Confidential briefingPrepared for the readerEurope · Middle East2026

StrategyBusinessInvestmentFootball

Subject: Jon Soler — independent advisory practice at the intersection of the four.
Position: Strategy, business and investment for clubs, investors and public institutions.
Method: AI-native research and strategic intelligence, applied with judgement.

§ 01

Background

Over a decade working with major companies, regulators and governments across Europe and the Middle East on strategy, organisation, growth and implementation.

Later, a formal football education through the UEFA Academy and University of Lausanne, Universidad Europea and the Real Madrid Graduate School, Barça Innovation Hub and The FA, alongside applied work in talent development, scouting and data analysis.

The professional focus is football strategy: the same discipline, applied to the major decisions facing clubs, investors, sports organisations and public institutions.

The practice itself is AI-enabled: research, benchmarking and document synthesis amplified by AI tools, delivered with bespoke strategic judgement rather than automated advice.

Note — the combination is the point. Football knowledge is common; senior institutional advisory experience and a career spanning Europe and the Middle East is not.

§ 02

Areas of work

Figure 1 — Four areas, in order of application

Government and institutional sports strategy
National and city football and sports strategies, sector development, governance, participation and talent pathways, and investment priorities.
Ownership and investment strategy
Strategic and commercial assessment of football investments, ownership priorities and post-investment strategy, working alongside financial and legal specialists.
Club and federation strategy
Long-term direction, governance, organisational design and strategic priorities.
Growth, internationalisation and organisation
Market entry, partnerships, institutional relations, organisational models and implementation across Europe and the Middle East.

^†Additional football capabilities: talent-development systems, academy strategy, scouting-function design and data-informed decision-making.

§ 03

Record

Period	Position	Detail
2026–	Independent advisory practiceStrategy · Business · Investment · Football	Advising clubs, investors, sports organisations and public institutions on strategy, organisation, growth and investment in football and sport, with AI-enabled research and analysis behind the work.
2018–2025	Oliver Wyman — Dubai, UAEAssociate Partner from 2020	Multi-year strategy and transformation programmes for major Middle Eastern tech groups; advisory to national regulators on sector strategy, organisational transformation and data governance, including a national ICT-sector assessment in a major Gulf economy.
2017–2018	Delta Partners — Dubai, UAEManager, Advisory	Cross-continental engagement across Asia, the Middle East and Africa for global Fortune 500 corporations.
2016–2017	Government of the Canary Islands — Tenerife, SpainEconomic and Strategic Advisor	Economic internationalisation programme: strategy, stakeholder alignment, market targeting, investment attraction. Published in the Financial Times’ fDi Magazine.
2015	Uber — Barcelona, SpainOperations Manager	Operations lead in the launch of a new product that pivoted the company’s business model in Spain.
2013–2014	Delta Partners — Barcelona, SpainStrategy Consultant	Began a career in strategy consulting between Europe and the Middle East, working with executive boards from the first year on ambiguous, high-stakes strategic problems across markets, industries and cultures.

§ 04

Playbooks

Seven playbooks built as proprietary research, not marketing collateral — the evidence base, frameworks and judgement behind the areas of work above.

30PP · PDF

AI Playbook for Football Academies

Where artificial intelligence changes the decisions an academy makes, where it does not, and how to deploy it without harming the players or the institution.

For academy directors, sporting directors and the federations overseeing them: a maturity model and governance framework for deploying AI in professional and national academies across Europe and the Middle East, boys' and girls' pathways alike.

Read online → Download PDF ↓
31PP · PDF

Operational and Financial Improvement of Football Academies

How an academy earns its budget: where the money comes from, where it leaks, and the operating decisions that move both.

For presidents, sporting directors and academy directors of professional and independent formative clubs: where academy budgets actually come from, where they leak, and the operating decisions that move both — with a Spanish regulatory appendix.

Read online → Download PDF ↓
29PP · PDF

Buying a European Football Club

The twelve questions before the price: what is being bought, what the rules now allow, what it will really cost over five years, and when to walk away.

For principals, family offices and institutional investors weighing a European club acquisition: the twelve questions that matter before price, what current rules allow, and the five-year cost picture serious buyers actually face.

Read online → Download PDF ↓
26PP · PDF

Multi-Club Ownership After the Rule Changes

What the rules now require, what the evidence says about the model, and what to structure before the second club.

For owners building a multi-club portfolio under UEFA's tightened rules: what the regulations now require, what the evidence says about the model's actual returns, and what to structure before acquiring the second club.

Read online → Download PDF ↓
24PP · PDF

Sovereign Football

What states buy when they buy football, what the evidence says they get, and how to run the next phase.

For ministries of sport, sovereign funds and the federations they work with: what states have actually bought when they invested in football since 2000, what the evidence shows they got, with Saudi Arabia's 2026 reset as the reference case.

Read online → Download PDF ↓
22PP · PDF

The Club as Platform

Which adjacent businesses football clubs have actually built, what they were worth, why most of them failed, and how to decide which to try.

For owners and boards weighing ventures beyond the first team: fourteen categories of adjacent business clubs have actually tried, what they were worth, why most failed, and how to decide which is worth attempting.

Read online → Download PDF ↓
21PP · PDF

The First European Season

What changes for a club that was not built for it: the money, the rules that arrive retrospectively, the squad list, the stadium, the calendar, and the season after.

For clubs qualifying for UEFA competition for the first time, or after a long absence: the money, the retrospective rule changes, the squad-list and stadium requirements, and the season that follows — with the Champions League as reference case.

Read online → Download PDF ↓

§ 05

Applied football work

Selected academic and independently produced football work.

Figure 2 — Selected items

Youth talent-development model — Real Zaragoza U13/U14 case study
Master’s thesis.
Opposition and match analysis — Real Zaragoza case study
Independently produced tactical and statistical analysis.
Player assessment and scouting
Individual scouting report.
UEFA Certificate in Football Management — applied case work
Individual and collective studies for federations.

^‡Selected samples available on request.

§ 06

Qualifications

Class	Award	Institution
Football	UEFA Certificate in Football ManagementCAS · 10 ECTS	UEFA Academy and University of Lausanne
Football	Master’s in Football Management and Game Methodologies60 ECTS	Universidad Europea / Real Madrid Graduate School
Football	Certificate in Football Data Analysis6 ECTS	Universidad Europea / Real Madrid Graduate School
Football	Coaching and scouting qualifications	Barça Innovation Hub · The FA
Academic	MSc in ManagementSantander Scholarship	London Business School
Academic	BSc Economics · LLB Law · BA Liberal ArtsThree simultaneous degrees	Universidad Central de Venezuela · Universidad Metropolitana