What The Footie Podcast

79. Polly Bancroft: CEO at Grimsby Town FC

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.

- - - - - - - 

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.

78. Mariela Nisotaki: Head of Emerging Talent at Norwich City

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.

- - - - - - - 

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.

77. Nancy Hensley: Founding Member at Mercury 13

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.

- - - - - - - 

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.

76. Claire Stewart: Are There Too Many Games? And How Prorizon Tech Will Fix It?

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 teams in the world, player welfare, the challenges that football players face, the data revolution in football and so much more.

- - - - - - -

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.

75. Felix Torralba: Chief Revenue Officer at RCD Mallorca

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 history to grow the fanbase, American investors in football, their partnership and links with the NBA's Phoenix Suns, La Liga's CVC deal and why the clubs in La Liga needed it, the distribution of wealth in Spain in comparison to other leagues like the Premier League, FFP and financial sustainability rules, taking the RCD Mallorca to America and Asia, the importance of storytelling for a football club and so much more.

- - - - - - -

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.

74. Tim Williams: CEO at Oxford United FC

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, creating and designing strategies, the day-to-day role, developing a new stadium, being a Top 30 club in England, setting a culture in a football club, developing loan players, the 3pm blackout/broadcasting, the distribution of wealth in England, new ownership models, FFP and financial sustainability rules, valuing a football club and so much more.

- - - - - - -

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.

73. Carol Shanahan: Owner & Chair at Port Vale FC

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 pathways for academy players, the new EFL TV deal/TV revenues, the distribution of wealth in England, competing against different ownership models, being a people-orientated leader, culture and so much more.

- - - - - - -

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.

72. Tatjana Haenni: Chief Sporting Director @ NWSL

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 & Patrick Mahomes), creating player pathways, the growth of the league, the challenges, Tatjana's 30-year experience of driving the growth of women's football forward, what's needed next and so much more.

- - - - - - - 

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.

71. Debbie Cook: CEO @ Grimsby Town FC

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 Jennings' new role as Strategic Advisor to the Board, the relationship between of the Head of Recruitment/Board/Head Coach, the new EFL TV deal, beating Luton Town and Southampton in the FA Cup and so much more.

- - - - - - - 

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.

70. David Stevenson: Performance Analysis & Working with World Class Coaches

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 coaches, how analysis differs in an academy environment vs a 1st team environment, how performance analysis fits interacts with other high performance departments, how to effectively communicate with players, technology, scanning in football, tactical innovation and so much more.

- - - - - - - 

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.