The Shortlist

By Tahoe Lillelund

Introduction

Welcome back to The Shortlist - your weekly briefing on five stories shaping the business of football. Each edition highlights what’s changing across ownership, media, and innovation, giving you a quick, curated look at the ideas and shifts shaping how the game is run.

This week’s theme is where power is really moving. From sponsorship models in the NWSL and local World Cup economics to media ownership and accountability inside elite clubs, the story isn’t about who spends the most, but who controls attention, systems, and decision-making. Football is becoming less about headline moves and more about the structures underneath them.

Here’s what’s happening this week:

1. 2025 NWSL Jersey Sponsors

NWSL’s commercial momentum is now clearly visible on the shirt. Heading into the 2025 season, 13 of 14 clubs have a front of jersey sponsor and more than half have a back of jersey partner, with healthcare and financial services the most active categories and Gotham FC’s Dove deal setting a new benchmark for back of shirt value. The growth of jersey sponsors across fronts, backs, and sleeves points to a league that is steadily professionalizing its sponsorship model and monetizing attention at scale.

The league is already well past the proof of concept phase in sponsorship, particularly in healthcare, finance, and food and beverage, which are oversaturated and not growth drivers anymore. For clubs like Bay FC, the upside lies in leaning into categories that scale globally, not just local exposure. Brands like Stripe fit naturally because Bay FC sits at the intersection of women’s sports, technology, and entrepreneurship, offering a clear channel for reaching founders, developers, and modern businesses, while LEGO aligns with youth participation, creativity, and long term brand building, positioning the club as both a cultural and developmental institution. These partnerships go beyond logos, with Bay FC creating value through education, community programs, and a multi-club vision rather than simply selling sponsorship space.

Read on For Soccer→

2. Maresca and Amorim faced the music – those who wield real power should do the same

Following the sacking of Maresca and Amorim from Chelsea and United, Will Unwin, argues that that football clubs still treats managers as the public face of failure, even though they no longer hold the real power inside elite clubs. As sporting directors, recruitment teams, and owners take greater control over strategy and squad building, managers like Maresca and Amorim are left answering for decisions they didn’t make. The result is a growing mismatch between who is accountable in public and who actually shapes outcomes behind the scenes.

Sporting directors that take accountability go a long way with their fans. Even if there is a short term feeling of anger towards sporting directors, in the long run they will appreciate the responsibility. It’s unrealistic to expect managers to carry the burden when things go wrong. If sporting directors and executives want the authority they now have, they should also accept visibility when recruitment, structure, or long-term strategy fails, not just step forward when results briefly turn positive.

Read more on The Guardian→

3. European football clubs lose out amid soaring US valuations in deal frenzy

A new Financial Times analysis shows US sports franchises continue to outpace European football clubs on valuation, driven by closed leagues, predictable media rights growth, revenue sharing, and lower financial volatility. Average NFL team valuations now sit above 10x revenue, while elite European football clubs remain closer to 4-5x, weighed down by relegation risk, wage inflation, debt, and tighter financial regulation. Despite football’s global reach and cultural dominance, the structural risk inherent in an open system, particularly relegation, cost inflation, and revenue volatility, continues to suppress valuations.

I don’t see this gap as permanent. As regulation tightens, transfer inflation normalizes, and leading clubs impose greater discipline on costs, football’s underlying demand and scarcity should begin to reassert themselves. The path forward isn’t copying the US model wholesale, but reducing volatility enough for long-term capital to price football with more confidence.

Crucially, the best-run clubs aren’t pulling money away from players, they’re changing how they spend around them. Transfer fees and wages will always dominate the P&L, but the edge now comes from making that spend more effective. Investment in infrastructure, sports science, data, recruitment, and facilities doesn’t replace player investment, it reduces waste and risk around it.

This isn’t about spending less on players and more on buildings. It’s about spending heavily on players while creating environments that improve availability, performance, resale value, and longevity. Clubs stuck with outdated stadiums or training grounds aren’t just missing upside, they’re carrying structural risk. Over time, the valuation gap will widen not because some clubs spend less, but because others turn similar player investment into more reliable outcomes and stronger assets.

Read more on Financial Times→

4. Global buys majority stake in Gary Neville’s YouTube group The Overlap

European media group Global has taken a majority stake in The Overlap, the YouTube-first football media business co-founded by Gary Neville. The deal reflects the growing power of video podcasting in sports media, with The Overlap now generating more than 38m monthly YouTube views and 2.2bn views across platforms in 2025. Global plans to scale it into a multi-format sports media network, following a model similar to Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger.

I love this channel, and I think Global investing in The Overlap is a genuinely smart move. Professional athletes often struggle to find the right platform after their playing careers end, and this creates a meaningful new pathway that plays to their strengths. Being on YouTube, the world’s second most visited website behind Google, gives them direct access to fans at a scale traditional media can’t always match, and their lived experience is what makes the content resonate.

What really sets The Overlap apart from most podcasts and football channels is that it’s built around people being in the room together. You can feel the relationships, the personalities, the disagreements, and the trust. Even when conversations move into emotional or sensitive territory, they handle it with honesty and respect, which is rare and hard to replicate. That authenticity is the real asset Global is buying.

Read on The Guardian→

5. Industry report reveals $4.5 billion sports sponsorship economy for 2026 World Cup host cities in the U.S. and Canada

A new SponsorUnited report estimates the 2026 World Cup will generate a $4.5bn sponsorship economy across host cities in the U.S. and Canada, which already account for nearly half of North America’s team sports sponsorship revenue. While soccer still represents just 9% of total team sponsorship spend in those markets, it’s growing quickly, up 21% over the past three years, driven by a sharp rise in branded social engagement. The data also points to a strong home-market bias, with many top sponsors concentrating the majority of their spend locally rather than nationally.

What stands out to me is that the World Cup isn’t just a global event, it’s a local commercial accelerator. The real opportunity isn’t a wave of new global sponsors, but regional brands stepping up as football becomes a more credible platform in their own cities. I’m seeing this firsthand while working on a YouTube series following the road to the World Cup and visiting every host city. Each market feels different in how local brands, civic pride, and football fit into the wider sports landscape, which is exactly why the sponsorship upside will be won city by city, not through one-size-fits-all global deals.

Read on Goal→

The Takeaway

Across these stories, a common thread emerges: football’s next advantage is structural, not superficial. Leagues and clubs are professionalising sponsorship, executives are quietly accumulating power behind the scenes, media influence is shifting to creator-led platforms, and major global moments like the World Cup are being won locally, not centrally. The clubs and organizations that outperform won’t just have more money, they’ll have clearer accountability, stronger infrastructure, and a better grip on where value is actually created.