High Performance Business

When one refereeing decision can be worth millions, what price is football really paying for VAR?

Colin and Natalie examine the business behind football’s most divisive technology, from the millions riding on a single league position to the companies cashing in on the systems designed to get decisions right. But with three-quarters of surveyed fans opposing VAR, the bigger question is whether football is fixing mistakes at...

Are football clubs becoming too focused on tourists at the expense of loyal fans?

Colin Murray and Natalie Pirks explore the battle between football's biggest commercial opportunity and the supporters who make the matchday experience worth selling, and ask how clubs can grow globally without losing what makes them special.

With international visitors generating more than £1 billion for the UK economy in 2024, the stakes are c...

What does the man who spent almost 20 years running the Premier League make of the biggest issues facing English football today? Richard Scudamore talks Manchester City’s long-running charges, the pressure facing current Premier League chief Richard Masters, and what happens behind the scenes when the league faces a challenge of this scale.

They get into football’s new financial rules, the extraordinary sums being sp...

Manchester City have reportedly been found guilty on all but one of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League. But this story is far from over. There’s no punishment yet, City maintain the process is ongoing, and an appeal is expected. So the biggest question now is: what happens next?

Natalie Pirks and Colin Murray are joined by former Manchester City and FA chairman David Bernstein and football finance ...

11 of the 20 Premier League clubs are now majority American owned, up from five a decade ago. This episode asks why the money's coming now, why English clubs look so cheap next to the NFL, and what the new owners actually want to change: ticketing, the matchday experience, and whether promotion and relegation survive.

Also a proper defence of American sport, from why closed leagues have produced seven different World Series winn...

When an F1 car crashes, the repair bill is only the beginning.

Colin Murray and Natalie Pirks explore the hidden cost of crashes in Formula 1, from lost upgrades and valuable data to the millions at stake in the Constructors’ Championship. They look at why a mistake can hit smaller teams like Haas far harder than the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull, and what happens when teammates become each other’s biggest r...

The Premier League has just come through another record-breaking transfer window, with billions spent and some of the biggest fees football has ever seen. But who actually got it right?

Natalie Perks and Colin Murray break down the winners, losers, bargains and biggest gambles of the window, from Chelsea’s profitable summer and Everton’s deadline-day panic to the growing number of £100m+ deals across the league.

T...

PSR is gone... Here comes SCR and SSR to take it's place.

Colin and Nat go through what the new rules cover, what they leave untouched, and what it means for clubs already punished under the old system.

Then, 14 years on from Lance Armstrong's ban, cycling writer William Fotheringham joins them on why cycling has slipped off terrestrial TV in the UK, and how a sport that can't sell tickets runs on sponsorship.

IFS - award-...

Being a Lioness may make you financially comfortable. 

Being anyone else in the WSL is a very different reality. 

Colin and Nat pull apart the numbers behind English women's football — from minimum wage rules for 18-20-year-olds to what happens when a league's biggest stars retire in their mid-30s with no fallback plan. 

They're joined by Beth Fisher, senior advisor to UEFA Vice President and Mary Earp...

Why are brands willing to pay £60 million to put their name on a football shirt?

Colin Murray and Natalie Pirks explore what makes sports sponsorship so valuable. From a financial services company using a Premier League star to reach new markets to Crystal Palace's unexpected FA Cup sponsorship return, they unpack how brands measure the value of being part of the game.

They also look at the Premier League's gambling sponsorsh...

Colin Murray and Natalie Pirks are joined by football finance expert Kieran Maguire to unpack a week that shook the game. FIFA President Gianni Infantino's proposal to sell stakes in the FIFA World Cup to private investors has met fierce opposition from UEFA and football associations around the world. So what happens next, and what could it mean for the future of the tournament?

Plus, the Premier League is quietly building its o...

First episode out Tuesday 4th August!

Behind every transfer, takeover, sponsorship and sporting controversy is a business story.

High Performance Business takes you beyond the headlines and inside the boardrooms, negotiations and decisions shaping the world's biggest sports.

Every week, sports host Colin Murray and award-winning journalist Natalie Pirks explore the money, power and strategy driving football, Formula 1 and ...

A special episode where Jake sits with the show’s Producer to discuss some of the most impactful moments and guests from the show so far, before revealing some big news on what is coming soon.

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What if the biggest breakthroughs in business don’t come from logic, but from noticing what others overlook?

In this episode, Rory Sutherland unpacks the moment a late-night scroll through economics blogs led him to Nudge, sparking a fascination with behavioral science that would quietly transform global brands. From saving a snack brand with a single word to helping an airline generate millions through a subtle design cha...

Who is Sam Altman, and what is the real story behind OpenAI?

Award-winning journalist Karen Hao takes us inside one of the most secretive companies in the world, drawing on the reporting behind her book to explore the growing influence of OpenAI over governments, the environmental cost of the race for artificial intelligence, and what some former colleagues revealed about Sam Altman's leadership and mysterious personality.

XTB 👉...

From Top Gear to The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm, Andy Wilman has spent decades redefining what car television can be, and learning a few hard lessons along the way.

In this episode, Andy opens up about the high-stakes Amazon deal that launched The Grand Tour, the legal and creative gymnastics of building something “like Top Gear, but not Top Gear,” and the spontaneous tent idea that became the show’s ...

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire exposes the volatile economics of the modern game, where Premier League revenue has risen 3,100% since 1992, yet spending has climbed even faster, leaving the sport structurally loss-making.

He unpacks the 2025/26 season's biggest financial shockwaves, from Arsenal’s £200m+ Champions League windfall to how Spurs’ brush with relegation rattled multi-billion-dollar investors. Kier...

Journalist and founder of DealBook Andrew Ross Sorkin cuts through the hype to expose the high-stakes reality of the AI boom and how a single technology is currently holding up the entire US economy.

Drawing parallels to 1929, the dot-com era, and 2008, he unpacks a dangerous paradox: for AI's massive valuations to make sense, it must replace human labour, but if everyone loses their jobs, who's left to buy the products?

Andr...

CEO of CSME James Johnson takes us behind the scenes of hosting the most successful Women's World Cup in history, revealing why major events need strategic purpose, not just political visibility. He shows how real legacy isn't a buzzword, it's a measurable strategy that must begin years before the first whistle.

From the Matildas' historic run becoming the most-watched television event in Australian history, to unlocking governm...