SAOT: From Officiating Tool to Commercial Asset
Liga MX became the first league in the Americas to deploy Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) this season. What emerged from the experience goes beyond officiating. At WFS Mexico City 2026, Harry Lennard, Director of Officiating Operations at Genius Sports, and José Luis Chávez, VAR Manager at the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol, explained how a tool […]
Less than a month left to apply for the WFS Awards 2026
World Football Summit has extended the application deadline for the WFS Awards 2026 to 17 July, giving football industry professionals less than a month to submit their candidacies. The WFS Awards recognise the professionals and organisations, in the spotlight and behind the scenes, whose work elevates the game, expands the business, and deepens its impact […]
World Cup Stadiums: What FIFA requires and what cities are left with
With six countries preparing to build for 2030, the architects behind some of those projects are asking a different question. “Designing a stadium for a World Cup is a double problem,” said Alejandro Barca, senior partner at L35, the architecture firm behind two stadiums for the 2030 World Cup. “You have to meet FIFA’s requirements […]
10 lessons WFS Mexico City taught us about the future of football
One week before the World Cup kicked off at Estadio Azteca, over 1,700 football industry professionals from more than 40 countries gathered at Camino Real Polanco for the third edition of World Football Summit Mexico City. Over two days and more than 40 panels, 137 speakers from clubs, federations, investment funds, broadcasters and technology companies […]
WFS Mexico City Day 2: Fan identity, new audiences and the 365-day stadium
The second day of WFS Mexico City 2026 brought together club executives, data specialists and sports infrastructure experts at Camino Real Polanco to debate how the football industry can translate recent years of growth into more sophisticated and sustainable business models. The shared diagnosis in the room was clear: the tools exist, but the ability […]
WFS Mexico City Day 1: The biggest World Cup in History, fan data and ROI
World Football Summit Mexico City 2026 kicked off yesterday at Camino Real Polanco — seven days before the host city inaugurates the biggest World Cup in history. Senior leaders from FIFA, the FMF, LALIGA, Club América, Tigres, Atlas FC, Ticketmaster and Miami Heat were among those on stage for a day of sessions covering fan […]
The World Cup that built nothing
In our latest blog piece we look into what the 16 World Cup stadiums say about the future of football infrastructure The FIFA World Cup kicks off in Mexico City on 11 June. Across the following 39 days, 104 matches will be played across 16 venues in three countries. Not one of those venues was […]
One week for WFS Mexico City: speakers, topics, brands and everything you need to know
The third edition of World Football Summit’s event for the Americas will be the biggest to date, with over 150 leaders taking the stage and more than 2,000 industry professionals attending. WFS Mexico City 2026 is on track to be the most ambitious edition of the event in the Americas. More than 2,000 professionals from […]
How the NBA built a sports economy in Africa and what football can learn from it
Sport accounts for roughly 2% of global GDP. Africa, which produces a disproportionate share of the world’s sporting talent, captures around 0.5% of that figure. The gap is structural: for decades, the continent has exported its best athletes and watched them generate value elsewhere. Football knows this dynamic better than any other sport — Salah, […]
Marc Spiegel: “Liga MX is unique because it has a major commercial engine in the US”
Marc Spiegel is the Founder and Managing Member of Innovatio Capital, the European private equity fund that in 2025 acquired Club Querétaro from Grupo Caliente for a figure close to USD 120 million. The deal made Innovatio one of the most notable new entrants in Latin American football: a fund with a clear thesis — […]