When World Football Summit held its first event in Madrid in 2016, football was a different industry. Governance was in crisis, streaming had not yet disrupted broadcasting, women’s football was not a commercial conversation, and the idea of a club as a global intellectual property platform was still largely theoretical. Ten years and 33 events later, all of that has changed — and WFS has had a front-row seat to how it happened, hosting the leaders and conversations that helped drive that transformation.
To mark a decade as a platform, we are publishing an in-depth report on how football’s industry was rebuilt, drawing on testimony from the people who lived it — governing body leaders including Gianni Infantino and Fatma Samoura, competition executives such as Javier Tebas and Andrea Agnelli, commercial and media voices including Sir Martin Sorrell and Lisa Baird, and figures from the game itself such as Nadine Kessler, Pierluigi Collina, and Rio Ferdinand. One chapter per week, ten weeks, ten dimensions of a game that looks very different from where it started.
Chapter 1: The Architecture of Power – How football’s governance was rebuilt, contested and reimagined
The story of football governance this decade is one of reform and professionalisation. Few institutions have undergone a more significant transformation than FIFA between 2016 and 2026. The chapter covers how FIFA rebuilt its credibility from the ground up after the most damaging institutional crisis in its history, evolving into a functioning development platform for 211 federations and redirecting $200 million back into football development.
Beyond FIFA, the chapter details how domestic leagues across Europe, Africa, and Asia developed the financial frameworks that pulled clubs back from the brink and stabilised their competitions. It also explores how the Super League crisis forced a long-overdue reckoning with who football actually belongs to, who governs the game, on whose behalf, and with what legitimacy.
Today, football’s governance, while more regulated, remains deeply contested by leagues, clubs, players, and fans who now demand true participation rather than mere consultation. Discover how authority and influence were redistributed across the sport’s institutions over the past ten years.
Download Chapter 1 – “The Architecture of Power” – HERE.