Expected Goals

Welcome to the second edition of our fortnightly podcast dedicated exclusively to answering YOUR questions! This week Matt is joined by Adrian Jacob to tackle what league you’d ideally play in if you’re one of the best players in the world; whether enough gameweeks have now passed for the WSL to be worried about attendances; and how Brazilian football can get out of mindset of hosting women’s game...

Matt is joined this week by Adrian Jacob, Head of Football at World Sevens and former Chairman and Executive Manager at Chelsea Women. And on the agenda is investment and the global calendar. Given there’s been several majority acquisitions made into women’s football clubs attached to men’s teams in the last month, what’s the best working structures for the men’s and women’s teams to operate in pe...

Welcome to our new fortnightly podcast dedicated exclusively to answering YOUR questions! This week Matt is joined by Charlotte Thomson tackling whether drinking alcohol in your seat is having any tangible impact; yes or no to betting sponsors in women’s football; and the commercial publishing mechanics for dedicated women’s sport media platforms. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a l...

Today's episode of Expected Goals is the first of a new era for the podcast as Matt is joined by the first of his set of new rotating co-hosts. And it is Charlotte Thomson - a fountain of knowledge in brand positioning, sponsorship and fan culture - who is in the (other) hotseat. Most recently Charlotte was Head of Women's Football at COPA90, and she's been on the inside of various football rights...

In this week’s Expected Goals Maggie and Matt give some exciting updates about the future of Expected Goals - which if you’ve been reading the news you might be expecting! There's also a case study on NWSL expansion franchise Bay FC, and they step outside their bubble for a listener question about what football might learn from the current Women’s Rugby World Cup taking place in England. If you're...

As another major fund to buy women’s football teams launches, Maggie and Matt ask the question: why haven’t we seen any news of deals closing? They also analyse the English Football Association's new National League strategy for the women’s game, and see what impact it will have for club football outside the top-tiers, and answer a listener question about scheduling for this coming WSL season: wil...

Off the back of a new NWSL club sponsorship report that found the NWSL’s 14 clubs generated $75 million in sponsorship revenue for the 2024 season, Maggie and Matt compare and contrast and see where WSL clubs benefit and are restricted by being part of a men's team's sponsorship proposition. Matt also tweaks his ranking of the factors influencing someone’s decision to attend a women’s football gam...

Maggie and Matt are back! And with the domestic European football seasons less than a month away now, they look at how WSL clubs are looking to benefit from the Lionesses bump with season ticket on-sales. All of which leads to one key question: are tickets too cheap? They also mark UEFA's report card for the 2025 Women's Euros, and have a bit of fun discussing some of the weird and wonderful prize...

With Aston Villa reported to have sold its women’s side to ease PSR pressures on the men's team, Maggie and Matt look at the best operating model for this new era of “independent” clubs. The UEFA Women's Euros also start today, so they will tell you everything you need to know about how successfully it has been commercialised and new off-the-pitch business innovations, and answer a question about...

This week's podcast is a live recording from the Expected Goals Live event at SOOO London on June 19th 2025. It starts with Maggie and Matt hosting a panel of investors and advisors to investors, who give an open and honest conversation about the decision-making processes for where the flow of money goes into women's football globally. Those panellists are: Nicki Boyd (Founder and Managing Partner...

The WSL has just announced promotion and relegation changes for next season - but which clubs are best positioned to benefit? Maggie and Matt are on the case, also covering what the lively situation at Hamilton Academical in Scotland tells us about the importance - or not - of sharing club IP between a men’s and women’s side. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It w...

In this week’s episode Maggie and Matt look at why another club has withdrawn from the pyramid - Barnsley - but this time explicitly laid the blame at the FA’s door. Is their criticism valid or a convenient excuse? They also look at female football participation in the UK and whether that is connected to attendance decline in the WSL, and with the Premier League deciding not to hold a vote to chan...

This week Maggie and Matt are joined by a special guest - Adrian Jacob, Head of Football at World Sevens Football. Before joining the global 7 on 7 women’s football series this March, Adrian was Chairman and Executive Manager at Chelsea Women for more than a decade, a period that saw the team move from a part-time club with 16 players training twice weekly to the most successful club in England. H...

Disney+ has made a move into European women's football by acquiring broadcast rights for the UEFA Women’s Champions League, but is the fragmentation of the media landscape for women’s football in the UK a negative rather than a positive? Maggie and Matt are here to tell you the answer. They also look at how clubs should be positioning themselves for sponsors, with Glasgow City becoming one of the...

It's the start of a new season - at least for the podcast - and to kick-off Maggie and Matt are giving their take on the big stories that have broken since they last recorded...just two weeks ago. So that means why Alexis Ohanian has become the first major external investor into the WSL, and what the transaction means for the other clubs looking for investment. The new WSL branding, the financial...

Why are Women's Super League attendances going to decline by 10% year-on-year while Championship attendances have doubled? Matt and Maggie have answers as they do a deep-dive into attendance trends for the top two leagues in England this season. They also answer YOUR questions, including why a club wouldn’t put fans in the stand most visible on broadcast camera, and what promoted and relegated clu...

Maggie and Matt tackle the really quite strange story of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who narrowly missed promotion to the Championship this weekend but later revealed to players that they hadn't actually submitted to required paperwork for them to be promoted, had they finished top. What does this tell us about the over-reliance on men's football in England, and will this debacle go any way to helpin...

London City Lionesses are in pole position for promotion to the Women's Super League in Michelle Kang’s first full season in charge. What does their journey to becoming "the best team in England" (which is Michelle's objective) tell us about what it takes to bring a team from the Championship into the WSL - and stay there over the long-term? They also explore the relationship between women’s footb...

No professional women's soccer league has ever existed in Canada - until today that is, with the Northern Super League (NSL) kicking off with six teams across the country. And a listener has contacted Maggie and Matt asking them whether they think it can success in a battle of attention against the long-established and still fast-growing NWSL south of the border. They also look at the influence Ol...

Much is being made of Chelsea's "sale" of Chelsea Women to BlueCo, the company owned by the same consortium that owns the club. In particular the valuation of £200m. Well, Matt's got a lot to say on the matter and where he thinks many of the analysts are taking the wrong approach to assess whether the valuation is accurate (or not). Matt and Maggie also examine supply and demand for hosting major...

In the WSL this season, 39% of games to date have been played in main stadia - the primary stadium of the men’s first team - compared to a third at the same stage last season. But what are the motivations, and can you actually make money hosting club women's football in these venues? Maggie has been asking clubs, and will break down the economics - including how much it costs to create and maintai...

Formally announced tomorrow, World Sevens is a new women’s club football competition this May that will feature eight clubs from across the world and has a HUGE prize pot believed to be in the seven figures. Matt and Maggie look at why it's been set up, the incentives to compete, and whether fans will be interested or not. They also delve into the cross-section of toys, collectables and women’s fo...

Last week Maggie and Matt talked about the WPL’s proposal for the top two leagues in English football to increase to 16 teams each, supported by removing relegation from the top two tiers for at least a period of four years.  In many ways, the proposals have raised more questions than they have answered - so they are on and to fill the gaps. They also look at how how much it costs to hire and fire...

Without doubt the biggest story in women’s football since last week's episode has been the next step in the WPL’s motion for the top two leagues in English football to become a closed shop. So Maggie and Matt bring y9ou the inside track and the angles no-one else has talked about yet. They also look at the new NWSL documentary being launched on Amazon and explore how documentaries around women’s f...

Off the back of last week’s podcast, Maggie and Matt have been told by various sources that WSL team Everton are planning on building a women’s football stadium on the area where Goodison Park currently sits. So they look at why Everton would do that, and what would it look like. They also cover how the written/print media covers women’s football and whether it’s at risk of wider “reversals” of DE...