbase, with Amazon reviews labelling it ‘by far the best book ever written by Leicester City’ and ‘a must read for football enthusiasts’, alongside support from prominent fan sites including Leicester Fan TV and Leicester Till I Die.

For Pierpoint, the book has also had a secondary impact in challenging public perceptions of his time at Leicester, after becoming embroiled in the turbulent ‘gang of four’ power play at Leicester in the late 90s.

“There was a lot of misinformation in the media at the time, and unfortunately, it led to fans turning on me,” recalled Pierpoint.

“Whilst it was never my intention to ‘tell my side of the story’, the book has had this added boost if you will of changing perceptions about my time at Leicester, with many not knowing I was behind some of Leicester’s most prominent marketing campaigns, the new Carling stand, as well as transforming the club’s turnover from £2m to £24m in the space of ten years.

“I never wanted to dictate matters on the pitch, it’s not my position to, so with the added support of a huge bank of players, managers and staff that I worked with in my time, we’ve been able to tell a nostalgic and truthful lookback at Leicester City in the 90s, one of the best periods, despite the turbulence towards the end, of my life.”

Due to the ongoing success of Minding My Own Football Business, Pierpoint has received an online marketing readership in the millions, something to which book sponsor and Champions UK plc John Hayes is tremendously proud of:

“This is a truly remarkable book that we’ve delighted to help promote,” he said.

“I have known Barrie since 1991, when I was a boxholder and sponsor at Leicester City. I both witnessed and experienced the tremendous transformation from his early days to over the years taking the club from a small and sleepy professional club to a Premiership giant, always ahead of its time, innovative, forward-thinking, progressive and successful.

“Barrie always looked after people, was friendly, had time to speak to you, made you feel welcome, and nothing was ever too much trouble – to this end I’m in no way surprised that people have been able to pick up this book and see the workhorses that truly helped to get Leicester City to where they are today.”

Minding My Own Football Business is still available for interested parties to purchase, with part of its proceeds going to Loughborough-based children’s charity, Rainbows Hospice.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Barrie Pierpoint .