The Soccer Business Podcast

Women’s soccer is no longer just a game on the field - it’s an emerging asset class, and Chelsea Washington knows exactly why that matters. From becoming the first player drafted from her college into the NWSL to working in sports finance and investment today, she breaks down the business side of the women’s game that most fans never see.Simon Evans and Vnciane Ngomsi sit down with Chelsea Washington for a sharp, revealing conversation about the shift from athlete to investor, what she learned inside the locker rooms of the league’s golden era, and why the next phase of women’s soccer will be defined by patience, infrastructure, and smarter capital.
 
You’ll discover: * How Chelsea’s playing career unexpectedly prepared her for sports finance *
What it was like sharing a locker room with legends like Alex Morgan, Marta, Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris, and Sydney Leroux *
Why the NWSL’s valuation surge is exciting, but still demands long-term thinking
* How private equity, institutional money, and minority stakes are changing the sports investment landscape
* Why the Canadian Northern Super League may have a structural advantage in building from the ground up
Chelsea also explains how her time in Australia helped her reset, regain confidence, and finish her playing career on her own terms.
She shares what separates sustainable growth from hype, why women’s teams need intentional ownership and dedicated resources, and where the biggest opportunities for young players and future investors may be emerging next.If you want the clearest possible view into where women’s soccer is headed - on the pitch, in the boardroom, and across the global investment market - this episode is essential listening.

Zavier Gozo from Salt Lake to Premier League Crystal Palace, Sebastian Berhalter and Max Arfsten to Middlesbrough, even two USL strikers moving to Scotland. Why are British and European clubs suddenly buying players from MLS and USL? And can MLS and USL grow by being 'selling leagues'? Tom Bogert of The Athletic, America's number one journalist on soccer's transfer market, joins The Soccer Business to take a look at what is going on? 

Jennifer Levine, Vice President of Communications and Public Relations with the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) joins the pod to talk about the growth of the league, their core and target audiences, how the league is story telling and whether there is competition with other women's sports league such as the WNBA. This is the first of our new series 'The Women's Soccer Business Podcast'.

Clubs are paying for mountains of player data — and using as little as 15% of it. Dean Bracha, founder of Marquee, joins the launch episode of The Stack to explain how his Tel Aviv-based platform is using AI to close that gap, and why he thinks most recruitment departments are still making multi-million-pound decisions on a fraction of the information available to them.
Simon Evans and André Da Costa dig into how Marquee's 12 proprietary AI models work as a "decision intelligence layer" sitting on top of a club's existing data stack — automating roughly 70-75% of the recruitment analysis process while leaving the final call, the "eye test," and the agent relationships to humans.
They cover real scenarios (what happens if Real Madrid come for Declan Rice on transfer deadline?), the industry's data-opacity problem, why AI still has a trust issue inside football clubs, and where the human scout still beats the model. This is the first episode of The Stack — The Soccer Business's new series on the tools and systems running modern clubs, covering technology from both a performance and a commercial angle.

In the first of our new series on investment topics 'The Deal Room' we take a look at reports that Amazon owner Jeff Bezos is part of a consortium looking to acquire a sizable chunk of Liverpool FC. With the club's valuation reported to be somewhere between $6 billion and $8 billion, what would this investment mean for the club? Does Fenway Sports Group have an exit strategy and what kind of presence would Bezos be at Anfield? Former Liverpool CEO Peter Moore returns to the pod to give his view on the situation.

MLS is banking on it's partnership with Liga MX in the Leagues Cup, which got underway this week, to deliver growth across all areas of the business. On Wednesday the competition held its first game on Mexican soil with a packed crowd in Toluca witnessing the clash with the Seattle Sounders.
Tom Mayo, Executive Director of Leagues Cup, joined the pod to outline MLS's thinking about the tournament and reveal how the competition will fit into the new-look MLS calendar.
Plus we touch upon the unveiling of Larry Berg as new commissioner of MLS in New York earlier this week with the thoughts of Don Garber, Jimmy Haslem and Berg himself and Simon looks at how Berg handled the media for the first time.

Larry Berg is the new MLS Commissioner having been chosen to replace Don Garber in the top seat at the league. But what to expect from the former private equity executive and LAFC co-owner? What will be at the top of his agenda. Brian Anderson from Sheppard Mullin, an analyst of American soccer business, joins the pod to talk to Andre and Simon about the big new appointment.
 
 

Simon Evans is joined by Andre Da Costa and Sports Business Journal's Alex Silverman for a wrap-up review of the World Cup — breaking down the tournament's biggest business winners and losers.
From Erling Haaland to Cristiano Ronaldo - beer sales to hydration break revenue - it's all covered as the pod looks back on a memorable five weeks.

Every four years the same debate resurfaces after a US World Cup exit: pay-to-play, access, and why the world's most inclusive sport still has a class problem in America. Ed Foster-Simeon, CEO of the US Soccer Foundation, has heard it all before — and argues the industry keeps asking the wrong question. Instead of fixating on elite player development, he makes the case that talent identification is a volume problem: you can't find good players in communities that don't have anywhere to play.
Foster-Simeon walks through how the Foundation is closing that gap — nearly 1,000 mini-pitches built toward a 2026 target, 1.6 million youth reached through school and after-school programming, and a funding model that leans on philanthropy. We get into what actually moves the needle on access, why "sticky" community engagement matters more than chasing the next elite prospect, and what it'll take — money, policy, and a shift in how the game's value gets pitched to donors — to make soccer as culturally embedded in under-resourced communities as it already is in the suburbs.

'Pay to Play' youth soccer is being blamed for the USMNT under-performing. But is there another way for kids to be given access to coaching? Amir Lowery is a coach and former MLS and USL player who is now head of the Open Goal Project at DCFC in Washington, DC - a free to play program. He joins Simon to explain the problems with pay-to-play and how the alternative he has built actually works.