BASEL: Martin Wagner, chairman of the board of TEAM Marketing, has been shot dead at his home near Basel, apparently by a neighbour.

A statement from the Highlight Group, of which media lawyer Wagner was a director on behalf of subsidiary TEAM, issued a statement confirming his death.

Bernhard Burgener, chairman of the Highlight Event & Entertainment and Highlight Communications, said: “The board of directors, management and all employees of the whole Highlight group are deeply affected and send the family their deepest sympathies.”

TEAM Marketing has been a close commercial partner of UEFA since the early 1990s when its founders developed the concept and operating system for the Champions League, one of the world’s game most financially successful competitions.

Media reports from the 57-year-old’s home village of Rünenberg said that police received a report yesterday morning of shots being fired in a “neighbourhood dispute”.

Officers found one man dead and another suffering from gunshot wounds who died shortly afterwards.

Police said Wagner’s death was not believed to be related to his business interests but “has something to do with the private sphere.”

Wagner, who was recently widowed, leaves three children.

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