WFS Awards 2026: Official jury revealed

World Football Summit has officially revealed the jury panels for the WFS Awards 2026, with the final deadline for applications set for 17 July. Marking the tenth anniversary of the programme, this year’s edition introduces three new categories: Best Content Creator (presented by TikTok), Best Fan-Centric Initiative (presented by Goodform by YouFirst), and A Career […]
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 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 […]
Common Goal CEO Mary Connor: “If Common Goal was a Federation it would be the third in the World”

Mary Connor spent her career asking what football is really for. As a professional player, as co-founder of Soccer Without Borders, and now as recently appointed CEO of Common Goal — the largest global network using football as a tool for social change — her answer has never changed: the game is most powerful when […]
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, […]
New Report: LATAM football assets

Over the past decade, foreign capital has flowed into Latin American football at a pace the region had never seen before. More than USD 1.5 billion committed across Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Uruguay — and the deals keep coming. Mapping the foreign capital flowing into Latam football Mexico has emerged as the most attractive […]