The Founder's Perspective: Building Something From Nothing in the Football Industry
From interviewing football executives abroad to learning the importance of emotional intelligence, TBOFN founder David Chimbaza reflects on the experiences, setbacks and lessons shaping his journey through the football industry.
Building a career in football is rarely straightforward. Opportunities can be difficult to access, relationships take time to develop, and progress often comes through experiences that initially feel uncomfortable.
For David Chimbaza, founder of The Business of Football Network (TBOFN), the past year has been an opportunity to experience those challenges firsthand.
In the latest solo episode of The Business of Football Podcast, Chimbaza reflects on the network's development, his experiences interviewing senior figures across international football and the importance of understanding both yourself and the people around you.
While TBOFN continues to expand its coverage of the football industry, the founder's message remains grounded in a simple belief: meaningful opportunities can be created without waiting for someone else to provide them.
From a Podcast to a Football Business Network
Just over a year ago, The Business of Football Network did not exist in its current form.
What began as a podcast interviewing individuals working across football has gradually developed into a wider platform covering industry news, events, commercial developments and professional experiences.
The transition was driven by a desire to do more than produce traditional podcast interviews.
Chimbaza wanted to create opportunities to engage with football professionals in different environments, particularly through attending industry conferences and conducting interviews in person.
That ambition has helped shape TBOFN's activities throughout 2026.
From covering the UEFA European Under 19 Championship in Wales to attending ElevateHER and World Football Summit Madrid, the network has increasingly taken its coverage directly into the football industry.
However, this development has not been supported by substantial corporate investment or established relationships with major football organisations.
Instead, TBOFN has continued to grow independently, building connections through outreach, conversations and a willingness to experiment with different forms of content.
For Chimbaza, that independence is an important part of the platform's identity.
Rather than presenting TBOFN as an established organisation with unlimited resources, he wants audiences to understand the reality of building something while still learning how the industry operates.
It is a journey that includes mistakes, uncertainty and setbacks alongside the more visible achievements.
Why Starting Something Matters More Than Waiting for Opportunities
One of the central messages from the episode follows Chimbaza's recent guest lecture at UCFB, where he discussed his journey from university into the football industry.
For students and aspiring professionals, securing a first opportunity can be one of the most difficult stages of developing a career.
Many positions require experience, yet gaining that experience often depends on already having access to the industry.
Chimbaza believes that individuals should consider creating their own opportunities rather than relying entirely on traditional routes into football.
Starting a blog, producing social media content, developing a podcast or building a small independent project can provide practical experience while demonstrating an interest in the industry.
These activities may not immediately generate income or attract significant audiences, but they can help individuals develop skills, establish relationships and create a body of work that demonstrates their capabilities.
TBOFN's development provides an example of that approach.
The network was not originally created with established relationships across international football. Those connections have developed gradually through the work being produced.
For aspiring professionals, the lesson is not necessarily to launch a media platform.
It is to recognise that meaningful experience can begin with something relatively small.
The challenge is being willing to start before the outcome is guaranteed.
Four Interviews Abroad and the Value of Consistency
At the beginning of 2026, Chimbaza set himself a relatively modest international ambition.
He wanted to conduct one interview abroad.
By the time TBOFN attended World Football Summit Madrid in September, that target had been exceeded, with four interviews conducted during the event and a podcast recorded abroad.
The achievement was particularly significant because conducting interviews internationally had previously seemed like a distant ambition.
However, Chimbaza does not attribute that progress to one successful event.
Instead, he points towards the experiences that came before it.
Earlier opportunities to conduct interviews in person provided valuable practice, even when the results were not as polished as he had hoped.
At ElevateHER, for example, approaching unfamiliar professionals and asking them to participate in interviews was a particularly challenging experience.
As someone who describes himself as naturally introverted, the process required him to move outside his comfort zone.
Those early interviews were not always perfect.
Nevertheless, they provided practical lessons about approaching guests, managing conversations and becoming more comfortable in unfamiliar professional environments.
By the time Madrid arrived, those experiences had helped build greater confidence.
The wider lesson is that professional development often happens through repeated exposure to situations that initially feel difficult.
Progress is not always immediately visible, but the experience gained from earlier attempts can become valuable when larger opportunities emerge.
The Reality of Building Relationships in Football
One of the more revealing parts of the episode concerns the difficulties of establishing relationships within the football industry.
For independent platforms and aspiring professionals, securing conversations with established figures can be challenging.
Messages frequently go unanswered, interview requests are declined, and progress can feel particularly slow when there is little existing reputation to support an approach.
Chimbaza reflects on periods when securing podcast guests became increasingly difficult.
Those experiences created moments of uncertainty about whether the network was developing in the right direction.
However, he also noticed that persistence, consistency and adjustments to his approach gradually began producing different results.
As TBOFN developed a stronger portfolio of interviews and event coverage, conversations became easier to initiate.
The platform's previous work provided potential guests with a clearer understanding of what they were being invited to participate in.
This demonstrates an important aspect of relationship building in football.
Credibility is rarely established through one message or one successful conversation.
It develops through a combination of experience, reputation and consistently delivering on commitments.
For Chimbaza, the relationships established at events have also continued beyond the conferences themselves, creating further opportunities for conversations and interviews.
That longer term value is one of the reasons he believes attending industry events can be particularly important for individuals looking to develop their careers.
Why Emotional Intelligence Matters in Football
While the episode reflects on TBOFN's progress, its most substantial discussion focuses on emotional intelligence.
Following his recent UCFB lecture, Chimbaza considers how his understanding of emotional and cultural intelligence has developed since university.
At the time, the practical importance of these subjects was not always obvious.
However, his experiences interviewing professionals, attending international events and developing business relationships have increasingly demonstrated their relevance.
For Chimbaza, emotional intelligence begins with understanding his own reactions.
Approaching an established football executive can create feelings of nervousness, uncertainty or self doubt, particularly when speaking to someone with significantly more industry experience.
Those emotions can affect the quality of an introduction, interview or professional conversation.
Recognising them is therefore an important part of learning how to communicate more effectively.
However, emotional intelligence is not simply about managing personal confidence.
It also involves developing an awareness of the person on the other side of the conversation.
During an interview, for example, a guest may respond enthusiastically to one subject but appear less comfortable discussing another.
Being able to recognise those changes and adapt the conversation can help create a more natural and meaningful exchange.
That might involve asking a different question, exploring a particular topic in greater detail or recognising when a conversation needs to move forward.
These skills extend beyond podcasting.
They can be relevant to job interviews, commercial negotiations, leadership, recruitment and everyday professional relationships.
For individuals beginning their careers, the ability to listen, adapt and understand different personalities can be particularly valuable when they do not yet have an extensive professional track record.
Understanding Football's Different Cultures
Another important theme from the episode is the cultural diversity of the football industry.
Football is played, supported and operated across different countries, communities and professional environments.
However, the expectations and traditions surrounding the sport can vary considerably.
Even clubs operating within the same country may have very different identities, supporter relationships and approaches to engaging with their communities.
Chimbaza draws on his previous experience working at Manchester City, where he encountered supporters from different clubs and backgrounds.
Those experiences demonstrated how football supporters can respond differently depending on their club's history, traditions and circumstances.
For professionals working in football, understanding those differences can have practical commercial and operational consequences.
A community engagement strategy that works successfully at one club may not necessarily produce the same results elsewhere.
Similarly, supporters who have experienced financial instability or difficult ownership periods may approach club leadership with greater concern or scepticism.
For executives, marketing teams and community departments, understanding these perspectives can help shape more appropriate decisions.
Chimbaza also connects cultural intelligence to his experiences interviewing professionals internationally.
Speaking with individuals from different football markets requires an appreciation that business practices, expectations and professional relationships are not identical everywhere.
Developing that awareness can improve communication and help establish stronger relationships across the industry.
Building a Network That Can Grow Beyond Its Founder
Despite the progress made over the past year, Chimbaza is clear that TBOFN remains at an early stage of its development.
The platform continues to experiment with new formats, expand its relationships and explore opportunities to bring audiences closer to the people working within football.
There are still interviews to publish, events to attend and further ambitions for 2027.
However, one of the founder's longer term aspirations extends beyond any individual podcast episode or event.
He wants TBOFN to develop into an organisation capable of continuing long after his own involvement.
It is an ambitious objective, particularly for a platform still establishing its commercial foundations.
Nevertheless, it reflects the distinction between building a personal project and attempting to create a lasting organisation.
Achieving that ambition will require more than growing an audience.
It will involve developing sustainable operations, establishing meaningful partnerships and continuing to produce content that provides value to the football industry.
For now, Chimbaza remains focused on the individual steps required to move towards that longer term goal.
The Founder's Perspective: Progress Is a Process
The central message of Chimbaza's latest solo episode is not that TBOFN has achieved everything it originally set out to accomplish.
It is that progress has come through a willingness to begin, make mistakes and continue developing.
From the first attempts at interviewing unfamiliar professionals to conducting conversations with senior football executives abroad, each experience has contributed towards greater confidence and understanding.
The journey has also demonstrated that developing a career in football requires more than technical knowledge or professional qualifications.
Patience, emotional awareness, cultural understanding and the ability to build relationships can all influence the opportunities available to an individual.
For aspiring football professionals, the message is straightforward.
It is possible to begin building experience before securing a formal position within the industry.
And while progress may initially feel slow, the relationships, skills and confidence developed through consistent effort can create opportunities that once seemed unlikely.
For The Business of Football Network, that process continues.
The ambition is to keep learning, keep building and create a platform that allows others to benefit from those experiences along the way.
Listen to the latest solo episode of The Business of Football Podcast to hear David Chimbaza reflect on the network's journey, his experiences across international football and the lessons shaping its future.
