Expected Goals

Welcome to our new fortnightly podcast dedicated exclusively to answering YOUR questions! This week Matt is joined by Charlotte Thomson tackling whether drinking alcohol in your seat is having any tangible impact; yes or no to betting sponsors in women’s football; and the commercial publishing mechanics for dedicated women’s sport media platforms. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of Expected Goals is the first of a new era for the podcast as Matt is joined by the first of his set of new rotating co-hosts. And it is Charlotte Thomson - a fountain of knowledge in brand positioning, sponsorship and fan culture - who is in the (other) hotseat. Most recently Charlotte was Head of Women's Football at COPA90, and she's been on the inside of various football rights-holders and media institutions including The FA and talkSPORT. And there are two topics on the agenda: are we seeing a Lionesses bump in English football - and if not, why not - and with a number of new brands coming into European top-tier women's football at a federation, league and club level, have rights-holders finally cracked the unbundled sell? If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week’s Expected Goals Maggie and Matt give some exciting updates about the future of Expected Goals - which if you’ve been reading the news you might be expecting! There's also a case study on NWSL expansion franchise Bay FC, and they step outside their bubble for a listener question about what football might learn from the current Women’s Rugby World Cup taking place in England. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As another major fund to buy women’s football teams launches, Maggie and Matt ask the question: why haven’t we seen any news of deals closing? They also analyse the English Football Association's new National League strategy for the women’s game, and see what impact it will have for club football outside the top-tiers, and answer a listener question about scheduling for this coming WSL season: will it prevent fans of WSL2 clubs from following the top-tier? Here is the Financial Times article Matt references If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Off the back of a new NWSL club sponsorship report that found the NWSL’s 14 clubs generated $75 million in sponsorship revenue for the 2024 season, Maggie and Matt compare and contrast and see where WSL clubs benefit and are restricted by being part of a men's team's sponsorship proposition. Matt also tweaks his ranking of the factors influencing someone’s decision to attend a women’s football game - based on listener feedback - and they answer a listener question about what clubs should be doing via the media to build loyalty beyond the Lionesses bump. This is the Southampton FC season ticket video Maggie references is in the podcast. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maggie and Matt are back! And with the domestic European football seasons less than a month away now, they look at how WSL clubs are looking to benefit from the Lionesses bump with season ticket on-sales. All of which leads to one key question: are tickets too cheap? They also mark UEFA's report card for the 2025 Women's Euros, and have a bit of fun discussing some of the weird and wonderful prizes women's teams and players have been given over the years. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Aston Villa reported to have sold its women’s side to ease PSR pressures on the men's team, Maggie and Matt look at the best operating model for this new era of “independent” clubs. The UEFA Women's Euros also start today, so they will tell you everything you need to know about how successfully it has been commercialised and new off-the-pitch business innovations, and answer a question about the WSL's self-produced new content series...at the Euros in Switzerland. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week's podcast is a live recording from the Expected Goals Live event at SOOO London on June 19th 2025. It starts with Maggie and Matt hosting a panel of investors and advisors to investors, who give an open and honest conversation about the decision-making processes for where the flow of money goes into women's football globally. Those panellists are: Nicki Boyd (Founder and Managing Partner of Sphera Partners) Richard Thomas (Co-Founder and Principal of Octosport) Olivia Hall (Founder of Firebird Collective) Ann Rodriguez (Co-Founder & General Partner at Pitchwise Holdings) There are then nine entrepreneurs operating in and around the women's football space looking for a combination of investment, sponsorship and guidance who give three-minute lightning pitches. Those pitchers are: Florence Lloyd-Hughes (The Cutback) Abby Pope (Liverpool Feds) Ivi Casagrande (Casagrande Coaching Academy) Abiola Ijasanmi (African Sports Investor) Lisa Anthoney (Freyja Fit) Nicole Allison (Worcester City Women FC) Ayisha Gulati (Hayters TV/Pitch Perfect LIVE) Renee Fraser-Shepherd (Sloobie) Nora Beqaj (Gals FC) If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The WSL has just announced promotion and relegation changes for next season - but which clubs are best positioned to benefit? Maggie and Matt are on the case, also covering what the lively situation at Hamilton Academical in Scotland tells us about the importance - or not - of sharing club IP between a men’s and women’s side. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week’s episode Maggie and Matt look at why another club has withdrawn from the pyramid - Barnsley - but this time explicitly laid the blame at the FA’s door. Is their criticism valid or a convenient excuse? They also look at female football participation in the UK and whether that is connected to attendance decline in the WSL, and with the Premier League deciding not to hold a vote to change rules around teams selling assets to related companies, whether this will be an added catalyst for more transactions like Chelsea Women. Buy tickets to come to Expected Goals Live on June 19! If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Maggie and Matt are joined by a special guest - Adrian Jacob, Head of Football at World Sevens Football. Before joining the global 7 on 7 women’s football series this March, Adrian was Chairman and Executive Manager at Chelsea Women for more than a decade, a period that saw the team move from a part-time club with 16 players training twice weekly to the most successful club in England. He discusses: The secret sauce of Chelsea Women's rise to dominance Player feedback from the inaugural event Negotiations with clubs to compete in World Sevens Growth revenue streams and plans for the next event in America What pyramid reforms would benefit English clubs and English talent. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disney+ has made a move into European women's football by acquiring broadcast rights for the UEFA Women’s Champions League, but is the fragmentation of the media landscape for women’s football in the UK a negative rather than a positive? Maggie and Matt are here to tell you the answer. They also look at how clubs should be positioning themselves for sponsors, with Glasgow City becoming one of the first women's football clubs - if not the first club - to publicly say who they will and won’t work with, and why. And a listener has asked them to assess the success of the World Sevens, which hosted its first tournament last week. Some links mentioned in this week's podcast: Buy tickets for Expected Goals Live here Sign up to do a lightning pitch Read Glasgow City's Launch Vision for Commercial Future here If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the start of a new season - at least for the podcast - and to kick-off Maggie and Matt are giving their take on the big stories that have broken since they last recorded...just two weeks ago. So that means why Alexis Ohanian has become the first major external investor into the WSL, and what the transaction means for the other clubs looking for investment. The new WSL branding, the financial situation at Blackburn, the 10% year-on-year attendance decline for the WSL, the confirmed move to make Goodison Park Everton Women’s home, and the Women’s World Cup expansion from 32 to 48 teams from 2031. ....and breathe. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why are Women's Super League attendances going to decline by 10% year-on-year while Championship attendances have doubled? Matt and Maggie have answers as they do a deep-dive into attendance trends for the top two leagues in England this season. They also answer YOUR questions, including why a club wouldn’t put fans in the stand most visible on broadcast camera, and what promoted and relegated clubs will be doing, or should be doing, in preparation for next season. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maggie and Matt tackle the really quite strange story of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who narrowly missed promotion to the Championship this weekend but later revealed to players that they hadn't actually submitted to required paperwork for them to be promoted, had they finished top. What does this tell us about the over-reliance on men's football in England, and will this debacle go any way to helping end that? They also look at who the new sponsors of women’s football in England will be as the WSL and Championship close in on new partners, including a cross-league sleeve sponsor, and if ticketing procedures were the reason Barcelona fans were kicked out of the "home" end at Stamford Bridge this weekend. And we analyse the really quite strange story of Wolverhampton Wanderers, who narrowly missed promotion to the Championship this weekend but later revealed they’d have actively blocked it had they achieved it If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

London City Lionesses are in pole position for promotion to the Women's Super League in Michelle Kang’s first full season in charge. What does their journey to becoming "the best team in England" (which is Michelle's objective) tell us about what it takes to bring a team from the Championship into the WSL - and stay there over the long-term? They also explore the relationship between women’s football and luxury fashion - what football can learn from the world of basketball in the States - and have news about ANOTHER major North American league launch; is women’s soccer in North America reaching the remarkable point of being saturated? If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No professional women's soccer league has ever existed in Canada - until today that is, with the Northern Super League (NSL) kicking off with six teams across the country. And a listener has contacted Maggie and Matt asking them whether they think it can success in a battle of attention against the long-established and still fast-growing NWSL south of the border. They also look at the influence Olympic football has on the women’s game following the IOC’s decision to increase the number of teams at the next Games from 12 to 16, and examine the impact of climate change on both the elite and amateur game - as a new report says women’s football will soon suffer disproportionately from floods and damaged pitches. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Much is being made of Chelsea's "sale" of Chelsea Women to BlueCo, the company owned by the same consortium that owns the club. In particular the valuation of £200m. Well, Matt's got a lot to say on the matter and where he thinks many of the analysts are taking the wrong approach to assess whether the valuation is accurate (or not). Matt and Maggie also examine supply and demand for hosting major women’s football competitions, following FIFA’s recent awards of the 2031 and 2035 Women’s World Cups, and answer a listener question about a story that might have passed you by - the FA deciding to shelve its plans for introducing B teams into the lower tiers of the English football pyramid. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the WSL this season, 39% of games to date have been played in main stadia - the primary stadium of the men’s first team - compared to a third at the same stage last season. But what are the motivations, and can you actually make money hosting club women's football in these venues? Maggie has been asking clubs, and will break down the economics - including how much it costs to create and maintain a pitch worthy of professional football, which has very much been in the spotlight. Matt also looks at player pay disparity following last week’s release of the annual FIFA Benchmarking Report which revealed the average annual salary for a female professional football player globally is £8.5k a year, while the pair answer a listener question about whether (or not) the League Cup in England should be stopped or adapted. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Formally announced tomorrow, World Sevens is a new women’s club football competition this May that will feature eight clubs from across the world and has a HUGE prize pot believed to be in the seven figures. Matt and Maggie look at why it's been set up, the incentives to compete, and whether fans will be interested or not. They also delve into the cross-section of toys, collectables and women’s football following Angel City's big new tie up with Tamogatchi, and answer a listener question about Manchester City women’s recent financial filing, and whether it’s going to get them into hot water over salary caps. If you're enjoying the podcast, please give us a like and a review! It will help us become more discoverable. Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production. Get in touch by emailing matt@unofficialpartner.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices