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 innovation, and making long-term decisions in a results-driven environment — from club strategy and budgeting to recruitment alignment, culture, and community.

They also discuss the wider challenges facing the game right now — financial sustainability, governance and ownership structures, commercial growth, and how clubs can future-proof themselves while staying connected to their supporters.

What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5-star review.

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 1 is evolving as a talent factory, lessons from running a modern European club, and the big-picture challenges facing football — from ownership models and financial sustainability to the future of analytics in the game.

What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5-star review.

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 early in their careers when it comes to building wealth, balancing short-term earnings with long-term investment strategy, why athlete need trusted advisors, how to empower athletes to take control of their wealth and investments and so much more.

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What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5 star review.

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 Two Circles helped clubs to capitalise on these opportunities, how F1/NBA/NFL commercialise their sports, revenue models in football, why building new stadia has become so important, Matt being a Chelsea pitch owner, the 3PM Blackout, the Premier League going direct-to-consumer, the big topical football business questions on the horizon and so much more.

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What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5 star review.

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 independent regulator, driving commercial and sporting success, creating and designing strategies, the day-to-day role, working with owners and within a multi-club model and so much more.

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What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5 star review.

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, understanding context, developing a clear game model, driving commercial revenue, creating and designing strategies, the day-to-day role, working with owners and so much more.

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What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5 star review.

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 League-ready squad, the challenges and learning of the role, using live scouting/data/video scouting to profile players, having a robust process to sign-off on players, working within a multi-disciplinary team and with a sporting director and so much more.

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What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5 star review.

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, the growth and future of women's football, how data can transform women's football and the lack of data in it, and so much more.

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What The Footie is the football and business podcast that goes behind the scenes.

Please remember to support the pod with a follow & a 5 star review.

Today's episode is sponsored by Prorizon.