Behind-the-scenes: The FA’s Emirates 5

The recent ‘Emirates 5’s activation saw teams from four flight hubs (Birmingham, London, Newcastle and Manchester) compete to see who would be the best in England.

All teams featured a combination of footballing legends, non-league players linked to the Emirates FA Cup, content creators and grassroots community heroes.

Battle commenced at the elite training centre and home of the England national teams, St George’s Park, in Burton-on-trend on 30th April and was broadcast on The Emirates FA Cup’s YouTube channel, with promotion also across Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok.

With production partner Limitless supporting throughout, the broadcast itself was a robust and creative technical setup anchored by five match cameras, an RF handheld, three studio cameras plus four specialist cameras and two minicams mounted in goal.

Together, we captured every angle of the action with all camera feeds put through next-generation AI-driven super slow-motion, allowing live replays at 150fps from any angle.

A custom-built 5-a-side pitch, studio, gantry and fully facilitated commentary position was also built for presenters Abbie McCarthy, Spencer Owen and Morfo Peyiazis to drive the show and for Ben Foster, Jermain Defoe, Shola Ameobi and Shaun Wright-Phillips to lead their respective cities.

Players were competing not only for the inaugural ‘Emirates 5’s’ title but also extra prizes of flights to exotic locations and tickets to the Emirates FA Cup final on 17th May for the best performing players.

On top of that, within each seven minute half feature there were Emirates themed bonus cards each team could play to hinder their opposition (ie remove a player for one minute) as well as certain goals counting double and ‘American style penalties’ at the end of each match.

These kept engagement and interest running high throughout to deliver a premium viewing experience and strong brand activation.

Damien Cullen is senior content operations manager at The Football Association