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.

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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)

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)

Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production.

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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.

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In this week’s episode Maggie and Matt look at why another club has withdrawn from the pyramid - Barnsley - but this time explicitly laid the blame at the FA’s door.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!

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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:

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Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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