THE FOOTBALL BUSINESS NETWORK DAILY: 16 June 2025
When money talks louder than the beautiful game: Today's tales of commercial chaos
🔴 CHELSEA'S SPONSOR-LESS SHAMBLES: The £11 Million Vanishing Act
Chelsea's arrival at the Club World Cup looking like a Sunday league side that forgot to pay their kit supplier tells you everything about modern football's grotesque priorities. The Blues are parading around America with gaping holes where their shirt sponsor should be, having managed to cock up what should be the simplest revenue stream in football.
The DAMAC deal—worth a staggering £11 million for barely a month's work—has evaporated faster than Todd Boehly's credibility with the fanbase. At roughly £1 million per match worn, this represents perhaps the most expensive game of commercial hide-and-seek in football history. One can only imagine the conversations in Stamford Bridge's boardroom: "Right, we've managed to secure Champions League football, but somehow we've forgotten how to sell advertising space on a shirt."
The real comedy gold here is that DAMAC, a Dubai property developer whose primary qualification appears to be having money, paid Chelsea £11 million for eleven games across men's and women's teams. That's the kind of return on investment that makes cryptocurrency look sensible. Meanwhile, the "competitive process" to find a new sponsor continues to drag on like a particularly tedious VAR review.
Chelsea took eight months to finally agree a deal for a main sponsor on their 2024/25 season, which suggests their commercial department operates with all the efficiency of a Victorian telegram service. The benchmark remains at £40 million per season—what Three previously paid—but Chelsea's current negotiating position resembles a man trying to sell ice to penguins whilst standing naked in Antarctica.
The delicious irony is that whilst eleven out of 20 Premier League clubs have gambling shirt sponsors, Chelsea can't even manage to secure a controversial betting company. Perhaps there's something to be said for standards, though one suspects this is more incompetence than moral clarity. The Club World Cup kicks off with Chelsea looking like they've raided a charity shop, which feels oddly appropriate for a tournament that FIFA is desperately trying to convince people actually matters.
[Read more: Football London]
🇺🇸 GOTHAM FC'S PELOTON DELUSION: When Fitness Fads Meet Football
Carolyn Tisch Blodgett's plan to turn NWSL players into the next generation of Peloton instructors represents everything absurd about modern sports marketing. The Gotham FC owner, fresh from her stint making stationary bike enthusiasts into household names, now believes football players should become "part of the cultural conversation" in the same way that spinning instructors conquered suburban living rooms during lockdown.
The Peloton model worked because people trapped at home during a global pandemic needed someone to shout encouragement at them whilst they pedalled nowhere. Applying this logic to women's football suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of both sports marketing and basic economics. Midge Purce co-hosting podcasts and launching reality shows might generate Instagram followers, but it won't fill stadiums or secure meaningful broadcast deals.
Tisch Blodgett's revelation that "running a team also means knowing how to shape its public presence" would be groundbreaking if we were still living in 1985. The notion that NWSL success begins with "staying relevant" rather than, say, actually winning football matches, explains why American women's soccer continues to struggle for sustainable commercial growth despite World Cup success.
The reality series The Offseason, filmed in Miami and starring NWSL players, promises to add "personality, drama, and lifestyle" to women's soccer coverage. Because nothing says serious sporting competition like manufactured drama and lifestyle content that makes Love Island look intellectually rigorous. Perhaps next season they'll have players livestream their training sessions whilst offering motivational quotes about believing in yourself.
The fundamental flaw in this approach is treating athletes as content creators first and competitors second. Football isn't fitness instruction, and sporting excellence doesn't translate to camera-friendly personality. While Tisch Blodgett builds brands around cultural relevance, actual football fans tend to prefer victories, trophies, and memorable matches over podcast appearances and reality television cameos.
[Read more: Front Office Sports]
🏃♂️ CAMBRIDGE UNITED'S BROOKS DEAL: When Running Shoes Sponsor Football
Cambridge United's announcement that American running shoe manufacturer Brooks will become their front-of-shirt sponsor represents either inspired lateral thinking or complete commercial desperation. In an era where gambling companies dominate football sponsorship and cryptocurrency scams compete for advertising space, a legitimate athletic footwear brand feels almost quaint.
Brooks, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and boasting over 25% of the global running shoe market, represents serious money entering League One football. The two-year deal includes not just shirt sponsorship but also providing footwear for players and coaches, suggesting someone at Cambridge actually thought this through beyond simply finding the highest bidder.
The running club initiative "powered by Brooks" targeting local fans and residents demonstrates how non-traditional sponsors can create genuine community engagement rather than simply slapping their logo on shirts and hoping for the best. This stands in stark contrast to the parade of betting companies whose community outreach typically extends to offering free bets to vulnerable punters.
The connection between running and football isn't exactly revolutionary—players do tend to cover 10-12 kilometres per match—but Brooks' focus on storytelling around "the club, its community and beyond" suggests they understand something that traditional football sponsors often miss: authenticity matters more than audience reach when building brand loyalty.
Of course, the cynic might observe that Cambridge United represents exactly the kind of progressive, community-focused club that appeals to Seattle-based corporations looking to burnish their social responsibility credentials. Brooks' Northern Europe Territory Director's comments about "connecting with runners" and "progressive football clubs" read like they were written by a brand consultancy that charges £500 per hour to state the bleeding obvious.
Still, in a sponsorship landscape dominated by companies whose business models range from questionable to actively harmful, a running shoe manufacturer represents refreshing normality. At least when Cambridge United score, their celebration won't feel like an advertisement for financial ruin.
[Read more: Cambridge United FC]
🏆 FIFA'S CLUB WORLD CUP FARCE: Empty Stadiums and Dry Pitches
FIFA's expanded Club World Cup opened with all the excitement of a damp squib in a thunderstorm, managing to combine mediocre attendance figures with pitch conditions that would embarrass a Sunday league. The tournament's opening weekend provided a masterclass in how to spend £1 billion creating something nobody particularly wanted whilst charging £4 for student tickets because even teenagers won't pay full price.
The spectacle of Bayern Munich obliterating semi-professional Auckland City FC 10-0 perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with this vanity project. Watching Conor Tracey, a goalkeeper who works at a veterinary supply centre and had to take unpaid leave to participate, concede ten goals to millionaire professionals represents sporting entertainment at its most grotesque. The "David versus Goliath" narrative loses its charm when David gets obliterated whilst Goliath counts their prize money.
MetLife Stadium's pitch conditions provided the weekend's comedic highlight, with players complaining about surfaces so dry that the ball barely rolled. FIFA's insistence on installing grass over artificial turf—a requirement that exists primarily to justify their exorbitant facility demands—resulted in playing conditions that would shame a local park. When Palmeiras' coach credited rain during the match for finally making football possible, you know something has gone spectacularly wrong.
The attendance figures tell their own story: 60,927 at Hard Rock Stadium for Inter Miami (featuring the Messi factor), 21,152 in Cincinnati for Bayern's demolition job, and 46,275 at cavernous MetLife Stadium for what should have been a marquee fixture. These numbers suggest that American audiences, despite their supposed appetite for global football, can distinguish between genuine sporting spectacle and manufactured corporate events.
Perhaps most damning is the tournament's scheduling during peak summer heat, with PSG's manager Luis Enrique noting that 90-degree temperatures made "high-level performance impossible." FIFA's response to player welfare concerns appears to be hoping that air conditioning and optimism will suffice. Meanwhile, the prize structure that awards Auckland City £3.58 million for the privilege of public humiliation whilst European giants compete for £125 million demonstrates FIFA's commitment to global development remains purely rhetorical.
[Read more: Front Office Sports]
🏆 CONCACAF'S GOLD CUP GOLDMINE: When Regional Football Actually Works
Whilst FIFA struggles to convince anyone that their bloated Club World Cup matters, CONCACAF's Gold Cup demonstrates how to run a regional tournament without insulting everyone's intelligence. The confederation's flagship event has achieved a 175% increase in sponsorship revenue compared to 2023, proving that understanding your audience trumps throwing money at manufactured global spectacles.
CONCACAF General Secretary Philippe Moggio's "insight-driven approach to sponsorship" sounds like corporate nonsense but appears to actually mean something. The 17 confirmed sponsors for this year's tournament represent genuine commercial interest rather than FIFA's desperate attempts to justify their £1 billion investment. When legitimate brands like Shriners Hospitals for Children sign up voluntarily, it suggests the product has actual value rather than relying on FIFA's regulatory capture of global football.
The tournament's strategic approach to venue selection—mixing soccer-specific stadiums with larger NFL venues—shows someone actually thought about fan experience rather than simply maximising revenue. The decision to coordinate with FIFA's Club World Cup by focusing on the west coast while FIFA dominates the east represents the kind of sensible planning that seems beyond FIFA's capabilities.
The mobile app developed with Deltatre, featuring "thoughtfully integrated, non-intrusive digital assets," suggests CONCACAF understands that fans aren't simply targets for aggressive advertising. The integration with Opta for data visualisation and live updates represents genuine value-added content rather than corporate spam disguised as innovation.
Most tellingly, Moggio notes that Gold Cup and Nations League Finals matches have been "the most-watched soccer events in the US, surpassing both domestic leagues and some international tournaments." This success stems from delivering what fans actually want—competitive football between traditional rivals—rather than inventing global tournaments that exist primarily to generate revenue streams.
The cultural authenticity of teams like Mexico (nine-time winners) competing against regional rivals creates genuine sporting drama that FIFA's artificial global competitions cannot replicate. When CONCACAF describes their fanbase as "one of the youngest, most diverse and digitally savvy in all of sports," they're identifying organic audience characteristics rather than trying to manufacture demographic appeal through marketing manipulation.
[Read more: SportBusiness]
💼 JOBS IN FOOTBALL
Technology Asset & Supply Chain Specialist - FIFA, Hybrid (Zürich, Switzerland)
Managing tech assets for the organisation that brought you VAR delays and World Cup controversies
Apply here
Academy Head of Medical - Port Vale FC, Hertford, UK
Keeping future footballers healthy in the heart of Staffordshire
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Cloud and Endpoint Engineer, FIFA World Cup 2026 - Miami, FL, USA
Ensuring technology works better than the Club World Cup pitches
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Coordinator, Brand, FIFA World Cup 2026 - Miami, FL, USA
Managing brand strategy for a tournament people might actually watch
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Coordinator, Stadium Technical, FIFA World Cup 2026 - Miami, FL, USA
Overseeing stadium tech for venues that hopefully won't need rain to make football possible
Apply here
💡 QUICK HITS
Premier League kit sponsorship market evolves as gambling companies face 2026/27 front-of-shirt ban
NWSL attendance remains challenging despite celebrity owner strategies
FIFA's concurrent tournament strategy creates geographical competition across US markets
Regional football tournaments continue outperforming manufactured global competitions
📈 MARKET WATCH
Football sponsorship increasingly values authentic audience engagement over manufactured global reach. Traditional sports marketing wisdom continues to clash with modern digital-first approaches, whilst regional competitions demonstrate sustainable commercial growth models.
Tomorrow: The Monday morning midfielder's guide to weekend commercial disasters