Business of Sport Ep.19: Eniola Aluko, Fmr Lioness, Pundit & Investor, ‘Athletes have to use their platform to affect change’

This week, we are delighted to welcome Eni Aluko to the show. Categorizing Eni’s career is a hard one. Former professional footballer, media personality, investor, sporting executive. Eni has been a prominent figure in the sport for nearly 20 years. As a player, she most notably represented Chelsea and Juventus, while winning over 100 caps for England, playing a huge role in establishing the women’s professional game we enjoy so much today. She is a leading pundit for ITV and TNT, while also being the first female to appear on Match of the Day. She has held Sporting Director positions at Aston Villa and Angel City in the US, and is now part of Mercury13, a multi-club ownership group focused on acquiring controlling stakes in professional women’s football teams.

It’s an impressive list of achievements, but that’s not to suggest it’s been an easy road. From the challenges of accessing football in her youth, struggling to finance a career in football before it became professional, fighting against the vitriol of female pundits in the male game, and coming through a very public discrimination case with the FA, Eni has be instrumental in elevating the profile of women’s football and most importantly, women in football as a whole.

This was a special opportunity to sit down with her and talk through all of this. It is a conversation driven by frank honesty, with some fascinating opinion thrown in on the current footballing landscape for good measure. She openly admits she is not everyone’s cup of tea, but that doesn’t bother her.

In today’s show we discuss:

Accessibility of women’s football:

• The lack of access when Eni was growing up. How did she begin her career and what were academy systems like?
• How financially feasible was it to commit to a career in football before the women’s game became professional?
• How moving to the US was Eni’s most viable route to professional football, and how the WSL has changed that today.
• Having to ‘pay-to-play’ for England: taking time off from a full time job away from football to be able to play for your country.
• Should women’s clubs be integrated into men’s clubs or should they be separate entities like we often see in the US. Brand, attendance and freedom to act independently?

A career away from the pitch:

• Breaking into the media: appearing as the first female pundit on Match of the Day to contracts with TNT and ITV.
• Putting yourself in the public and breaking down the barriers for women to play a major role in the world of sports media across the men’s game.
• Handling the pressures of live TV and the scrutiny that has arisen from social media. How to ignore the noise and focus on the job.
• The concern that women coming into football media are now not performing because they are fearful of making mistakes.
• A passion for football business and governance: ‘Director of Football’ roles at Aston Villa and Angel City and how football clubs are run.
• Investment into women’s football: Mercury13 and the multi club investment model. What are the opportunities and challenges facing the women’s game?

The football landscape today:

• How do transfers work? As an experienced sporting director, what is the relationship like between clubs when negotiating a deal?
• What is Eni’s view on the increasingly prevalent PSR and how they have been executed over the past 6 months?
• Will an independent regulator improve the Premier League?
• Should there be a salary cap introduced to control spending and protect clubs from getting into financial difficulty?
• Declan to Rice to Arsenal. Did City participate to help Arteta get his deal done?
• Communication is key. We need to know what is going within clubs to help the fans engage with their teams.
  

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