Welcome to issue #089 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.
If you need support on your football journey, just write me.
Most clubs say “the fan is at the centre.”
Then they disappear for six days.
That’s a big risk.
Instead, I believe the product is not only the Sunday match.
It’s the relationship.
Do you agree?
From result to continuous experience
Today, the model is built on peaks.
90 minutes of attention. Then shhhh….silence.
That creates a ceiling because you only monetise when people show up.
What about a different model?
One where the match becomes one moment inside a continuous flow.
Where content is not marketing, but presence.
Access is not staged but is real.
Moments are not occasional, but they become fixed habits.
One simple implication:
A fan who spends 15 minutes with you once a week is not the same as one who spends 15 minutes a day.
That difference in the long term is big.
From fans to active users
If you want daily relevance, the fan needs a role.
A real one:
– access to parts of the process
– memberships with concrete value
– closed environments where the club listens and reacts
This is where most clubs hesitate.
Because there is a cost.
More access → higher expectations.
And let’s not underestimate this:
If you open access and can’t sustain it, you destroy trust faster than you build it.
So this is not a content strategy.
It’s an operating commitment.
From team to system
At this point, the club changes shape.
You stop running a team.
You start operating a system.
Think for an instant.
A traditional club:
– invests in players
– wants to win as much as possible
– communicates after
In our model, the club:
– invests in content, product, community
– designs weekly touchpoints
– builds daily interaction
From matchday revenue to time-based monetisation.
From transactions to accumulated attention.
From football KPIs to attention KPIs
If you don’t change what you measure, nothing changes.
Today:
– points
– league position
– matchday revenue
Tomorrow:
– time spent with the club per week
– retention of members
– % of active fans per day
– lifetime value
You can win games and still lose relevance.
Because relevance is built between matches.
What to do with this
If you want to apply it, start simple:
– define 3 fixed weekly touchpoints for fans
– open one real access layer (not content, access)
– track time spent, not impressions
Most clubs won’t do this because it forces a different way of operating.
Winning still matters.
It drives emotion like nothing else.
But it doesn’t hold attention on its own anymore.
This is where smaller clubs can move first.
Less inertia.
More speed.
Clearer identity.
If you build this well, you stop competing only on results.
You compete on time.
And most clubs are not even playing that game yet.
Keep winning,
Federico