Welcome to issue #006 of Contemporary Football, your inside look at how the game really works behind the scenes.
Monday to Friday, you’ll uncover a new perspective on football business, and sometimes a deeper story that sharpens your thinking and gives you an edge in the beautiful game.
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Hey everyone,
Welcome to the second week of Contemporary Football!
Thank you to everyone who read my first five newsletters, and thank you for your valuable feedback!
Today we're talking about how social media is enabling even small clubs to have their say.
An exciting story! Enjoy it!
Image: Walton and Hersham FC
It’s not only about winning
Five years ago, seven 19-year-olds bought a club for £1.
No investors. No plan. No experience.
The name, Walton & Hersham FC, just a footnote in English football history.
Today that same club has over a million followers on TikTok, sells shirts on six continents, and hosts Premier League players like Cole Palmer in their games.
It’s the Wrexham of amateur football.
It is proof that, thanks to social media, we can all potentially become club owners.
And have fun making club life go viral.
The TikTok strategy
As explained by Filip Ioanitiu in his paper on the impact of TikTok on English football,
In April 2020, Walton & Hersham FC posted their first video on TikTok.
Four years later, they had 1.1 million followers and over 20 million likes.
Not bad for a non-league club playing in front of a few hundred people.
Their secret?
Not pretending to be something they’re not.
While most clubs post polished highlights and corporate messages, Walton & Hersham built an audience with humour and self-irony.
They made fun of themselves, teased other clubs, and jumped on trending sounds before anyone else did.
Their most famous video?
A promise: “If this gets 250,000 likes, we’ll give a trial to Cal the Dragon.” Cal is a controversial TikTok creator who insists he’s a brilliant goalkeeper.
The post blew up: 5.3 million views, 14,000 comments, nearly a million likes.
That single video did more for their brand than any match they played that year.
The shift that’s happening
For decades, perception was controlled by the media.
Today, a phone in the right hands can rewrite a club’s destiny.
Social media has turned attention into currency.
And in the hands of the new generation, it’s the most valuable one in football.
Today, you can cheer like crazy for West Ham, but at the same time follow the life of a sixth division club every day on Instagram.
Because it makes you laugh, because you can see what the players are doing during the week.
Whereas with your beloved West Ham, you always have the media filter.
The new formula
Football consists of thousands of clubs.
But only a few win major trophies like the Bundesliga or the Champions League.
And the others? They, too, have a reason to exist.
Today, an amateur club can become a small media company.
Their model is simple but powerful:
Identity → Content → Community → Revenue.
And it works because Gen Z doesn’t want to watch football from a distance…
They want to belong to it.
They want to follow a story, feel part of a journey, and be entertained along the way.
A fourth-tier club in England can now reach more people in a day than some top-flight teams do in a month.
Because they understand what emotion is worth.
The lessons
As always, a popular sport so deeply rooted in culture, such as football, is a reflection of society.
Football is Pop Culture.
And the story of Walton & Hersham FC applies to every small business.
I am thinking in particular of the many wonderful sports technology start-ups.
Content is King.
Distribution is the Emperor.
See you tomorrow, football friends,
Federico