The Women's Football Finance Podcast

The team talk shop with the head honcho of Mexican women’s professional football, Mariana Gutierrez, President of Liga MX Femenil.  Mariana shares a wealth of information about Liga MXF, including its history, structure, governance, commercialisation, player salaries, talent pathways, broadcasting quirks and its ambitious plans to make Liga MXF one of the top 3 women’s football leagues globally. ...

In this episode, Val, Dave and Steve bring back football finance expert Christina Philippou for a case study, where the team discusses a valuation model for Chelsea Women built by Steve and powered by the terms of the sale of Lyon Féminin to Michele Kang in 2023. The group uses the model to dive into questions such as: What did Kang pay for Lyon and how was the purchase price structured? What does...

In this episode, we chat with former England international, Natasha Dowie, about her professionalisation journey and what the money and off-pitch support looked like across her long and storied senior career (2004 and 2023), and touch upon the growing importance of social media and player brand building in the women’s game.  Val, Steve and Dave also discuss the fallout from the proposal to tempora...

In this episode we dive into the WPL’s controversial proposal to (temporarily?) hit the pause button on relegation from the Women's Super League. Val and Steve debate whether, from a business perspective, it will have its desired effect of bringing more investment into the top two tiers of English women’s football, or whether something more radical will be needed to unlock the hoped-for levels of...

In this episode, we sit down with  Giulio Tedeschi,  founder and CEO of Tedeschi & Partners, a pioneering agency dedicated to  representing women football/soccer players. While the world of football agency has historically focused on the men’s game, Giulio and his team have been advocating for female talent for nearly 12 years, pushing for fairer contracts, family planning rights, better visib...

In this episode, the TWFFP team delve into the financial landscape of the often overlooked middle tiers of English women's football. In the spotlight are Chorley Women, a Tier 4 club with a humble budget but ambitious plans to drive revenue growth in order to push the team further along the professionalisation curve and higher up the pyramid. New club Chair, Jonny Slater, shares details of the clu...

To kick off 2025, Val, Dave and Steve catch up on some of women’s football business news both big and small, from NWSL free agency to the un-naming of BOS Nation to WSL Panini sticker books.  The hosts are then joined by Associate Professor and football finance expert, Christina Philippou, who shares her knowledge of the football club valuation process and the key price adjustments buyers make to...

Val and Steve recap the big business & finance stories of the year in the world of global Women's Football. We catch up on attendance numbers, big efforts by Football Confederations, a new CBA in Spain, big gains in Australia, and other country-specific news around the USA, England, and beyond. Then, Steve explains why he thinks Michele Kang is a big deal for the growth and future of women's f...

Val, Dave, and Steve are joined by Jennifer Haskel, Knowledge and Insights Lead in the Deloitte Business Sports Group, for a deep dive into Deloitte's research and projects on women's football, including their work on the: FIFA's Women's Football Benchmarking Report (https://inside.fifa.com/womens-football/news/setting-the-pace-fifa-womens-football-benchmarking-report); the Deloitte Women's Footba...

Val and Steve chat with Thayer Lavielle, Managing Director of The Wasserman Collective, about the increasing importance of commercial partnerships to the growth and sustainability of women’s professional football.  The Collective is a team within the broader Wasserman agency which focuses on producing publicly-shared research to support greater gender equity in all corners of sports and entertainm...

This episode of The Women’s Football Finance Podcast focuses on women’s professional football in France, with the help of our guest Pedro Iriondo, former Deputy General Manager of Olympique de Marseille and General Manager of the women’s football section. Hosts Valerie Goldstein, Dave Powell and Steve Estes talk with Pedro about the constraints women’s professional teams face in France, the variou...

This episode of The Women’s Football Finance Podcast delves into the world of sports broadcasting with the help of Hannah Brown, Co-CEO of Women’s Sport at global sports-media giant, DAZN.  The team provide a peak into the world of broadcast "rights deals" and speak with Hannah on a wide range of topics, including DAZN’s bold strategy to be the first to build a large portfolio of women’s football...

In this episode of The Women’s Football Finance Podcast, Paul Barber OBE, Chief Executive Officer of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, joins the pod. We talk about his club's journey of investing in its women’s team, from its decision in 2017 to apply for a club license and fully professionalise its women’s team to its plans to build the first ever purpose-built women’s football stadium in E...

In this episode the Women's Football Finance Podcast team chats with Kelly Simmons OBE, who from 2018-2024 was Director of the Women's Professional Game in England. Capping her 30-year career at the FA, Kelly led the transformation of the Women's Super League from a largely semi-professional and amateur structure to arguably the best women’s football league in the world. Kelly shares the insider's...

In this episode of The Women's Football Finance podcast, hosts Valerie Goldstein, Dave Powell, and Steve Estes discuss the current financial landscape of women's professional football. With our guest, Kieran Maguire, we explore the key metrics for measuring the success of a women's professional football league - such as revenue, attendance, level of professionalisation, player wages and the value...