UC3 Co-Managing Directors Charlie Marshall and Guy-Laurent Epstein join Leaders Worth Knowing this week to shine some light on an organization that has been quietly pulling the strings of European football in the shadows for a little while.
It was set up in 2017 as a joint project between what was then the European Clubs Association (ECA) and Uefa to consult on the commercialization of European club competitions - principally the Champions League.
Last year, the project became an incorporated joint venture and has moved from a consulting role to a management capacity.
In the wake of the failed attempt at a European Super League breakaway, Uefa and the continent's most powerful clubs are now bound tightly together. UC3 exists to manage the commercialization of both the men's and women's club competitions; it has contracted Relevent Football Partners and Two Circles as agencies to enact that work in the market.
But how does it work? What's being done differently? And what does it mean for the future of European and world football. Marshall - who is also the CEO of the EFC - and Epstein - the Marketing Director of Uefa - are thrusting UC3 into the limelight.