Tobin Heath on World Sevens Football: ‘We’re going to continue to build and force innovation’

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The inaugural World Sevens Football (W7F) tournament — a three-day, seven-a-side competition featuring eight of Europe’s biggest clubs in Estoril, Portugal — was an overall success.

With rolling substitutions and no offsides, the format allowed players to showcase their flair and creativity, while the smoke cannons and live music created a festival-like atmosphere that lit up social media.

More impressively, Bayern Munich walked away with $2.5 million after defeating Manchester United 2-1 in the final — more than what Arsenal earned for winning the Women’s Champions League, and more than Chelsea received for their Women’s Super League and FA Cup triumphs combined.

On the latest episode of “Full Time,” Tamerra Griffin and Meg Linehan were joined by two-time World Cup winner and United States women’s national team legend Tobin Heath, who also serves as chair of the W7F advisory council, to discuss the tournament’s future and what might come next.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in “Full Time” feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Griffin: Can you talk to us about what growth looks like for this tournament? I know there are plans to have multiple tournaments a year culminating in a sort of Champions of Champions tournament. But obviously, scheduling is a big behemoth of a challenge to tackle, so how do you imagine growth after such an explosive introduction?

Heath: It’s funny because there’s so much congestion in the calendar, it’s just so ugly. We did step on a lot of toes and some people aren’t happy about this, being the big traditional entities that think they own football and the idea of football. But then I take a step back and think, ‘You go do it then. You go innovate women’s football. You go bring investment into women’s football.’ Because these traditional competitions, where women’s football has always taken a backseat to men’s football and followed the exact same patterns, aren’t helping women’s football. The P&Ls of these clubs are not pretty, so if there’s an opportunity to inject fuel and capital into women’s football, in a new, innovative and fun way, that’s positive. And let me tell you, the schedules are going to clear, just look at the prize pool we set.

Bayern just went home from a three-day fun kickabout with more money in their pockets than Arsenal did winning the Champions League in an extremely stressful match, so I hope that the governing bodies and these landlords of football are taking note. Because ultimately nothing’s stopping them from innovating and giving to women’s football. But right now, it’s just like we’re stamping the women’s side with a men’s competition with way less money. That doesn’t sound like innovation to me, and that’s not prioritizing women’s football. So for me, it’s almost a provocation which we’re going to continue to build, then hopefully it’s going to force innovation.

To get to what you said about what’s next, what’s next is more competitions. We want this to be a global event where you’re seeing and meeting teams and players for the first time in a way like you’ve never seen before in global football. I left World Sevens with new favorite players and a better understanding. And I must say Bayern’s team was just awesome by the way.

Linehan: I really did not expect that from them (laughs).

Griffin: It surprised us all. I was like, ‘Where is this personality coming from, and where was this there before?’ It was the biggest surprise of the tournament.

Heath: Exactly. The storytelling literally wrote itself, and I’m so in love with that team now. They are awesome, and I didn’t even know that before. This is the part about women’s football that is so beautiful, and we need to let them write their own stories. So I’m a new fan of football from the event, which is ridiculous because everybody knows I’m a soccer junkie and I’m watching everything already anyway.

Linehan: You’ve mentioned how World Sevens could appeal to a new generation who maybe don’t want to sit through a 90-minute football game, which is really interesting. You’ve also highlighted the tension between the traditional side of football and whatever World Sevens is and wants to be, as they throw things up against the wall and see what sticks. But how do you balance that tension and just stress the point of, ‘Listen, we’ve got to find new audiences, focus on the next generation, and just go to them a little bit more.’ Are you excited by that part of the work too?

Tobin: Yeah, I’m really excited about it because I do think there is an increasing gap that’s happening between the current generation and the current format of football. All things are meant to be innovated, and I’m not saying let’s change 11s, but I think this can be complementary to 11s. What was really beneficial for me was that, coming off this tournament, I went immediately to watch the Champions League final. And no disrespect to the Champions League final because it’s probably the greatest competition in global football, but the difference in the experience was night and day. You can’t really see what’s going on in the field. Being in the stadium, you’re also really far from it, it’s really long, and there are not as many actions.

Everyone also looked exhausted on the field, and the difference in energy was massive. People were on the ground just trying to catch their breath, and they were understandably exhausted because it’s the end of the season. But the contrast between the two was so crazy that I really appreciated it, because it just showed how vastly different the two things are. But I must say I loved both of them, and I definitely loved Arsenal winning because it made it way more fun. Otherwise, I probably would just be saying that I liked my experience at World Sevens.

But being there just showed me why this is needed, because the way that the Sevens worked is that it spoke to this current generation and how they’re watching things. It was made for social media, and it was made to bring you on the field with these players. I want to produce it even better and differently next time. This was only the first iteration of it. But if you were there and you were on the field, it’s almost like you were courtside at a basketball game. There are also way more ways to monetize it, way more interactions, and more personalization between you, the players and the teams. I got a crash course on Bayern and now they’re my favorite team. I’m even thinking, ‘If the German players can carry that vibe into the Euros, Germany could maybe even win it.’ That’s how tangible this felt.

Everybody saw that the organic nature of this format was built for this age. This isn’t anything we had to ask for, by the way, it just organically happened because of the player’s experience and the new format.

You can listen to full episodes of Full Time for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.

(Top Photo: Valerie Terranova/Getty Images)

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