Global football media brand, Goal has been named as the official media partner of the Soccerex Football Festival being held in Manchester this September.

The partnership will focus on the European Freestyle Football Championships, which are taking place at the festival and will see Goal live stream the finals exclusively on Facebook, giving it’s 50 million plus global Facebook following a front-row seat at the event. In 2016 Goal was named the most shared publisher on social media and in June this year it was awarded the title of Best Sports News site at the Online Media Awards.

As part of the partnership, Goal will be collaborating with Soccerex and the European Freestyle Football Championship, both on site and through its social channels, to produce content that will introduce its fans to the athletes taking part and give them all the information they need to become full immersed in the event.

The European Freestyle Football Championship, organised by the World Freestyle Football Federation is an annual event which sees more than 150 athletes from across Europe come together for two days of exciting competition. This year finals will form part of the Soccerex Football Festival, being held at the Manchester Central Convention Complex on September 3rd. The festival will also feature the second edition of the World Street Soccer Championships, bringing together the best street soccer teams, from across the globe, to battle it out in 3 vs. 3 matches for the prestigious title of World Champions.

Commenting on the partnership, Goal’s Head of Audience, Sam Brown said: “Freestyle football is incredibly popular with our fans, with freestyle videos posted to our channels regularly racking up millions of views. Knowing there’s an appetite for this kind of content means we can’t wait to bring the best freestylers in Europe to our fans live, through Facebook.”

Soccerex Marketing Director, David Wright said: “With their huge digital reach, Goal are ideal media partners for the Soccerex Football Festival and through their social and digital channels will bring the excitement and the skill of Freestyle to the global audience that craves it.”

Goal’s relationship with Soccerex will carry on after the Football Festival, with Sam Brown joining a panel at the Soccerex Global Convention, which runs from September 4th to the 6th. Brown will join Andy McKenzie, Director of leading digital and social media agency, Livewire Sport in looking at the challenges and opportunities of engaging global audiences through digital.

Goal is part of Perform Media, a division of Perform Group.

(Soccerex)