Jaime Byrom, who has named CSTS Hospitality as his Euro 2028 sales agent for the region, says he is ‘always trying to raise the standard’

“We’re always trying to raise the standard,” he said.

Byrom’s most notable initiative for the 2028 tournament in the UK and Ireland is a “conditional final ticket”. If the buyer’s favourite team is eliminated before the Wembley showdown, they lose their seat and are automatically refunded.

Having appointed CSTS Hospitality as Beyond’s sole Euro 2028 sales agent for mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea, Byrom said: “When a team reaches a final, some fans decide they can’t miss it.

“People end up mortgaging their homes to go on the secondary market and pay whatever it takes. We felt we could bring some order to that.”

Including a large number of Asia-based purchases, initial Euro 2028 sales have “surpassed expectations”.

“The early picture isn’t sustainable [in terms of buyers’ locations],” Byrom said. “A lot of commercial affiliates of major sports events have strong Chinese, Korean and Japanese presences. They’re given preferential access, particularly to the suites, which are the real estate people want to acquire.”

Nonetheless, Byrom witnessed the Chinese enthusiasm for football when his company managed the ticketing operation for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

“China had the largest number of travelling fans, but there was no attempt back then to deliver catering experiences to stadiums,” Byrom said, adding that hospitality 24 years ago came in the form of food and drinks being served “within the confines of VIP and VVIP tribunes, which were hosting guests of Fifa and the organising committee”.

It was around the turn of the century that Roy Keane lashed out at the “prawn sandwich brigade”, who he said “have a few drinks … and don’t realise what’s going on out on the pitch”.

The former Manchester United midfielder’s outburst echoed the contemporary thoughts of fans who felt the hospitality crowd was diluting match-day atmospheres.

“Roy Keane was saying that if you’re in hospitality you don’t qualify as a true fan, but that’s absolutely not the case,” Byrom said.

“Our customers have included the biggest personalities, the best-known and wealthiest individuals, and if you sit next to them, you’ll see they’re supporters as much as a guy who’s been going to Old Trafford for 40 years.

“People today have expectations that need to be met. If you’re a global sporting brand, you need to have hospitality and to continually evolve the quality of the service.”

The Mexican son of a father who was a management consultant in textiles, Byrom had a “very nomadic childhood”.

“I went to 17 different schools, until my parents decided to give us a bit of normality and sent us to live in England,” he said.

“Normal life entailed getting us an apartment, opening a bank account and leaving us to get on with it. That was a little bit tough. I was only 14.”

Having begun teaching Spanish to businessmen in his new home city of Manchester at around 16, Byrom’s nascent entrepreneurial spirit allowed him to recognise that it was “easier and more profitable to contract teachers and just manage the process”.

On the back of contracts with Iran, Libya and a Venezuelan foundation, The Byrom School of Languages grew into “by far the biggest English language teaching centre” in the UK.

“The problems started when the Shah of Iran was invited to leave the country back in 1979,” Byrom said, deliberately underplaying the insurgency against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was on the throne for 38½ years before being overthrown.

“That lost us by far our biggest contract.”

The assassination of Yvonne Fletcher by a shot fired from the Libyan Embassy in London five years later “led to the end of our Libyan contract”.

“Then the petrodollar crisis ended our Venezuelan contract, so I was looking for something new,” Byrom said.

Increasing infrastructure demands for a 24-team World Cup forced original 1986 hosts Colombia to bail on staging duties, opening the door for Byrom’s homeland to step in.

“Being Mexican, I felt eminently qualified to try to look into the business opportunities that represented,” he said.

In a forerunner for his Euro 2028 conditional-ticket model, Byrom introduced fan-friendly packages.

“At previous World Cups, supporters bought tickets and accommodation in cities in the hope that’s where their team would play,” Byrom said. “We brought in a follow-your team concept, so fans bought packages before the draw, while not initially knowing where they’d stay, or which matches they’d attend.”

To “dress up our programmes”, Byrom invited world-renowned former players, including Just Fontaine, Ruud Krol, Paco Gento, Hurst, Charlton and Eusebio to host supporters.

“There was no salary or per diem; we just accommodated them with their wives and made them feel special,” Byrom said.

“The sponsors, broadcasters, fans and other stakeholders saw we successfully delivered [in Mexico], so for the next World Cup in Italy, we had a natural customer base.”

In league with his older brother, Enrique, Byrom would establish an enterprise that has been directly involved in every World Cup since Mexico ’86, as well as in Asian Games, Ryder Cups, F1 race weekends, the Copa America and Africa Cup of Nations.

He believes the “material world is part of the past”, as society shifts to spending on “experiential opportunities”.

“I think there’s a greater sense that the most valuable commodity we have is time,” Byrom said. “People want to maximise their enjoyment of whatever drives them, whether that’s sport, music or anything else.”

Byrom does not like the dynamic pricing that was controversially employed for the recent World Cup.

“The responsibility of a company like ours is to get the price right,” Byrom said. “If you make a mistake, you should live with it.

“The thought of a client discovering that a package they’ve bought has become more cheaply available is unacceptable to me. We’ve never increased prices either.”

Byrom’s motivation for partnering with CSTS partially stemmed from a wish to “bring the level of hospitality we deliver in Europe into Asia”.

As a staunch Anglophile, however, he has never looked forward to an event so much as Euro 2028.

“There’s still so much room for growth in hospitality,” Byrom said, revealing another new initiative for the tournament.

“Beyond the Pitch” will involve Byrom’s company partnering with restaurant groups and other event organisers to “empower our customers to experience all that the British Isles have to offer”.

“There are lots of services we can provide outside the perimeter of the stadium, and we want to take hospitality back off site,” Byrom said, proving that everything comes full circle.