As the FIFA World Cup captures the attention of billions around the world, investor Nicole Junkermann argues that football's greatest value no longer lies in the matches themselves. It lies in the economic ecosystems that form around them.

The FIFA World Cup is one of the few events on earth that can stop a city. Not because of the football itself ? but because of everything that forms around it. Nicole Junkermann has spent years investing at the intersection of sport, media and technology. Her observation is simple: the industry is still measuring the wrong things.

Television audiences, sponsorship deals, transfer fees and commercial revenues remain the standard metrics used to assess football's commercial health. These numbers still matter. Yet they describe the surface of an industry that is quietly changing its economic logic from the ground up.

"People often talk about football as content," says Junkermann. "Increasingly, I think of it as infrastructure. It creates communities, trust, identity and attention. Entire businesses can be built on top of that foundation."

At first glance, comparing football with infrastructure may seem unusual. Infrastructure is traditionally associated with roads, railways, airports, telecommunications networks and power grids ? systems that enable economic activity and allow societies to function. Their value comes not simply from what they are, but from what they make possible.

Football is beginning to operate in much the same way.

For much of the past three decades, the industry's commercial model was built around a relatively simple relationship. Leagues and competitions sold media rights. Broadcasters paid for access to audiences. Sponsors followed viewers. Revenue flowed through a well-understood chain.

That model still exists, but it is no longer where all of the value resides.

Today's fans experience football through a far broader range of channels than previous generations. They follow creators on YouTube and TikTok, listen to podcasts, participate in WhatsApp groups, engage with online fan communities and consume an almost constant stream of football-related content across multiple platforms. The match remains the central event, but it increasingly serves as the catalyst for a much larger ecosystem of activity.

Artificial intelligence is making this dynamic more important, not less. AI can generate a match report. It cannot create the uncertainty of a World Cup final. It cannot recreate the emotion of a last-minute winner or replicate the collective experience of millions of people reacting to the same moment simultaneously. As technology increases the supply of synthetic content at unprecedented speed and scale, the scarcity of genuinely live experiences becomes a structural advantage. Sport occupies a unique position because it remains one of the few forms of media that people actively choose to consume in real time.

The more content the world produces, the more valuable authentic shared experiences are likely to become. That shift is already visible in how investors think about the sector.

The most successful sports properties no longer function solely as entertainment products. They function as platforms that bring together audiences, communities, brands, creators and businesses. A growing number of companies now derive significant value from football without owning a club, a league or a broadcast licence. Media businesses build programming around competitions. Creators build highly engaged communities around teams and players. Brands use football to reach audiences that are becoming harder to access through traditional advertising.

In each case, football provides the underlying connection between millions of people. The value lies not only in the content, but in the network that forms around it.

Historically, investors seeking exposure to football focused primarily on clubs, leagues and media rights. Those assets remain attractive, but attention is increasingly turning towards businesses that own the relationship with fans. The strategic question is no longer simply who owns the content. It is who owns the community, the engagement and the trust that surround it.

That logic is reflected in several investments Junkermann has backed in recent years. CayoTV is building creator-led distribution models for sport; LVF is reimagining how competitions connect with audiences in an era of fragmented attention. The specifics differ, but the underlying premise is the same: participation is becoming more valuable than passive consumption.

This trend is particularly visible among younger audiences. Many fans now discover football through creators before they encounter traditional broadcasters. They follow personalities as much as pundits, engage with communities as much as institutions and consume content continuously rather than according to fixed schedules. Across Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, mobile-first consumption habits are accelerating the transition and creating entirely new pathways into sport.

The World Cup offers perhaps the clearest demonstration of this phenomenon. For a few weeks, billions of people around the world engage in a shared conversation. Every goal, upset and controversy generates discussion that extends far beyond ninety minutes played on a pitch. The tournament fuels social media engagement, creator content, brand campaigns, podcasts and fan communities. The matches remain central, but they are only one part of a much larger economic and cultural ecosystem.

Football's economic significance is expanding beyond ticket sales, sponsorship agreements and broadcast contracts into commerce, media, technology, education and community-building. The sport's ability to attract and organise large groups of people around shared interests is becoming one of its most valuable characteristics.

Like the great infrastructure networks that shaped previous eras, football provides a foundation upon which entire ecosystems can grow. In the attention economy, that may prove to be one of the most valuable assets of all.

Nicole Junkermann (born 27 April 1980) is a German entrepreneur and investor raised in Spain. She is the founder of NJF Holdings, a private investment group with operations across Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia. Through Gameday, the group's sports investment platform, she backs leagues, digital platforms and technologies reshaping the economics of sport globally.