MD Profile

Managing Director’s Profile

Ooko John is the Managing Director of StarLight Sports Consulting. He is also the Founder and Managing Director of Kenya Citizenry Empowerment Programme (KCEP), an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) with a mission to enhance governance in Kenya while tackling the scourge of corruption toward a life of sustainable economic growth. He holds an MSc degree in Business Analytics (Data Science and Analytics), a BSc degree in Electronics Engineering and is a student for another MSc degree in Health Care Informatics. He also has three post-graduate diplomas in Computer System Design, Business Administration and French.

Managing Director's Football History

Ooko John is a former international player for Kenya. He was the first Kenyan to formally seek try-outs with both Arsenal FC and Manchester United FC of the then English Division One league in the year 1993. He holds a UEFA class B equivalent coaching license, is currently pursuing the UEFA Pro license and is a former contender for the Head Coach role for Kenya’s senior national team in 2014. In the US, he had a successful entry into the USSF league with Seattle Sounders FC squad at the ripe age of 37 years in 2000. He is also a former academy director for Soccer Attitude in Houston Texas.

As a registered member of the UK Football Association Licensed Coaches Association (FACA), Ooko John has offered match and player analysis for a number of official organisations. In the year 2014, he offered consultancy services to Gor Mahia FC, the eventual winners to the Kenyan premier football league. His report on the state of Kenyan football was presented to the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) at the end of 2014 league season. His recent articles analysing the state of the Brazilian national football team, and an analysis of data analytics in modern football coaching are available online.

Away from sports consulting, Ooko John is an IT consultant. He has worked on business project delivery services with industry leaders as S&P Global, Deloitte, IBM, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. An avid writer, he authored Reflecting on America’s First Black President - An African Perspective of Global Events Critical to the Overall Black History. He is currently working on a new book on the socio-political discord in the US. His very popular IT technical article The future of Business Intelligence in the age of Big Data Analytics and Cloud Computing is also available online.

A History and Category of Sports Agency Services

The advancement of professionalism in the game of international football hitherto, means that consulting agents spring from a variety of social and professional profiles, and they offer even a wider range of sports’ consultancy services. Again, due to the internationalisation of sports in general, sports consultants’ activities are often transnational in nature. In the US for example, professional sports’ consultancy services have held sway for much longer than elsewhere, something to do with the country’s social history. Modern sports in the country, has therefore, considerably and extensively operated independent of the government.

Agents Who Are Former Players

These agents operate from the network of relations, the experience and knowledge of the environment of the sports in which they competed. StarLight Sports Consulting operates mostly in this category as it has in its operational directorship and in other network resources, former professional sportspersons.

Agents Who Are Influential and Well-Connected Market Participants

These agents are characterised by the fact that they possess substantial and influential share in their sport of interest. They have knowledge of the sport environment and have links with the decision-makers in those sports. The main role of these agents tend to consist of connecting the negotiating parties.

Because of their influence, these agents mainly deal with sponsorship or image-rights’ contracts, and they don’t normally receive commission for the services rendered. Their gains are reflected on the yearly financial balance sheets of the organisations which they operate or are aligned to. StarLight Sports Consulting has contacts with a number of these bodies in the form of international scouts, journalists, coaches and sports friendly corporations.

Agents Who Are Active Coaches

Though ethical complications often arise from the role of active coaches operating as sports agents, they have been known to operate as such. Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) regulations regarding agents, before they were disbanded in 2015, clearly safeguarded against those whose roles in the game presented some form of conflict of interest as pertaining to agency operations. The case of Alex Ferguson’s son’s role as an agent during the former’s tenure as a manager at Manchester United FC is one of such.

Agents Who Are Relatives

These agents have practically changed the game of professional players’ agency services, at least as far as the game of international football is concerned. The challenge of managing their operations, especially in a rather financially liberal world of modern sports, led to FIFA disbanding its role as regulators to the services of international football player agency.
Following FIFA’s withdrawal as the major body of reputation regulating player agency services at the international football stage, it’s all open business today! Almost any individual of whatever questionable characteristics or qualifications, can offer agency service to a professional football player at the international stage. Still, because of their lack of professionalism and the numerous family conflicts that have often followed on such operations, fewer and fewer players opt to be represented by agents with whom they have family ties. This reality represents an opportunity for professional bodies as StarLight Sports Consulting to step into as reputable options providing the much needed agency services to international football players.