BBC World News is not only the top-notch news channel in the world, but it has been at the forefront in doing things differently for its partner agencies and brands. On 30th August 2019, the best corporate footballers from Mumbai’s biggest media agencies and brands competed to win the 5th edition of BBC World News Connect Championship. 
Since its inception in 2014, the event has offered Mumbai’s media professionals a platform to showcase their football skills on the ground while networking and building valuable relationships from across the industry. This year not only had a bigger venue at Om Grounds Astro Turf Field at JVPD, Mumbai, but the event promised to be better than before with both the enduringly popular five-a-side matches and a mandatory penalty shootout with 2 female players at the beginning of each game. Guests also challenged their hosts from BBC World News to games with the opportunity of winning exclusive vouchers to take home. The tournament saw a full house as 6 groups each comprising of 3 teams competed against each other to take home the coveted trophy. 

(Vishal Bhatnagar speaking about the event & unveiling of the trophy)
The trophy was unveiled by Vishal Bhatnagar, Sales Director, South Asia, BBC Global News who not only cheered for all the teams but was equally excited to watch the matches. “The BBC Football Connect showcases and reinforces BBC’s strong cross-platform sports credentials. BBC World News, BBC.com and the BBC Sport mobile app provides world-leading sports coverage with score updates, analysis, interviews and a lot more.
As you can see, BBC Football Connect draws the best football talent from across the advertising and marketing community in Mumbai. There is not a hard business agenda at the event. It provides a fun, relaxed atmosphere to meet and catch up with friends and associates; happy change from the usual workday that revolves around negotiating deadlines and price lines.
Besides the football connect in Mumbai, we the have the BBC Golf Connect in Delhi, where we host top golfers from amongst our client partners. Now in its 15th year, BBC Golf Connect is one of the longest-running corporate sports events in India.”
Bhatnagar was very specific about how the BBC produces branded content and partners with agencies and clients. “For the BBC, our content reflects our values of putting our audience first. The content that we create for our partners is credible and of the highest quality and adheres to the same values as our editorial content i.e. it has to be interesting & appealing to the audience,” he said.

(Matches of 5th edition of BBC World News Connect Championship underway)
The event was attended by a diverse bunch of people from media agencies, some of whom were first timers while others have been regulars for the past few years. “It’s my first time here and it is a good way to meet old friends & colleagues from other agencies. I also participated in the game & scored for my team”, exclaimed Rima Mehta, Media Director at OMD.While some like Yash Desai, Client Partner at Wavemaker said, “This event has been a perfect place for reunion of sorts. I have been attending for 2 years now & get to meet my old colleagues & hang out with them.” A handful of people were more concerned about the game. “This is my first year & I am here only for football. But I also got to meet a lot of my friends from my previous agency which seemed like an advantage”, said Deepak Ramesh, Creative Director at Wavemaker. 
The 5th BBC World News Football Connect trophy was won by team Gladiators from Wavemaker while team Falcons of Lodestar / Draft FCB were the runners up. The winning teams were also awarded with exclusive vouchers, thus ending the event with lots of fun, frolic, friendships and reunions! 
 

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