The Athletic

Hello, I'm Mark Chapman, welcome to the Business and Sport podcast on The Athletic.

Coming up today, we're joined by Lars Krista Olson, former UAFA CEO, on his thoughts on the shifting landscape of European football.

And we'll also look at European basketball, another sport with a closed shot proposal led

by elite clubs.

So we'll be joined by Thomas Vanden Schiegel, president of the Union of European Basketball

Leagues.

This is the business of sport from the athletic.

Our first guest is a man who's had a number of highly influential

roles in a 30-year career in the football industry, including being CEO of UEFA, also

president of the European Professional Football League, President of Swedish Professional Football

League, and also an executive committee board member for UEFA.

This may be the hardest question to start with of everything we're going to ask you last

Chris. I don't know. But is football in a better place now than it was when you began 30 years ago?

Yes, I think so. Especially professional football, I would say. There are, of course, two

important parts, the amateur side and the professional side. And the professional football, I would say. There are, of course, two important parts, the amateur side

and the professional side. And the professional side has been developing quicker than the

amateur side of the sport, I think. It's still better than it was. In how it's run,

is it more professional or is it simply that it is a better

run commercial business that brings in greater revenues? Or is it all of them? I'm not so sure that

the governance of football is better, but the professional development in commercial terms is definitely better.

A two-part question before Matt comes in then, which is give us an idea how you worked your

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