What will football look like in 2036?

Martin Macdonald

• 24 Mar 2026 12:01 CDT
• 6 min read

News

With the rapid advancement of technology, prices for players and ticket prices soaring, and more and more regulations, it is hard to know what the football landscape will look like in five years from now, never mind 10.

A decade ago, it would have been unfathomable to predict just how much technology plays a part in the game now, with VAR interventions commonplace in every elite competition in the world.

On the pitch, it seems like technology will only evolve, but what about the psychology of football and the landscape as a whole?

Will the rich get richer? Will we finally see a European Super League? Could we see a female manager in the Premier League?

In a discussion on the BBC, presenter Jacqui Oatley, former player Nedum Onuoha and journalists Rory Smith and Hugh Ferris talked about what football will look like in 2036.

For the first talking point, Hugh asked: "What one thing that we don't have in the game currently, will we have by 2036?"

"Integrity," Oatley replied, adding: "Come on, we can but dream!"

She said: "This applies to players on the field, because at the moment there's not a lot of honesty going on, and the way clubs behave with their supporters - treating them fairly and with transparency - and what's going on at their club."

For Onuoha, the hope is that the financial disparity between the Premier League and other leagues decreases as he wants to see homegrown players succeed domestically before moving on to pastures new.

"I think the gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots' will shrink in the next 10 years," he said.

"That's not because we're going to elevate the ones who do not have, but I think the authorities will put a limit on those who do have. I think this will apply more around Europe.

"Take a team in Germany or France. Gone are the days when a special talent comes through and plays for their hometown side, and goes on and play for their national side. 70 or 80% of the time at the moment, those players are bought by Premier League clubs, so I think that will change... but maybe I'm just being optimistic."

Smith, slightly tongue-in-cheek, suggested we aren't far away from buzzers being heard during matches for when referee countdowns expire due to a time clock on corners, goalkeepers holding the ball, corners and throw-ins.

"Ifab - the body that governs the Laws of the Game - passed a rule for the men's World Cup for the summer in which, at the referee's discretion, you can have a time limit on goal-kicks and throw-ins. I think that will be introduced for the Premier League next season," the journalist said.

"The direction of travel will be, within 10 years, we'll see big flashing boards across stadiums, counting down like a referee in Gladiators."

Will we ever see a female manager in the Premier League? Oatley believes so - but not anytime soon.

"I think women will achieve higher status in the men's game as time goes on, but they have to have started by being embedded in a men's club at a lower level, to absorb the men's game, be trusted and respected, and work their way up organically, and being an assistant first," the BBC presenter and commentator explained.

"So you're not plucking that person from over there, sticking them in the men's game and saying: 'Go on, see how you get on in the Premier League.' That makes no sense."

How will we consume football in 2036?

The discussion turned to technology and how we, as football fans, may consume the game 10 years from now.

"Will we be watching it on a television? Will we be watching with smart glasses? Will we be transporting ourselves into an augmented reality to a stadium in which we would like to sit in a particular seat we might have purchased?" Ferris asked.

"Interesting topic, because when we think about how we will consume football in 10 years time, I think the temptation for us to think 'space age'. We've always done that - whenever we think about the future we always think 'space age. Now we think everything is AI, everything is goggles. Realistically, I think people want as much authenticity as possible in terms of absorbing football."

Oatley went on to suggest the future of the sport may lie in things like immersive experiences such as Cosm in Los Angeles, a planeterium-esque venue that allows visitors to be virtually placed pitchside at an event. Footage of visitors watching a Liverpool match in Cosm last year went viral.

Smith believes that ticket prices for matches will continue to soar as people are desperate for live experiences, especially since the Covid pandemic.

"Something we've seen a lot of, certainly since the pandemic, is the incredible value that people put on live, IRL (In Real Life), experiences, whether its live music, travel or sport.

"People are desperate for things they can see and feel and touch and hear and sense, because we live so much of our lives digitally now.

"And for football, that will continue to be the case, but it puts pressure on ticket prices."

Women's football will grow

"Honestly, women's football is where the growth is," Oatley explained.

"You look at men's football now. All the execs are trying to squeeze and squeeze as much as they can out of the players, putting more tournaments in, more matches in and these players are burning out.

"The growth is in the women's game. The growth is in investing in the girls in terms of coaching so that they can be the best that they can be as all girls want to do generally in life.

"And then, as they come through, they'll be better and better with better quality of coaching."

"My eight-year-old is my daughter, she's played more football than my son and, relatively speaking, my daughter is the better player," Onuoha interjected.

"My daughter players with girls who are at Man Utd's academy, Blackpool's academy, Blackburn's academy and so on.

"When I speak to someone like Steph Houghton, who I have been friends with now for well over a decade, she speaks about when she was first playing football, the amount of time she spent playing with boys and against boys.

"I asked her who her favourite players were growing up and said Niall Quinn, Kevin Phillips and so on.

"To go back to England's women winning the Euros for the second time, becoming the first national side to win something of that status away from British shores. I was there watching the game, working it knowing that my daughter's team and all the teams that she's played against, have all got a bunch of heroes and people who they aspire to be"

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