World Cup or no World Cup, soccer is without question the world's most popular sport. IMG, the agent for such megastar athletes as Tiger Woods and Serena Williams, is the world's biggest sports-marketing company. Strangely, however, two years ago it did almost no business in soccer. "Traditionally soccer has been a dirty business," Mark McCormack, IMG's founder and chairman, says. "Brown envelopes of cash and tax avoidance. We're not a brown-envelope-and-cash company, so it's taken us a while to get into it." But when this 71-year-old pioneer is set to move, the sports world moves with him. Two years and a couple of small acquisitions later, IMG―$1.4 billion in revenue in 2001―is now one of the top players in the soccer business, representing some 250 (mostly European) players; 35 national teams, including those of Turkey, Norway, Scotland and the U.S.; and nearly 100 professional clubs, such as Manchester United and Liverpool.
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