A new year, a new beginning.
2025 promises to give many opportunities to cherish and look forward to.
At SBI, we have multiple exciting things lined up, one of which you already are aware of. Starting in January, we kick off the year with our Certificate in Football Marketing & Sponsorship, a program designed to equip you with the skills to:
- Master the commercial side of football
- Understand business development
- Learn the keys to successful sponsorship sales
- Craft marketing campaigns driving real impact and revenue
- Understand how to market football events
- Elevate your club’s revenue generation strategies and tactics
Starting in January, this program will set your apart in the competitive sports business and marketing landscape.
Aside to this, we are working towards bringing you other exciting announcements and associations to elevate you as a football business professional. Keep watching this space.
We take this opportunity to wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2025!
Coming to the business side of football, 2025 carries forward some unanswered questions from last year, which can possibly affect the European football industry significantly. We list a few of them here.
Fate of the Club World Cup 2025
FIFA’s ambitious Club World Cup 2025, a new format tournament with 32 club teams chosen through a ranking pathway based on performances over a four-year period or by winning continental titles between 2021 and 2024, has been in the question mark zone almost from the time it was announced. The tournament saw unhappy players with an enlarged schedule & increasing player workload go on to file lawsuit against FIFA through PFA along with other leagues. FIFA also struggled to get hold of a broadcaster finally managing to close the broadcast rights deal with DAZN reportedly at a cost of $1bn.
The surprising bit?
The tournament is to be broadcast free-to-air which safely can be assumed as a step taken to maximize viewership FIFA so far has managed only a few sponsors for the tournament, namely Hisense, AB InBev and Bank of America, which also put a lot of question marks towards its commercial interest.
It will definitely be worth watching how the tournament turns out given all the above factors. It can either be a very successful one which could establish the IP and set the norm for the future or a half-baked one which could go on to be canceled or revert to the old format.
Manchester City & Charges
2024 saw the much-talked about trial between Manchester City and the Premier League begin after a long period of investigations, delays and what not. It got over in December 2024 and now comes down to the verdict from a three-man panel looking at the evidence, expectedly to be announced around Feb / March 2025 or might be even later.
What were the charge? Manchester City have been charged with breaking financial fair play rules over a nine-year period, starting in 2009 until 2018. They have also been charged with failing to co-operate with Premier League investigations into their finances which City has denied.
Why is this important? The possible punishments (after appeals et al) for Manchester City could range from points deduction stripping of titles to banishment from Premier League. What is more important are the ramifications City are found guilty. It could lead to severe impact on the Premier League & City’s credibility, swarm of lawsuits from multiple clubs claiming honours, impact player roster at City and of course, mark a question on the relationship between UK – UAE governments.
Football Governance Bill
Following a fan-led review of football governance, the then UK government confirmed in 2022 that it would legislate to establish the new independent regulator to oversee clubs in the top five tiers of the English Football League (EFL) citing shortcomings in the current model of industry self-regulation as a factor in the case for reform.
First version of the bill was tabled in March 2024 but ran out of time to pass through the parliament before elections in July. A more refined version with the Labour government in power was tabled in October 2024.
The Bill aims to tackle some contentious issues like parachute payments, monitor club finances etc. While it seemingly has a broad cross-party political support, it is the Premier League who has been vocal in its disapproval.
If the Bill passes through swiftly, it could possibly be introduced in entirety before the 25-26 season starts. How this will play out is something the entire football industry is eagerly awaiting.
Super League 2.0
The Super League is back in a new avatar. A22, the organizers behind it, revealed the reworked concept of what will be now known as the ‘Unify League.’
The difference with the erstwhile Super League is on two levels:
- The new proposal has 96 clubs competing in four different league levels chosen from 55 different leagues on the basis of performances in their domestic leagues
- A22 proposes that the Unify League would be streamed on a branded “Unified” platform with the options of free with high level of advertising content or pay for a premium that would eliminate advertising
So far, Unify League has the backing of only Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. There’s a studied silence from other league clubs especially from Premier League.
Where does it go from here?
There has been a lot of action from UEFA in the form of a revamped Champions League / Europa League / Conference League which were essentially the competitors. If Unify League were to fructify, it would mean end of the most moneyed leagues and UEFA’s cash cows which they would fight tooth and nail for. Also, Premier League’s / English football’s Football Governance Bill aims at controlling clubs from being a part of such a development.
At the other end, A22 will have to look at regular finances to establishing Unify League. Add to it the production, developing the technology and organizing the event. Assuming they do all that, they still have to contend with the individual leagues.
Only time will tell how this shapes up, but it is definitely one of the hot topics of 2025.
And More…
Apart from the ones listed above, there are many other developments across the world of football in 2025 namely introduction of San Diego FC, MLS’ newest expansion franchise, revival of football in China (should definitely watch out for), the struggle to get investment after collapse of proposed Apollo-NFL deal for Liga MX and many more.
In other words, the year is going to be busy, eventful and action packed. Keep watching this space.
