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- March 2025
- Case
YouTube: Bidding for NFL Sunday Ticket
By: Anita Elberse and Crystal Yao
In December 2022, Erin Teague, a senior director and the global head of sports, movies and shows at YouTube, technology giant Alphabet Inc.’s video- sharing platform, received the news that Sundar Pichai, the chief executive officer of Alphabet and its subsidiary... View Details
- January 2025
- Case
Negotiating with Data: Analytics FC (A)
By: Jillian Jordan and Livia Alfonsi
Analytics FC was a UK-based sports consultancy that focused on international football (soccer), leveraging cutting-edge data-analytic techniques to support clubs, federations, and players. In 2022, Alex Greenwood, an elite female defender, approached the company for... View Details
- January 2025
- Supplement
Negotiating with Data: Analytics FC (B)
By: Jillian Jordan and Livia Alfonsi
Analytics FC was a UK-based sports consultancy that focused on international football (soccer), leveraging cutting-edge data-analytic techniques to support clubs, federations, and players. In 2022, Alex Greenwood, an elite female defender, approached the company for... View Details
- January 2025 (Revised March 2025)
- Case
Thomas Müller: Mr. Bayern Munich
By: Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Alexander Liebhart and Sarah Abbott
In 2024, FC Bayern Munich superstar Thomas Müller announced his retirement from German national football. His contract with Bayern Munich runs through the end of the 2024-25 season. In 2025, Müller reflects on his long career in football, on the skills that have driven... View Details
Keywords: Soccer; Football; Data Science And Analytics Management; Bundesliga; Sports Data; ＂Sports Organizations,; Career Changes And Transitions; Career Management; Retirement Transition; Skills Development; Analysis; Competency and Skills; Decision Making; Performance; Personal Development and Career; Retirement; Sports Industry; Germany
- January 2025 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
From Neverkusen to Meisterkusen:* Building a Winning Organization at Bayer Leverkusen
By: Boris Groysberg, Brian L. Walker, Sascha L. Schmidt and Gamze Yucaoglu
This case follows Bayer Leverkusen football team through 2018-2024, as Fernando Carro takes the helm and makes organizational changes. Led by CEO Fernanda Carro, sporting director Simon Rolfes, and head coach Xabi Alonso, the Club becomes league champion for the first... View Details
- January 2025
- Case
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol
By: Anita Elberse, Juan Pasquín and Íñigo Pasquín
On June 1, 2024, Spanish soccer club Real Madrid captures its fifteenth Champions League title—more than double the tally of the nearest competitor. Under Florentino Pérez’s leadership, the club has now won six of the last eleven UEFA Champions League titles, and has... View Details
- December 2024
- Case
AC Milan
By: Anita Elberse
In April 2024, Giorgio Furlani is nearing the end of his first full season as chief executive officer of Italian soccer club AC Milan. A Harvard Business School Class of 2007 graduate with a finance background, Furlani was appointed by RedBird Capital Partners’ founder... View Details
Keywords: Sports; Soccer; Football; Entertainment; Media; Talent Management; Superstars; Marketing; Strategy; General Management
- 20 Aug 2024
- Interview
Angel City Football Club: A New Business Model for Women’s Sports
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Brian Kenny and Nicole Tempest Keller
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) was founded in 2020 by venture capitalist Kara Nortman, entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and actor and activist Natalie Portman. As outsiders to professional sports, the all-female founding team had rewritten the playbook for how to build a... View Details
- March 2024 (Revised April 2024)
- Case
Angel City Football Club: Scoring a New Model
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Jennifer Fonstad and Nicole Tempest Keller
In January 2024, Kara Nortman, Julie Uhrman, and Natalie Portman, the founders of Angel City Football Club (ACFC) were developing the club’s first three-year strategic plan. Founded in 2020, ACFC had a star-studded investor group, including Portman and celebrities such... View Details
- February 2024
- Teaching Note
The Globalization of Manchester City Football Group
By: Tiona Zuzul, Maria P. Roche and Exequiel Hernandez
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 723-391. View Details
- January 2024
- Case
Deion Sanders: The Prime Effect
By: Hise O. Gibson, Nicole Gilmore and Alicia Dadlani
In 2023, Deion Sanders, known as “Coach Prime,” became head football coach of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU). Sanders was tasked with leading CU’s struggling football program, which had only achieved one winning season in the last 15 years, back to glory. Many... View Details
- January 2024
- Case
National Football League and Private 5G
By: Andy Wu, Grant Son and Shuoyu Chen
On September 9, 2021, the National Football League (NFL) designated Verizon as its official 5G partner in a 10-year deal, committed to enhance the experience for NFL teams, players, and fans in stadiums. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “Verizon will help us... View Details
- September 2023
- Supplement
David Beckham (B): Signing Lionel Messi to Inter Miami CF
By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente
In June 2023, David Beckham, co-owner of Major League Soccer team Inter Miami CF, is hoping to find a way to bring Lionel Messi, widely regarded as one of the best players the world of soccer has ever seen, to his team. But Messi—a seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or... View Details
- September 2023 (Revised October 2023)
- Case
Mohamed Salah
By: Anita Elberse and Taher El Moataz Bellah
In June 2022, Mohamed Salah, one of the world’s best soccer players, and his lawyer and advisor Ramy Abbas Issa were in ongoing discussions with top English Premier League club Liverpool FC about a new playing contract for Salah. Arguably the Arab world’s biggest... View Details
- September 2023
- Article
Consuming Contests: The Effect of Outcome Uncertainty on Spectator Attendance in the Australian Football League
By: Patrick Ferguson and Karim R. Lakhani
Contests that non-contestants consume for entertainment are a fixture of economic, cultural and political life. We exploit injury-induced changes to teams' line-ups in a professional sports setting to examine whether individuals prefer to consume contests that have... View Details
- January 2023 (Revised August 2023)
- Case
Nick Saban: Embracing 'The Process' of Sustaining Success
By: Ranjay Gulati and Eppa Rixey
Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama football team from 2007-2022, fielded teams that won 183 of 208 games (88%), including a record-tying six national championships. Saban’s approach to coaching, known to many as “The Process,” and the consistent... View Details
Keywords: Purpose; Leadership And Managing People; Football; Recruiting; Talent Acquisition; Talent And Talent Management; Talent Development And Retention; Organization Change And Adaptation; Organizational Behavior; Sports; Leadership; Leadership Development; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports Industry; United States
- November 2022 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
The Globalization of Manchester City Football Group
By: Maria P. Roche, Tiona Zuzul, Exequiel Hernandez and Amy Klopfenstein
This case describes the efforts of City Football Group (CFG) to purchase Esporte Clube Bahia (Bahia), a Brazilian professional soccer club. CFG’s strategy was to acquire under-performing clubs worldwide, invest money in high-profile players, and improve the teams’... View Details
Keywords: Business Ventures; Acquisition; Business Conglomerates; Geography; Geographic Location; Geographic Scope; Globalization; Global Strategy; Globalized Markets and Industries; Markets; Demand and Consumers; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Organizations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Sports; Strategy; Competition; Competitive Advantage; Diversification; Expansion; Sports Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; England; South America; Brazil
- September 2022 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand
By: Tomomichi Amano and Masaki Nomura
Super Bowl 50, the fiftieth annual championship game of the American National Football League played in February 2016, featured 52 commercials, and brands spent more than six million dollars each for a 30-second commercial slot. Surprisingly, the commercial that... View Details
- May 2022
- Case
The NFL’s $110-Billion Media Rights Deals
By: Anita Elberse and Elizabeth Warner
On March 18, 2021, Brian Rolapp, chief media and business officer at the National Football League (NFL) presented the results of a months-long effort to renegotiate rights deals with the NFL’s current partners in television—the media conglomerates behind the networks... View Details
- January 2022
- Case
FIFA and The World Cup: The Future of Football
By: Anita Elberse, Oliver Band and Howard Johnson
Should FIFA host its biggest event—the FIFA World Cup—every two years instead of every four, as it has been doing since the event’s inception in the 1930s? In September 2021, Gianni Infantino, the president of the International Federation of Association Football... View Details