Expected Goals

By Unofficial PartnerSports Soccer

Expected Goals episodes

June 18, 2025 The teams best positioned for WSL structure changes
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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Expected Goals is an Unofficial Partner production.
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48 min
June 11, 2025 Are minimum standards in the English pyramid too onerous?
In this week’s episode Maggie and Matt look at why another club has withdrawn from the pyramid - Barnsley - but this time explicitly laid the blame at the FA’s door.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 [email protected]

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51 min
June 04, 2025Behind the scenes at Chelsea Women and World Sevens
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 [email protected]

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52 min
May 28, 2025Is ANOTHER broadcast partner good for UK women's football?
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 [email protected]

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50 min
May 21, 2025 What Ohanian's Chelsea investment means for other WSL clubs
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 [email protected]

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1 hr
May 07, 2025 Championship crowds doubled; why are WSL attendances down?
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 [email protected]

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56 min
April 30, 2025 Wolves Women and a continued reliance on men's football
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 [email protected]

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52 min
April 23, 2025 Has London City taken its first step to becoming the best team in England?
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 [email protected]

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59 min
April 16, 2025 Can the NSL challenge the NWSL's dominance in North America?
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 [email protected]

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48 min
April 09, 2025 Why Chelsea Women COULD legitimately be worth £200m
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 [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
55 min

About Expected Goals

From the publisher's feed

Expected Goals leads the business conversation for women's football. It is a must-listen for anyone riding the women's football wave - both those investing in it and those who want to understand the dynamics of the business underpinning it.