My 10 tips for getting into the sports industry in 2026.

1. Find 3 peers and buid a small accountability WhatsApp group.

People at your level, same ambition, different networks. Share leads. Share learnings. Hold each other to the weekly actions, watch it compound.

2. Get over yourself and post on LinkedIn 3 to 5 times per week.

Write about what you’re noticing in sport. Transfers. Sponsorships. Governance. Build a body of work.

3. Pick ONE job title and reverse engineer it.

Agent. Commercial manager. Scout. Head of recruitment. Find 10 people with that title. Study their career paths. What did they do at 23? At 26? Work backwards.

4. Build a target list of 52 employers and 156 humans.

That’s one new organisation per week for a year, three contacts per org. Build relationships with them. Offer to do their admin. Research players. Build spreadsheets. Prep briefing docs. Tedious work, but you’re learning how deals actually get structured.

​5. Volunteer for a weekend role where the work takes your CV forward.

Local club. Grassroots event. Operations, scouting, media. You’ll meet coaches, administrators, scouts. These are the people who know other people and it looks good on your CV.

6. Approach sports agencies with valuable resources.

Free scouting reports. Commercial deep dives. Territory expertise. Don’t ask for a job. Offer something useful first.

7. Sign up to The Sports Business Accelerator launching on 19th January.

Yes, that’s mine. But I’m telling you because it blows everything else out of the water.

8. Attend industry events.

Leaders Week. Sports Industry Group. Don’t wander around hoping something happens. Have 5 specific people you want to meet. Find them. Follow up the next day.

9. Follow great sports professionals on LinkedIn.

Daniel Geey. Misha Sher. Omar Chaudhuri. Study how they think and communicate. Comment on their posts with something intelligent, not “Great post!”

10. Learn Spanish on Duolingo for 30 minutes a day.

Spanish and English gets you into half of football. Add French and you’re at 75%. Languages open doors that qualifications can’t.

The sports industry doesn’t care about your passion. Everyone’s passionate.

It cares whether you’re useful or not.