Heroes of VIP Hospitality: Ben Miller

Ben Miller is one of the founding team behind Common Goal, the social impact movement in global football. Starting in August 2017 with a single member, Juan Mata of Manchester United and Chelsea, Common Goal has grown to over 160 players and managers, including Jurgen Klopp, Megan Rapinoe, Paulo Dybala, Casey Stoney MBE, and Serge Gnabry. All of Common Goal’s supporters pledge a minimum of one percent of their salary towards a collective fund that invests in grassroots football charities in more than 90 countries.

Ben's background is in globally syndicated content production and strategic communications. This has seen him work in over 70 countries for the likes of the World Sport Group, IMG, Fremantle Media and UEFA. He's based in Barcelona.

LinkedIn: Ben W.S. Miller

Twitter: @BenWSMiller

What was the first Live Event Hospitality programme that you attended, and what particular impressions did it make on you?

I think it was the Hong Kong Rugby 7's in 1996. I was working for the World Sport Group in my first job at the time, and a few of us managed to wrangle some hospitality tickets. I remember feeling an initial sense of imposter syndrome - which still happens when I have VIP tickets - and that it was very glamorous and international. The intensity on the field was more than matched off it. New Zealand beat Fiji in the final.

These are the two teams that the neutral observers wanted to see in the Final.’ The epic 1996 Final of the Hong Kong 7s between Fiji and New Zealand

Other than your own, what is your favourite Live Event that you would encourage everyone to book when it goes on sale, and what makes it so special?

I'd always recommend taking in a live sports event wherever you are travelling if possible - apart from the entertainment, you get such a vivid and often accurate impression of what a country is like. Sport tends to get to the crux of a country's cultural identity in a quick and unfiltered way.

I'd recommend cricket anywhere in the West Indies, and a visit to Camp Nou, where I've been lucky to see some amazing football over the years.

This FC Barcelona official VIP Hospitality behind-the-scenes video just happens to take in a Clásico which Barcelona won 5-1.

Who do you consider to be your business mentor or mentors, and what particular examples did they imprint on your business values?

Jurgen Griesbeck the founder of streetfootballworld and Common Goal, who I met in Rio in 2014, really opened up my eyes to the world of football as a force for social transformation, and showed me how to tone down my cynicism and ego, and see the bigger picture.

Jürgen Griesbeck’s pioneering work in football was first inspired by the killing of Colombian captain Andrés Escobar who was shot dead in a Medellin car park after giving away an own goal that lead to his country’s exit from the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Also the agent Arturo Canales, President of AC Talent, former head of football in Iberia at IMG, who really opened my eyes to the realities of elite football both in Spain and internationally.

Arturo Canales, right, with FC Barcelona legends Gerard Pique and Ronaldinho

What was the most significant ‘Sliding Doors’ moment in your career, and how did this impact you?

As a guest of FIFA at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil I was invited to attend the Football for Hope Festival on the outskirts of Rio with Blatter and Ronaldo. It was there that I met Jurgen Griesbeck, the award-winning social entrepreneur. We clicked and agreed to meet for a meal the following day. That conversation led to me getting increasingly involved in sustainability and social impact in football, meeting Juan Mata, and eventually to Common Goal.

Remembering the 2014 FIFA Football for Hope Festival

If you had the option to experience/live in one music video which would it be and why?

We are the World - not a huge fan of the song but where else would I have the chance to say hello to Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Tina Turner and Paul Simon? Also, I could get a Kenny Rodgers' autograph for my Mum, who was a huge fan.

USA for Africa’s We Are The World. A famine survivor, Elias Kifle Maraim Beyene, said everyone in Ethiopia remembered the song’s impact and especially that of co-writer Michael Jackson: ‘The [USA for Africa] wheat flour that was distributed to the famine victims was different to the usual cereal we bought at the market. We baked a special bread from it. The local people named the bread after the great artist and it became known as Michael Bread. It was soft and delicious. When you have been through such hard times you never forget events like this. If you speak to anyone who was in Addis Ababa at that time they will all know what Michael Bread is and I know I will remember it for the rest of my life.’

Impressionable moments

What was your favourite televised live sport event or moment that you remember from childhood, why did it make such a lasting impression on you?

The 5 nations, as my Dad is Scottish, my Mum was Irish, and I grew up in England, where I played both rugby and football, so supported England. Although I was sitting on the floor in the front room, the rivalry, passion, humour and excitement of those moments really encapsulated the best of sports. I also loved Bill McLaren's commentary.

Legendary rugby commentator Bill McLaren explains his ‘big sheet’

Who was playing at the first concert you attended, where and when, and what do you remember of the experience?

The first big concert was when a friend offered me a ticket to see Queen at Wembley in 1986. It was mind blowing for the scale and size of the crowd. How Freddie was capable of connecting with every single person there, when there were 75,000 thousand people, still strikes me as miraculous.

A Kind Of Magic, Live At Wembley Stadium, on Friday 11 July 1986, was part of Queen's famous ‘Magic Tour’ - their biggest ever world tour - and also their final tour with the classic line-up of Mercury, May, Taylor and Deacon. Their final concert with Mercury as frontman was soon after, at Knebworth Park.

What do you remember — across all genres — as the most emotional moment in television or film or a sporting event that has brought tears to your eyes?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest still makes me blub.

One of the movie’s best-known scenes, when Chief Bromden leads the breakout

What was your childhood or earliest ambition and do you remember why?

I wanted to be a vet as I grew up in the country surrounded by animals and this seemed a glamorous job involving a lot of travel and being helpful.

Which experience had the biggest impact on your life and how you see the world?

Waiting for George Weah to show up in Liberia in 1999 during an all-too brief pause in the civil war, I spent some time with former child soldiers in Monrovia. It was heartbreaking to hear what they had been forced to witness and do, yet at the same time uplifting to see how something as simple as kicking a ball about helped them reclaim a sliver of childhood, and hope.

‘I learnt three things on the field …’ Liberia’s president George Weah since 2018 explains to Kenyan journalist Jeff Koinange what lessons football taught him that can be applied to his leadership of the oldest republic on the African continent.

What tough experience or time did you have to endure that taught you the value of money?

Compared to the increasing amount of the world's population who are living in extreme poverty I really have nothing to complain about on this front.

If your 17-year-old self could see you now, what would he think and what advice would you pass back to your younger self?

Put 100 quid on Leicester winning the Premier League in 2016.

Student Karishma Kapoor with her betting slip with odds of 5000-to-1 for Leicester City to win the Premiership title. The Wall Street Journal estimated the odds cost UK betting houses around USD15 million with Ladbrokes alone on the hook for $4.35 million in payouts. William Hill said the odds of 5,000-to-1 were the longest it has ever paid out on in any sport.

Recommendations

What’s the best, most useful word from another language that you aren’t fluent in?

Kudasai -ください） the go-to word when you want to ask for something in Japan.

Which TV shows’ intro/theme songs do you never skip because they are so good?

The Sopranos.

The Soprano’s theme tune ‘Woke Up This Morning’ by British band Alabama 3 was written by frontman Rob Spragg a year after the 1996 Sara Thornton murder case who stabbed her husband after two years of abuse, mistreatment and neglect.

What is a compliment that you really wish people wouldn’t give you?

That what we are doing at Common Goal is ‘nice’.

What is the worst experience you have ever had on an airplane?

Flying from Tehran to Isfahan on an Iranian Airways plane (which had been sold to them second hand when no longer deemed usable by the Russians), with my friend and former colleague Adam Docker, who is terrified of flying. As I was reassuring him on a very bumpy take off that statistically it was far safer travelling by plane than car, nuts and bolts were dropping on us from above.

What was the new technology or device that you immediately understood was going to be life-changing and how has it/did it impact your life?

Email - showing my age. As I try to explain to my kids we used to have to communicate by landline and fax.

What are the best books you’ve read in the past year?

Night Boat to Tangier by the young Irish author Kevin Barry was amazing, as is In Sunshine or In Shadow by the wonderful Donald McRae. In both cases the writers have an extraordinary gift for storytelling, the lightest of touches, and a combination of humour and brutal reality.

‘In Northern Ireland, there was madness all about, there was knee-cappings, bombings, people were being shot in the head, but boxing was this little oasis: it didn’t matter if you lived in the Shankill Road or the Falls Road’

What are the three most rewarding podcasts, newspapers apps, or IG, YouTube and Twitter accounts you follow and why?

How I Built This with Guy Raz on NPR is a great podcast for long journeys, The Guardian for international news and football, The Athletic for their team of talented writers, the Daily Mail on-line to keep an eye on what I'm missing in the UK. And I still get the Economist delivered to the office which is fantastic for an overview.

Tell us something even your colleagues might not know about you

I'm petrified of horses. (Hence the end of the vet dream).

What non-curriculum subject[s] should be required for anyone leaving school or university to understand fully before they enter the workforce?

Real-world advice about how to network confidently, humbly and positively, and how to make yourself useful.

What was the most teachable moment you have had from the book of ‘I shouldn’t have said that’?

When I studied at IE Business School, on the first day professor Enric Alcat (1962-2014), pictured below, said, ‘nunca debes decir todo lo que piensas, y siempre debes pensar en todo lo que dices (you should never say all that you think, and you should always think about all that you say)’, which was very good advice.

To quote The Goo Goo Dolls, for you, ‘… the closest to heaven that I'll ever be …’ is where, with whom, when and doing what

With my family, including my siblings and their children, going for a walk in beautiful countryside, ideally with a pub stop somewhere along the way.

During this lock-down what are the things you’ve come to value most by their absence from your life and how will you put that right when this over?

Education for my children. Support the schools and teachers in any way I can and be sure to voice my appreciation as often as possible. Also the absence of strong leadership in certain countries. Talk, take action, vote.

What celebrity death hit you the hardest and why?

I'd love to hear what Lou Reed makes of Trump's handling of Covid-19.

Lou Reed performing The Last Great American Whale during 1990’s Farm Aid which includes the searing lyrics: Well Americans don’t care for much of anything/Land and Water the least/And animal life is low on the totem pole/With human life not worth more than infected yeast

What is something your generation did that you regret most your child’s generation will never get to experience or understand?

Vinyl. The experience of taking a record out of the cover, then removing the little inner cover, placing the record carefully on the turntable, lowering the needle, hearing those opening scratches, and then the music beginning...

What is the darkest, most unsatisfactory and on-going issue you have seen or experienced in your business?

A resistance to change, where it is so clearly needed.

You get to fly anywhere after the coronavirus to take a trip you’ve always wanted to make: Where are you going, with whom and what are you planning to do?

To Botswana with my wife and four kids to visit my youngest sister. Hopefully we can meet up with the rest of my siblings and their children there and all go on a safari.