Anyone who has watched a big soccer signing in the last few years knows that there’s a point where the press conference stops being about soccer and starts being about a product launch. The player leaves. The lights went out. The cameras flicker. Someone is already writing the Instagram caption somewhere in the room. This wasn’t always the case. In any case, it wasn’t always this clear.
Money and ambition have always been drawn to soccer. That’s not new. But that goal now comes with sunglasses and a brand deal, which is different from how it used to look. The Hollywood hype machine used to just watch the game from afar, but now it has a seat at the table. It has also been moved very close to the mic.
It seems like the recent wave of celebrity ownership and high-profile player acquisitions has brought a fake excitement that comes from entertainment rather than the sport itself. This is especially true in leagues across the United States and Europe. It seems like some of these investments aren’t so much about winning trophies as they are about telling a story. The club as a way to get content. The player as a story arc. Maybe that’s not so cynical after all—entertainment and sports have always been connected—but it’s a problem when the hype gets ahead of the substance.
Any mid-level American soccer stadium on a big-announcement night will feel tense because of the difference between what the sport is and how some people want it to be seen. The game is hard to play because it’s physical, tactical, and slow to show how beautiful it is. But the marketing machines that work around it need instant emotion, moments that can be shared, and personal branding that works well on short-form video. Things like these don’t always get along.
When looking at this from the outside, it’s interesting to see how little the celebrity ego seems to know about the game’s culture. Soccer fans don’t just sit there and watch. In the history of global sports, they have been some of the smartest and harshest observers. They know the difference between a new player who makes the team stronger and one who just brings in new fans. They’ve seen this playbook before, but this time the cover looks different.
The sports business has had to deal with this tension for years. Agencies, broadcasters, and rights holders are very good at turning the personalities of athletes into things that the entertainment industry can use. Mark McCormack knew early on that athletes could be brands. He built IMG from the ground up and pretty much invented the modern way to run a sports business. When you build a brand around athletic excellence, you do it in a very different way than when you use athletic proximity as a background for something else.
It’s still not clear whether having famous people involved in soccer is good or bad for the sport in the long run. On both sides, there are good points. With new money, infrastructure can be improved, youth academies can be built, and facilities can be made better. Some clubs backed by famous people have made really smart sports choices. What makes a football club interesting in the first place can be lost in all the noise that comes with it, like the PR cycles, the fake drama, and the idea that the club’s only purpose is to make content.
Many people call soccer “the beautiful game,” and they’re not joking. It has been through much worse threats than this. It will also stand up to the hype machine. But it would be a shame if the next generation of soccer fans only saw the sport as a lifestyle brand and not as a more real and raw activity. At its best, soccer doesn’t need a publicist to explain why it’s important.