Oversized trophies, YouTube clips, and Southgate class among Nick Aitken's (OH 1986-96) EURO highlights

Football may not quite have come home at EURO 2024. Still, at least there was Old Hymerian representation on German soil in the shape of Nick Aitken (OH 1986-96), who spent three weeks in Düsseldorf as UEFA’s venue media activities manager.

Above: With a replica of the EURO trophy in Düsseldorf

Deployed at the 47,000-capacity Merkur Spiel-Arena, it was his responsibility to coordinate with the national teams visiting the stadium for each game - confirming the times of their press conferences, official training sessions, and broadcast interviews, before ensuring these activities ran smoothly when players and coaching staff arrived onsite.

I’ve been doing this role in the Champions League for a few years now, but at the EURO things were ramped up a notch as we also ran the televised press conferences alongside the teams’ press officers, so there are a lot more eyes on you,” said Nick, who always cites the Spanish teaching received at Hymers as being vital in his 20-plus years in the football industry.

I don’t do much public speaking so it was nerve-wracking at first, but I ended up enjoying the press conferences and the kids liked seeing their dad on YouTube - albeit for the few seconds I was in shot!” added Nick, who worked with the France, Austria, Slovakia, Spain, Belgium and England delegations during his stint in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco was extremely impressive, answering questions fluently in no fewer than four languages during the same press conference, and though he was on the receiving end of fierce criticism throughout the tournament, I have to mention how polite and friendly Gareth Southgate was.

On arriving for media duties before the Switzerland match he shook all our hands and thanked everybody for their time. He then managed to keep his cool in the face of some ridiculous - and occasionally downright nasty - questions from the assembled press, answering calmly and never stooping to their level, before thanking everyone again afterwards. He really showed a lot of class.

Nick is now back in his day job at the helm of translation agency Onuba Comms (onuba-comms.com) but he was not the only Old Hymerian working at a major sporting event this summer.  Check out our article below on Nick’s sister, Jenny Aitken (OH 1989-99), who put her French skills to good use at Roland-Garros, Paris.

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