The Financial Times' high-level summit on the business and finance of football, gathering club and league executives, investors, advisers and regulators around the financial forces reshaping the game.
The Business of Football Summit, produced by FT Live, is the Financial Times' annual reading of football through a financial and editorial lens. The 8th edition took place on 25 and 26 February 2026 at The Peninsula London, gathering club and league executives, investors, advisers and regulators around the game's financial, strategic and regulatory challenges. As of this verification, no 2027 edition has been announced; the organiser's registration page (businessoffootball.live.ft.com) does not carry forward-dated content, and no save-the-date has surfaced across the summit's usual channels. Prospective attendees tracking the next edition should also monitor the broader sport tech circuit for the announcement window, which has historically opened several months ahead of the following February.
Led by the FT newsroom, the Summit offers a financial and strategic reading of football: private investment, media rights, governance, ownership models and competitive balance. The 2026 programme covered growth models under stricter financial regulation, high operating costs, revenue diversification, the FIFA World Cup's commercial impact, women's football investment, stadium expansion and the effect of technology on fan engagement. The format combines in-person attendance in London with virtual participation for a global audience, with every session moderated by Financial Times journalists rather than external hosts. This distinguishes it from trade-body conferences such as the SVG Europe Summit or data-first gatherings such as the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference: the FT's own editorial staff frame every panel, which keeps the agenda close to what the paper's football and finance desks are already reporting.
Low on the technology and broadcast angle, but a strong read on the economic forces, rights, ownership and investment, that shape production and innovation budgets. Best treated as strategic intelligence for the vertical: the decisions debated on stage here, financial fair play enforcement, private equity entry into clubs, media-rights valuation, are the budget constraints that later determine what clubs and leagues can spend on the broadcast and data technology tracked elsewhere on the sport tech circuit. Compared with business-development-oriented events such as SportsPro London, the Summit is narrower and more editorial: fewer exhibitors and demo floors, more on-record interviews conducted by FT journalists themselves.
The confirmed 2026 lineup, reported by the Italian sports-business outlet Calcio e Finanza ahead of the event, included:
A dedicated panel on "Women's Football: Investing in a major growth story" additionally featured Kay Cossington MBE (Bay Collective), Nadine Keßler (Managing Director of Women's Football, UEFA), Martin Semmens (CEO, London City Lionesses) and Ian Lynam (Partner, Northridge), moderated by Ashley Armstrong of the Financial Times.
Confirmed partners for the 2026 edition include the law firms Northridge (associate sponsor), Herbert Smith Freehills and Clifford Chance, the reputation and communications advisory Milltown Partners, and Deutsche Bank. Clifford Chance's own briefing on the event, authored by Luis Alonso, Partner and Co-Head of the firm's Entertainment & Sports Sector group in Madrid, frames its participation as advisory rather than commercial sponsorship, reflecting the Summit's professional-services-heavy partner base compared with the technology-vendor sponsorship seen at events such as Adopt AI Global Summit. A full sponsor tier structure (platinum, gold, and similar categories) is not publicly disclosed as of verification.
Coverage of the 2026 edition splits by outlet type and interest, based on the confirmed examples below:
International broadcast and general-news pickup (Reuters, BBC, Sky News, Guardian-tier coverage) was not found as attributable, named coverage of the Summit itself as of this verification; the confirmed coverage instead concentrates in football-business trade press and the legal and advisory sector. Given the organiser's own brand is the Financial Times, ft.com's own reporting and video content (available via the FT Live YouTube channel) constitutes the primary first-party coverage; independent 2026 accreditation or media-attendance volumes are not publicly disclosed as of verification.
Club and league executives, investors, advisers, media professionals and regulators working on the financial, strategic and governance side of football. It is not aimed at production or broadcast-technology buyers, whose interests are better served by events such as SVG Europe Summit or the broadcast-heavy sessions at SportsPro London.
Limited. The Summit is about the finance and governance of football rather than production technology, though the 2026 programme did include a session on technology's effect on fan engagement. Attendees seeking a dedicated sports-data or analytics angle are better served by the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
Its FT-newsroom format. Every session is moderated by Financial Times journalists rather than external hosts or sponsor representatives, which keeps the agenda editorially independent and closely tied to the paper's own football and finance reporting. This differs from vendor- or association-led events elsewhere on the sport tech circuit, where sessions are more commonly hosted by sponsors or trade bodies.
It sits at the finance and governance end of the sport tech circuit rather than the broadcast or data-technology end. Its value to a technology-focused reader is indirect: the ownership, rights-valuation and regulatory decisions debated here are the budget constraints that later shape spending on production, streaming and analytics technology tracked across the rest of the upcoming EMEA events calendar.
The most editorial and finance-led football event, run by FT journalists rather than a trade association or technology vendor. Low on production and broadcast technology, but a sharp, on-record read on the economics, financial regulation, rights valuation and ownership structures, that ultimately set the budgets available for the innovation tracked elsewhere on the sport tech circuit.
Registration for past editions has been handled through the organiser's dedicated event site (businessoffootball.live.ft.com), with a mix of in-person and virtual attendance options. Ticket pricing tiers are not publicly disclosed on the organiser's site as of verification; the Summit is typically positioned as a senior invitation-and-application event rather than an open-registration conference with published price bands, consistent with FT Live's other executive-tier summits. Prospective attendees should register interest directly via FT Live for notification when the next edition opens.
No. As of this verification (4 July 2026), no dates, venue or registration page for a 2027 edition have been published. The 2026 edition (25-26 February) has already concluded, and no forward announcement has surfaced on the organiser's channels or in press coverage.
The 2026 edition combined in-person attendance in London with virtual participation for a global audience, indicating a hybrid format rather than in-person-only access. Selected panel video content, including the women's football investment panel, has been made available via FT Live's own channels after the event. The scope of full-programme replay access is not publicly disclosed as of verification.
Not publicly disclosed. Unlike vendor-sponsored technology summits that typically publish delegate, VIP and group pricing tables, FT Live does not carry a public price list for this Summit as of verification.
| Official website (FT Live) | https://www.ft.com/live |
| Event registration | https://businessoffootball.live.ft.com/ |
| Sport Tech circuit (Events Index) | /sport-tech.html |
| SVG Europe Summit (Events Index) | /events/svg-europe-summit.html |
| MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (Events Index) | /events/mit-sloan-sports-analytics-conference.html |
| SportsPro London (Events Index) | /events/sportspro-london.html |
| Upcoming EMEA events (Events Index) | /upcoming.html |