Beyond the big five | Lecture 6 with Dr Giambattista Rossi

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Lecturer 6: Dr Giambattista Rossi
Senior Lecturer, Birkbeck Business School, University of London

Live lectures and on-demand content, straight from the industry.

Thursday 15 October 2026

13:00 CET

What you will learn

For decades the leagues of England, Germany, France, Italy and Spain have ruled European football. Giambattista shows why that order may look very different in ten years' time. He draws on research into labour markets, media rights and ownership to explain why Serie A is losing ground and why leagues in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States are pushing for a place at the top table. You will leave knowing where fans, money and talent are likely to move next, and what that means for your own club or venue.

Why the Big Five owes its place to history, and why sport keeps concentrating around the best product, as the Premier League shows
What has gone wrong in Serie A, from ageing stadiums and weaker media income to young Italian talent moving abroad and top clubs left in the hands of investment funds
Why a league's reach beyond its borders matters, and how culture and language give Turkish football a potential audience larger than Italy's or even Germany's
How the MLS can build on the 2026 World Cup to break into the top tier, and why Saudi Arabia shows that money cannot build a league without grassroots and fans in the stands
How to read these shifts as a commercial or ticketing professional, and use them to plan for the market of tomorrow

Speakers

Background
Dr Giambattista Rossi is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck Business School, University of London, where he researches and teaches the economics and management of sport. His work focuses on sport labour markets, pay, recruitment and the role of agents. He is co‑author of Sports Agents and Labour Markets: Evidence from World Football, published by Routledge. He sees himself first as a researcher, and uses sport as a lens on how society works. Many former professional players have passed through his classes. The Don't Forget Your Tickets community already knows him from a two part podcast series with Carl‑Erik Moberg. Those episodes covered what a superstar is worth, the decline of Italian football and where the game is heading.

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