Why have only five percent of football clubs made profit on social media?

Welcome to this week’s World Football Summit newsletter, your insider's guide to the latest thoughts and practises from within the football industry. Today we focus on digital disruption, content and social marketing: in an exclusive interview with WFS Digest, Richard Ayers (chairman at?the award-winning consultancy and agency?Seven League) explains why many football clubs and sport properties are struggling to build online audiences. "When we work with sports organisations, it's very much about helping them have the capability to think and behave like a media business,"?says Ayers in a must-read piece.?

These topics will be at the heart of our coming?Football Innovation Forum debates, to be held in Seville on May 18th, the same day that the UEFA Europa League final?takes place in the Andalusian capital. Check here the list of attendees to this invite-only event about technology, disruption and innovation.?

We can’t forget about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, and we are sending a 10% percentage of our ticketing in donations to the country through Common Goal. And as usual, we’ve also curated for you some of the most interesting articles published this past week.

In case you like our proposal, feel free to?forward?or share our newsletter with your friends through whatever channel you like!

‘Let's not do what we did with social media and wake up to realise?they have all the audience and all the money’

"There is a really important change going on, or at least an opportunity for change,"?Richard Ayers explains in this insightful interview. "In Seven League we call it the Third Age. The First Age of sport was amateur sport, with people playing for the love of it, social cohesion, etc. The Second Age was 'Let's sell some tickets, let's commercialise, let's sponsor, let's sell TV rights'... And we have pushed that as far as we possibly can; we have rampantly commercialised?most of?sport. So the third age is 'Let's just swing the pendulum back a bit and get some better balance’, because at the moment the money is going into the same few hands, and football can do a better job at distributing wealth and gaining a more healthy balance, both for business and society."

Continue reading the interview...

FIF: innovation in Seville before UEFA Europa League’s final

Are you interested in discovering what the future holds for the football industry? Top leaders in?innovation from FIFA, UEFA, LaLiga and major clubs from all over the world are participating at our Football Innovation Forum, which will take place in Seville the morning of 18 May. The sport’s main stakeholders will share insights and help you to remain relevant in this highly disruptive environment. Click here to see the new attendees confirmed this week. And remember: you are still in time to join us!

CIES Report on players’ technical profiles: a role-based approach

CIES Football Observatory have devoted their April monthly report to the technical role of players in Europe’s top leagues, particularly focused on Manchester City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain.?The report focuses on 11 different game variables: six are?offensive, four defensive and passing?stands alone.?CIES will have its own space within the Expo Area during our WFS Europe event next September.?

Read more...

Meta, LaLiga Tech, Betis and Sevilla FC: first FIF22?speakers!

After a pandemic-enforced hiatus, our?Football Innovation Forum returns with its second edition this May in Seville. Our first round of confirmed speakers guarantee a top-class?experience for the 200 attendees to our invite-only event. Fabio Gallo (Head of Product of LaLiga Tech), Kike Levy (Southern Europe Lead, Sports at Meta), as well as the?business directors?of Sevilla FC and Real Betis have already secured their presence at the iconic Las Setas venue.?

World Football Summit donation campaign for Ukraine

WFS is?donating 10%?of all ticketing sales to local NGOs and charity projects working with refugees within Ukrainian territory, via our?partnership?with Common Goal, and the first donations have already been sent. We will continue this?effort until the end of our ticketing sales period for WFS Europe, which will take place in Seville on 28-29 September. You can buy your tickets?here.?

Weekly reads

Each week, WFS Digest brings you the best reads from the best journalists and media outlets covering the football business from around the world.?Read the latest, here.

??18 May 2022 Seville, SPAIN?|?FOOTBALL INNOVATION FORUM ??Pre-Register

??28—29 Sept. 2022?| Seville, SPAIN?|?WFS EUROPE ??Register