Lou Sticca
Lucio "Lou" Sticca (born 2 June 1960, Melbourne and holds Australian and Italian (EU) citizenships) is a football agent and entrepreneur who has been involved in some of the most high profile transfers and international football tours in Australian and Asian football in recent years. Sticca has developed close connections with football in his native Australia and has since grown this into a worldwide network of associates across all levels of the game.
Sticca originally started off in football as founder and CEO of Carlton Soccer Club in 1997 in the then struggling National Soccer League. In 2000 Sticca moved away from Club role and into world of player agency, founding Tribal Sports Management.
He is licensed as an official FIFA football player and match agent, he is based in Melbourne, Australia with his company operating extensively throughout Asia, Europe and North America.[1][2][3]
Carlton Soccer Club
Sticca founded and managed the inception of the Carlton Soccer Club in 1997 into the Australian national football competition, where the team he built reached the grand final in their inaugural season.
During his time at Carlton, Lou facilitated the transfers of future Socceroos Marco Bresciano and Vince Grella to Italian club side Empoli. Bresicano and Grella went on to represent Australia at international level including at FIFA World Cups as well forge successful European football careers at the highest level.
Sticca made international headlines when as CEO of Carlton SC he threatened to sue Andy Cole and Manchester United for the tackle that smashed Carlton and Socceroo star Simon Colosimo's knee. [4]
Tribal Sports Group
In 2000, Sticca started agency business TSM. Sticca obtained his FIFA accreditation as a Licensed Player Agent. In 2005, Sticca obtained his second accreditation as a FIFA Licensed Match Agent. At the time, he was one of only a handful of agents in the world to hold both licenses. In 2014 Tribal Sports Group PL was founded and operates 3 main divisions Tribal Sports Management PL (player management), Tribal Sports Entertainment PL (events and tours including Money in Sport Conferences) and Tribal Marketing and Media.
Other significant stakeholders in Tribal Sports Group include Walter Bugno, resident of Monaco and President and CEO of global gaming giant Gtech.
In the early 2000s Sticca proposed the two Glasgow giants to play a game for points or one of the Scottish domestic Cups in Australia. Celtic and Rangers who are the Old Firm, have never played outside Scotland so the enormity of this proposal caused waves in Scottish football. Celtic laughed it off so Sticca invited Hearts of Midlothian to replace Celtic and play against Rangers. Driven by the Hearts CEO at the time, he had the Scottish Premier League vote on the proposal for Rangers to play Hearts in a Cup game in Melbourne Australia but lost the vote 7 Clubs to 5. Sticca is on record saying he will undoubtedly achieve this ambitious plan in years to come.
Sydney F.C.
After being contracted by his good friend Walter Bugno who was the inaugural Chairman of Sydney FC, Sticca was charged with putting together a football department in the space of 5 months for the start of the 2005 Hyundai A-League season. Sticca recruited former German World Cup winner Pierre Littbarski as head coach and former Tottenham and Norwich midfielder Ian Crook as assistant coach. The initial 22-man roster Sticca recruited included many ex NSL players, some of the best young Australian youngsters like Mark Milligan, returning Socceroos like Steve Corica, Mark Rudan, Sasho Petrovski and David Zdrilic. The coup of the inaugural season was Sticca's recruitment of former Manchester United hero Dwight Yorke to Sydney FC. Yorke set the new league alight and drew huge crowds wherever Sydney FC played. Yorke was an instant celebrity in Sydney.[5][6]
During the season Sticca then recruited Japanese icon Kazu for a 6-game stint that also covered the participation of Sydney FC at the 2005 FIFA World Club Championships.
In 2006, Sticca brought into former England Captain Terry Butcher to replace Littbarski after the Sydney FC Board chose not to renew Littbarski's contract. Into the season, Sticca then brought Italian talisman Benito Carbone for a short guest stint.
In 2007 Sticca then brought Los Angeles Galaxy and David Beckham to Sydney to play in front of over 80,000 fans at ANZ Stadium. From then on, Sticca brought Galaxy out for another 4 games to Australia and New Zealand along with 2 tours by the famous Celtic Football Club.
LA Galaxy Tours
Tribal Sports Group and Lou Sticca arranged 5 games for LA Galaxy with David Beckham from 2007 to 2011 in Sydney, Wellington NZ, Auckland NZ, Newcastle and Melbourne against Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix, Oceania All Stars, Newcastle Jets and Melbourne Victory respectively.
Glasgow Celtic Tours
Tribal Sports Group and Lou Sticca brought Glasgow Celtic to play against Queensland Roar in 2009 in front of 35,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium. In 2011 Celtic returned to play 3 games in their preseason against Central Coast Mariners at ANZ stadium Sydney, then Perth Glory at nib Stadium followed by Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park Melbourne.
Alessandro Del Piero
[10]In 2009/10 Simone Nazzaro (Mediations Sports) and Diego Pellegrini (Adelaide United) had proposed the possibility of the arrival of Alessandro Del Piero in Australia. The manager of the Adelaide United had replied that he was too old for Australian football. The idea was stolen by the Australian manager. In 2012 Lou Sticca secured the biggest name ever to come to play in Australian soccer when Sticca recruited Italian World Cup winner and Juventus captain, Alessandro Del Piero to Sydney FC. Over a 4-month period of meetings in Turin then numerous calls, emails and video conferences Sticca accompanied by Sydney FC CEO Tony Pignata went to Turin to close the deal. There was much speculation that Del Piero would choose bigger Clubs like Liverpool or Celtic or new exciting markets like China and the Major League Soccer in the United States. After 3 days of meetings in Turin Alessandro Del Piero signed with Sydney FC. The Australian media and fans went into overdrive, not to mention the shock the Italian media faced when announcement was made. Del Piero went on to have a magnificent season with the 38-year-old veteran scoring 14 goals and thrilling packed houses in every City in Australia.[7]
Shinji Ono
Not long after Del Piero signed, Sticca secured Japanese World Cup star Shinji Ono for the new Western Sydney Wanderers franchise. Ono was secured as the marquee for the new Wanderers beating off former German captain Michael Ballack.[8]
Liverpool F.C.
In 2013, Sticca arranged for Liverpool F.C. to play Melbourne Victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. 90,000 tickets were sold in the first few weeks of ticket sales.
Juventus F.C.
Sticca arranged Juventus FC Tour to Sydney Australia to play A-League All Stars at ANZ Stadium (2000 Olympics) then followed by Singapore at Singapore Sports Hub.
Money in Sport Conference
Tribal Sports Group (TSG) launched inaugural Money in Sport Conference at Etihad Stadium to over 300 delegates from around Australia and included speakers from England, Scotland, Monaco and USA.
Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
Sticca arranged Tottenham Hotspur FC to play Sydney FC on 30 May 2015 at ANZ Stadium Sydney Australia.
References
- ↑ "Players' Agents List". FIFA.com. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ↑ "Officiels Australie : agents - FIFA.com". Fr.fifa.com. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ↑ "Match Agents' List". FIFA.com. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ↑ "Football | Cole accused of ego problem". BBC News. 20 July 1999. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ↑ "Del Piero, Ono could spark an Asian influx". www.theage.com.au. 6 October 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ↑ Sebastian Hassett (30 August 2012). "Sydney FC hope Del Piero will trend it like Beckham". Smh.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ↑
- ↑ Sebastian Hassett (25 February 2013). "The big one who nearly got away". Theage.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
- ↑ The Advertiser – How Redpassed on Alessandro Del Piero – =2012-9-6