What The Footie Podcast

This week’s What The Footie Podcast is with Matt Bonass, Partner at Bird & Bird, one of the leading legal advisers in sport, investment and complex ownership deals (who recently worked on the Snoop Dogg x Luka Modric x Swansea City deal) Bird & Bird have just partnered with our Athlete Investor Summit, and ahead of the third edition and ahead of Matt's panel at the event, Paul and Matt dis...

This week’s What The Footie Podcast is with Keith Lasley, Chief Operating Officer at St Mirren FC. In this exclusive, Paul & Keith dive into St Mirren’s journey in Scottish football, what it takes to run a modern club day-to-day, and how you build a sustainable model that still competes on the pitch. They explore leadership behind the scenes, balancing football tradition with operational innov...

This week’s What The Footie Podcast is with Luke Bornn, Co-Owner of Toulouse FC and Co-Founder of Zelus Analytics. In this exclusive, Paul & Luke dive into Toulouse’s journey in Ligue 1, building a sustainable club model, balancing football tradition with innovation, and leading with a long-term vision. As well as Toulouse’s rise through smart recruitment and data-informed strategy, how Ligue...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Adam Osper, Managing Partner in Financial Planning at Evelyn Partners who are the UK’s leading adviser to sports professionals on their financial affairs and investments. Evelyn Partners have just partnered with our Athlete Investor Summit , and ahead of the second edition in this episode Paul and Adam discuss what athletes should be thinking about earl...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Matt Rogan Co-Founder and former Executive Chairman at Two Circles. Two Circles is an international sports and entertainment marketing business that leverages data and knowing fans best, to help organisations grow audiences and revenues. In this exclusive, Paul & Matt discuss leadership lessons, the commercial opportunities for football clubs, how T...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Ben Sadler Chief Executive Officer at Walsall FC. Ben was previously CEO at Morecambe FC and General Manager at Harrogate Town AFC. In this exclusive, Paul & Ben discuss Ben's learnings from previous roles, the process of building a financially sustainable football club, the importance of alignment, leadership lessons, understanding context, the ind...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Polly Bancroft Chief Executive Officer at Grimsby Town FC. Polly was previously Head of Women's Football at both Brighton and Hove Albion and Manchester United In this exclusive, Paul & Polly discuss her learnings from working at Brighton and Manchester Utd, the importance of alignment and role clarity, building MDTs, leadership lessons, understandi...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Mariela Nisotaki, Head of Emerging Talent at Norwich City FC. In this exclusive, Paul & Mariela discuss the evolution of scouting, the importance of emerging talent within squad planning, finding value in different markets, setting a clear game model at a football club, how the game model influences scouting and recruitment, building a Premier Leagu...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Nancy Hensley, Founding Member at Mercury 13 (a multi-club ownership group focused on acquiring controlling stakes in professional women's football) and former Chief Marketing and Product Officer at Stats Perform. In this exclusive, Paul & Nancy discuss Mercury 13's ambition and strategies, the benefits and challenges of multi-club ownership models,...

This week’s What The Footie Podcast is with Claire Stewart Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Prorizon Tech .  In this exclusive, Paul and Claire discuss why Prorizon is important for the future of football, the state of football (increased fixtures and tournament expansion), the effects that it has on players, the challenges of running a startup and selling tech solutions to the biggest t...

This week’s What The Footie Podcast is with Felix Torralba Chief Revenue Officer at RCD Mallorca.  In this exclusive, Paul & Felix discuss life in La Liga, the role of a Chief Revenue Officer, doing global partnership deals, building a financially sustainable football club, creating and designing strategies, the day-to-day role, redeveloping the stadium, capitalising on Mallorca's rich tourism...

This week’s What The Footie Podcast is with Tim Williams CEO at Oxford United Football Club. Former Group Financial Controller at Manchester United, Chief Financial Officer at Inter Milan and Managing Director at Tifosy. In this exclusive, Paul & Tim discuss the challenges of navigating up the pyramid, the Premier League's role in the pyramid, building a financially sustainable football club,...

This week’s What The Footie Podcast is with Carol Shanahan, Owner & Chair at Port Vale Football Club. In this exclusive, Paul & Carol discuss the challenges of navigating up the pyramid, building a sustainable football club, creating and designing strategies, the day-to-day role, the loan system, being League 1 steady and Championship ready, hiring a Sporting Director, creating first-team...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Tatjana Haenni, the NWSL's Chief Sporting Director. In this exclusive, Paul & Tatjana discuss the NWSL's ambition to be the world's number one women's football league, creating and designing strategies, what it takes to be a new NWSL franchise, the social movement in the USA which has contributed to athlete investors investing in teams (Serena Williams...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Debbie Cook, CEO @ Grimsby Town FC. In this exclusive, Paul & Debbie discuss the challenges of navigating up the pyramid, building a sustainable football club, creating and designing strategies, the day-to-day role of a CEO, making data-driven decisions and taking emotion out of decision-making, new partnership with the Twenty First Group, Gareth Jennin...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with David Stevenson, former Head of Academy Recruitment & Analysis at Rangers FC and Head of Scouting & Performance Analysis at the Scottish Football Federation. David is currently a Lecturer in Sports Management at the University of Stirling. In this exclusive, Paul & David discuss the evolution of performance analysis, getting by-in from players and coach...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast  is with Liam Scully, CEO @ Lincoln City FC. In this exclusive, Paul & Liam discuss the challenges of navigating up the pyramid, building a sustainable football club, creating and designing strategies, the day-to-day role of a CEO and what they get up to in the off-season, leveraging the loan system (Brooke Norton-Cuffy), multi-sport ownership, the importance o...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is our audience Q&A with Paul Barber, CEO & Deputy Chairman at Brighton & Hove Albion FC. If you missed Part 1 - the Live Podcast (Episode 65) you can listen to it here .  In February at Leyton Orient FC we had our Podcast Meetup which featured a live episode where both Paul's discussed Brighton’s ambition for the season and beyond, how they approach player rec...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Subomi Odanye and Matthew Quadri, Co-Founders @ Divrse Media. In this exclusive, Paul & the guys discuss why they started Divrse Media, how they secured Alex Iwobi as their first client, the future of athlete branding, how clubs and brands can market to Gen Z, their recent work with Crystal Palace FC, big ideas we'd like to see in the game in light of r...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Miles Jacobson, Studio Director @ Sports Interactive (the makers of Football Manager). In this exclusive, Paul & Miles discuss the journey that the business has gone on since Miles first joined in 1994, how FM created one of the best scouting networks in the world, how Miles and the team embedded themselves within football and created partnerships with...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Paul Barber, CEO & Deputy Chairman at Brighton & Hove Albion FC.  Last month at Leyton Orient FC we had our Podcast Meetup which featured a live episode where both Paul's discussed Brighton’s ambition for the season and beyond, how they approach player recruitment, and so much more. - - - - - - -  What The Footie is the football and business podcast tha...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Tom Gorringe, CEO @ Bristol Rovers FC. In this exclusive, Paul & Tom discuss the financial challenges of navigating up the pyramid, creative approaches to player recruitment, leveraging the loan system (Elliot Anderson & Jarell Quansah), working with Joey Barton, the importance of boards/senior execs having open dialogue with fans, the growing interest...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with John Brenann, Ex-Head of Sport @ Snapchat, Founder & CEO of AC Momento (the football auction house for authenticated match-worn jerseys), and Investor in Angel City FC. In this exclusive, Paul & John discuss why he founded AC Momento, what it’s like working with AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Lionel Messi and Vinicius Jr and THAT conversation him and Reddit...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Joe Foster, Founder of Reebok and Author of Shoemaker.  In this exclusive, Paul & Joe discuss Reebok's growth story, the future of sports marketing, how sport influences streetwear, Reebok making a return into football, sport as an entertainment business, building a winning high-performance culture and where he thinks Authentic Brands Group can take Ree...

This week’s  What The Footie Podcast is with Amanda Goodwin, Talent Technical Coach at The FA.  In this exclusive, Paul & AJ discuss talent identification, player development, creating pathways, the future of women's football and the legacy post-the success of the Euros. As well as AJ's time at Blackburn Rovers, over the course of a decade, where she played a pivotal role in Georgia, Keira and Ell...