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The First Team Content Playbook
How lean football clubs choose what to make, what to stop, and what to measure.
Why I wrote it
Every season, football content teams are asked to do more.
More platforms. More partner commitments. More formats. More stakeholders to serve.
But headcount rarely keeps pace.
This playbook isn't about making more content. It's about making better decisions.
Drawing on my two decades in publishing and football, it introduces a practical operating system for lean content teams. It shows how to prioritise work, assign responsibility, measure what matters and build a sustainable content operation.
What's inside?
• The Content Squeeze
• The Coverage Hierarchy
• The Content Model
• Distinctiveness & Recall
• The Measurement Ladder
• The Commissioning Workflow
• The Responsibility Map
• Building the Team
• Next Monday
• Facts Worth Stealing
Who it's for
• Heads of Content
• Digital Directors
• Communications Directors
• Marketing Directors
• Football clubs
• Governing bodies
• Rights holders
While the examples come from football, the principles apply across sport.
About the author
Mark Gilbert is the founder of First Team, a consultancy specialising in content strategy, publishing and digital communications for sport.
Over the past 20 years, he has led digital communications at The FA, helped shape FIFA's content and analytics strategy ahead of Qatar 2022, and advised organisations including Arsenal, AS Roma and the International Olympic Committee.
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