La Liga and European competitions have been pushing social media engagement through clubs and players.
UEFA via Getty Images
Soccer is undergoing a major change. Much like the world around it, new generations and new technologies are transforming the way in which fans engage with sports, and the case of soccer is one of the fastest-changing in the world.
Led by Generation Z, the economy of soccer is changing in the most drastic way since the initial transition of the First Division in England into the Premier League which spaked a wave of commercialization in 1992.
This digitally native generation, raised on short-form video, streaming, and interactive storytelling, is forcing clubs, leagues, and investors to rethink how the sport makes money. The traditional broadcast-driven model is weakening, debilitating the very model which allowed the sport to boom over the past 30 years, and the next stage of growth depends on reconnecting directly with the fan rather than relying on media intermediaries.
Changing ways of reaching fans
For decades, the business model of soccer depended on selling broadcast rights to third parties. Such deals have reach astronomical fees, such as the £6.7 billion ($8.8 billion) agreement between Sky and TNT in the United Kingdom, as reported by BBC Sport. Those deals fueled explosive revenue growth and created billion-dollar brands. Yet younger audiences are no longer consuming football in the same way.
Research by Ofcom in the United Kingdom shows that only 45% of people aged 16 to 24 watch broadcast television weekly, averaging just 17 minutes of live TV a day, a record low. Instead, Generation Z soccer addicts get their viewing action through platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and streaming channels, rather than traditional networks, and often watching highlights reels, rather than full matches.
Luis Vicente, chairman at APEX, described this structural weakness clearly while speaking at the World Football Summit in Madrid. “The soccer industry made a very successful business model based on one big mistake: that you always have somebody between you and your end customer,” he said.
“Investors assume that media rights cycles will continue to grow, but I’m very against it,” he explained. “Now, we’re seeing that investors don’t see the growth they were expecting, and on average there is a lower value per match, so it’s a situation that as investors, we have to help leagues, federations, and so on to create a new model, and that’s not easy.”
His warning is timely. A recent Deloitte Football Money League report shows Real Madrid as the first club to surpass €1 billion ($1.16 billion) in annual revenue, driven by diversified commercial and matchday income rather than TV rights alone. The report claims that the top 20 clubs worldwide reached a record €11.2 billion ($12.9 billion) in combined revenue, but growth is slowing in broadcast income while matchday and sponsorship categories are fueling the acceleration in overall revenues.
What Generation Z wants, and how that’s different
Generation Z’s habits are defining the future of the industry, both on and off the field. While they are less loyal to full-length broadcasts, instead prefering the trend of watching key moments, or following individual players rather than teams, surveys from Morning Consult show that about one in five Generation Z adults in the United States attends two to four live sports events per year, one of the highest participation rates of any age group.
It follows a trend shown by Deloitte’s research on immersive fandom found that Generation Z consumers prefer interactive, social experiences, driven by social media, and are most likely to consume sports through highlights reels and content from influencers, often on streams.
Andre Amaral, CEO of Liga Portugal, one of Europe’s biggest national soccer competitions, pointed to that generational difference as causing a significant impact on the way business is done. “The reality is that we don’t know the audience, professional soccer has been built on a B2B relationship with another B in the middle, it’s the original sin,” he said while speaking at the World Football Summit.
“Live sports, in the traditional sense, have always been used by other industries as a solution to acquire clients,” he elaborated. “We’ve been a means to an end, for companies like Amazon looking to sell subscriptions to Prime. We haven’t been able to harness that agency power ourselves directly. We could use that agency power to overtake and monetize, but, at the end of the day, we have to go to the most primitive way, which is telling a story, gamifying and social interaction. Those are the three factors of disruption.”
Amaral’s “storytelling, gamification, and social interaction” combination ties in perfectly with what Generation Z values. They are no longer passive viewers like generations before them, they now demand participation and direct involvement. The ever-growing trend of fantasy sports, now almost as popular as their NFL equivalents in the United States, reflect that. There are also interactive polls, and behind-the-scenes content created by clubs, leagues and media outlets which are seeking to drive emotional connection and commercial opportunity. Clubs that can turn those digital interactions into measurable fan data will hold a major advantage.
New platforms provide new opportunities
The delivery infrastructure is also evolving. GlobalWebIndex claims that in 15 major markets, about one third of Generation Z sports fans now use Amazon Prime to watch sports, and similar trends apply to YouTube, Apple TV, and TikTok. Even beyond paid channels, Ofcom data confirms that younger fans now see YouTube as a default viewing platform, even on television screens. In Spain, La Liga’s streaming platform, LALIGA+, is an example of a rights holder, in this case the competition itself, moving toward direct access for consumers, removing the middle B that Amaral refered to.
However, fragmentation and pricing remain key friction points. Surveys from Altman Solon show that 66% of sports fans find it difficult to access their favorite live games, and 43% are unwilling to pay current subscription prices, a common problem which is driving a growing use of pirate platforms. Those numbers suggest that clubs and leagues must design simpler, cheaper, and more flexible subscription models if they hope to earn and drive loyalty from Generation Z.
Building a sustainable fan relationship
The next phase of football’s growth will depend on reclaiming the direct relationship with supporters. That means integrating storytelling and commerce into a unified fan experience which will offer engagement as a way to generate loyalty.
Digital platforms no longer merely stream matches but also function as communities with live chat, influencer collaborations, and instant purchasing options to directly drive commercial value. When content, conversation, and checkout coexist, the opportunity for clubs exists to capture both attention and transactions.
La Liga’s work with Microsoft on digital transformation shows the industry’s awareness of this opportunity. By using analytics and CRM systems to map fan behavior, leagues can sell smarter through the personalization of experiences, eventually helping to create recurring revenue from a loyal fanbase.
The economy of soccer is evolving rapidly, moving from business-to-business to business-to-fan. The next billion dollars in growth will not come from another round of inflated media rights but from mastering the relationship with the global, mobile, Generation Z consumer. Clubs and competitions that understand the transformation stand to benefit the most.