The week-long gathering of the most senior executives in the global sports business, moving in 2026 to a campus at Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge.
Leaders Week London is the flagship event of Leaders in Sport and the most senior gathering in the global sports business calendar. First held in 2008, it brings together around 3,000 of the most senior executives in world sport. The 2026 edition runs from 5 to 8 October and moves to Stamford Bridge, the home of Premier League club Chelsea FC, under a multi-year agreement that reframes the week as a campus-style experience built for richer engagement and easier access across the community. The week combines forums, think tanks, masterclasses, award ceremonies and social events into a single concentrated run.
Leaders in Sport launched Leaders Week in 2008 and built it into the reference gathering for the leadership of the sports industry. Where most events target a single function or constituency, Leaders Week is deliberately top-of-house: it convenes the people who run clubs, leagues, federations, rights holders, brands and media. Its move to Stamford Bridge for 2026, in partnership with Chelsea FC, marks a new era for the format, trading a conventional venue for a stadium campus designed to make meetings and conversations easier to access.
The defining feature is seniority. Leaders Week gathers roughly 3,000 of the most senior executives in global sport: club owners and presidents, league and federation leaders, heads of media and rights, brand and sponsorship chiefs, investors and the senior technology figures who sit alongside them. For a sport technology vertical, this is an access point to the commissioning and budget-holding layer rather than to operational engineers, which makes it complementary to the production-focused events.
The programme spans strategy, media rights, commercial growth, fan engagement, performance and innovation, with dedicated technology and fan engagement sessions threaded through the week. Because the audience is so senior, the content leans toward direction-setting and deal-making rather than technical detail. The breadth is intentional: Leaders Week is designed as the place where the people who allocate budgets across sport take the temperature of the whole industry.
Leaders Week runs over four days in a campus format. It combines main forums, smaller think tanks and masterclasses, partner activations, experiential social events and the Leaders Sport Awards, which in 2026 are presented at an exclusive dinner at Café Royal during the week. The campus model at Stamford Bridge is designed to concentrate the community in one connected space, increasing the density of high-value encounters across the four days.
Leaders Week falls in early October, in the European autumn business run, shortly after WFS Madrid and SportsPro AI + Tech and just before SPORTEL Monaco. It is the European counterpart in seniority to the CAA World Congress of Sports in North America. For the vertical it sits at the strategic end of the spectrum: less about technology specifics, more about reaching the executives who decide where technology budgets go.
Leaders Week is the most senior room in the sports business calendar. Its value to the vertical is access to the commissioning layer, the owners, presidents and media chiefs who shape the budgets that flow into production and innovation, plus the dedicated technology and fan engagement sessions that keep it relevant to the sector. It is a strategic and networking target rather than a technical sourcing one.
| Founded | 2008 |
| Audience | ~3,000 senior executives |
| Format | 4-day campus |
| Venue 2026 | Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC |
| Awards | Leaders Sport Awards (Café Royal dinner) |
| Timing | early October |
From 5 to 8 October 2026 at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC, in London.
The most senior executives across clubs, leagues, federations, brands, media, investment and sports technology.
A week-long programme of forums, think tanks, masterclasses, awards and social events concentrated on the Stamford Bridge campus.
Awards recognising achievement across the sports business, presented at a dinner at Café Royal during Leaders Week.
Both are very senior business gatherings; Leaders Week is the European reference, the World Congress the North American one.
Leaders in Sport first hosted Leaders Week in 2008.