An excerpt from the interview of Geoff Wilson - a tech entrepreneur, investor and mentor, with a passion for sports card collecting. Through buying and selling sports cards as a teenager, he learned many of the basic principles of business that supported him through his entrepreneurial career. Geoff founded Sports Card Investor, a leading content network and data platform for trading card enthusiasts. He scaled this new venture to hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of dollars in revenue in its first year, all with no outside funding.
Q) You've been to India; you’ve spent some time in and around Asia. What are your overall thoughts on the sports side and the business side of Asian Football?
A) I've traveled the world and one thing I see about Asia is that there are so many cultures! The cultures are so diverse and so different, sometimes it's like a jigsaw. How do you put this together from a football point of view?
There's a lot of mixed bag in there, from a positive point of view. There's some work I'm doing in Sri Lanka, for example, and what the guys are doing in Sri Lanka is really exciting in terms of building the sport of football. AFC (The Asian Football Confederation) is producing more programs to support member federations and provide more training and knowledge exchange. I think Asia is in a really good place, and there's a lot of positive stuff to happen.
"Asian football is like the Titanic. The Titanic has got a small wheel and a small rudder, but it's a massive ship. So, it's going to take time to move football in certain countries, people need to be patient. The AFC, the clubs, the coaches, the referees, the players, the fans, everybody needs to work together to move the sport of football ahead."
In Northern Ireland, I volunteer at a club and we are using football to bring a community together. We're using football to promote nutrition and healthy eating. We are using football to tackle mental health issues. We are using football to improve communication, and even entrepreneurship. For so many people liking football, it is a great educational tool. So I think the future is bright for football in Asia, but in certain regions it’s just going to take time and people need to be patient, but it's about working together to move the game forward.
To watch the complete interview, please click here