Gary Neville has dumped the glamorous PR woman with whom he had worked closely promoting his multi-million pound hotel business.
The former Manchester United and England footballer called time on his professional relationship with communications influencer Nina Sawetz who had handled all PR related to his Hotel Football and UA92 University initiatives.
Selfie-loving Nina, who has 15,000 followers on LinkedIn where she has media guru status, had been a close business confidante for Neville in her capacity as CEO of the Future PR brand she founded.
The high-end fashion-loving blonde media expert describes her firm as ‘a strategic comms consultancy that supports CEOs, high-growth companies and investors with reputation, crisis, and stakeholder strategy across the UK, Europe and the Middle East’.
She was hired by Neville to mastermind publicity and image for his businesses two years ago.
But on Tuesday it was announced that Neville had awarded Hotel Football’s business to rival agency Brazen which has a wide range of clients such as: Butlins; Homebase; the Coventry Building Society; Ryman and other high profile British and international companies.
Nina then made her own characteristically frank announcement on LinkedIn.
Selfie-loving Nina (pictured), who has 15,000 followers on LinkedIn where she has media guru status, had been a close business confidante for Neville in her capacity as CEO of the Future PR brand she founded
The high-end fashion-loving blonde media expert describes her firm as ‘a strategic comms consultancy that supports CEOs, high-growth companies and investors with reputation, crisis, and stakeholder strategy across the UK, Europe and the Middle East’
Nina made her own characteristically frank announcement on LinkedIn after it was revealed Neville had awarded Hotel Football’s business to rival agency Brazen
She wrote: ‘It’s been a real pleasure to work with Gary Neville, Hotel Football and his wider group of businesses over the past few years, including UA92 and some strategy development meets for the Stock Exchange Hotel.
‘As my work now increasingly focuses on reputation and crisis management, our work came to a natural close a few weeks ago, at the start of October.’
And she joked: ‘PR remains one of the few industries where media announcements often include who “had” the account when announcing who “won” it – a bit of an odd tradition, that’s prompted this post a little earlier (and shorter) than I might have planned!.’
Nina concluded: ‘With Hotel Football now moving forward with a refreshed direction alongside Brazen, I would like to wish them all the best in the next phase and send a huge thank you to the fantastic team at HF and GG…. it’s been a genuine pleasure to work with you over the past few years.’
Apparently determined to put a positive gloss on events, she posted on the platform yesterday a selfie to accompany a long post about how 2025 has been her company’s most successful year, concluding: ‘As long as you are happy, keep your morals and values, stay respectful of those around you, and stay healthy, that is all you need to focus on.’
Nina regularly takes to LinkedIn to post pictures of herself and to record her often jokey thoughts about both her career and her private life.
Typical is one following a trip to London in which she gushes about taking a dance class with one of Michael Jackson’s former dancers, adding: ‘And yes I am now available for groin thrusts and moonwalk bookings.’
Neville, 50 sparked a furious online backlash recently when he posted a video (pictured) to LinkedIn ranting about ‘angry middle-aged white men’ dividing Britain by raising Union flags
Another picture shows her beside The River Thames with the London Eye in the background having just attended an event at the House of Commons with a client.
Neville launched and co-owns the two businesses with former Man Utd teammates Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt – but he is very much the public face of both with UA92 routinely described as ‘Gary Neville’s university’ when reported in the media.
Nina’s company’s website states: ‘Nina was born and raised near London, UK, and has lived in Manchester for over seven years. Prior to Future, she worked in communications for the BBC and in agency at Frank and Bottle PR where she became Director of Consumer. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manchester.’
Her company profile also reveals that undertakes pro-bono consultancy work for the refugee charity Safe Passage and the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity for homelessness.
Peter Burling, Client Director at Brazen PR said: ‘They (Hotel Football) were looking for a refresh, making sure that they are with the right partners with fresh ideas. There were no other reasons behind the change.
‘We were asked to come in and present alongside other agencies and won it (the contract) because they liked the way we thought.’
Mr Burling revealed that Neville’s Hotel Football had awarded Brazen a rolling contract but refused to reveal how much it is worth.
She was hired by Neville to mastermind publicity and image for his businesses two years ago
Nina’s company’s website states: ‘Nina was born and raised near London, UK, and has lived in Manchester for over seven years’
Nina regularly takes to LinkedIn to post pictures of herself and to record her often jokey thoughts about both her career and her private life
Neville, 50 sparked a furious online backlash recently when he posted a video to LinkedIn ranting about ‘angry middle-aged white men’ dividing Britain by raising Union flags – prompting fans at England’s game against Latvia this week to sing songs about him being a ‘w*****’.
Neville, who now works as a pundit for Sky Sports when away from his £100million business empire spanning hospitality, property development and media, quickly moved to hit back at any claims he was being unpatriotic.
His colleague Ryan Giggs previously dated a PR who had worked on the Hotel Football project.
Kate Greville later accused him of assault with jurors unable to reach a verdict and the CPS eventually dropping the charges, which Giggs had denied.
