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What does it take to run a successful football club meeting fan expectations while still operating a successful business? My next guest, Paul Barber, is CEO and Deputy Chairman of Brighton and Hove Albion, one of the brains behind what has been dubbed the Premier Leagues. Smartest Team. Paul, named CEO of the Year by the Premier League last year. Brilliant success that has been a key driver of Brian success, Catapulting the club into the top half of the league thanks to a combination of smart signings and contingency plans as recently as 2011. But it was a different story with the club playing in the third tier and not even having its own stadium. So it's come a very long way in that time. What is the secret behind the successful turnaround? Joins me in the studio to kick off. This is your chief executive, Brighton, Hove Albion, Paul Barber. Paul, thanks so much for making time. And, you know, viewers of the show, and I'm no football expert, but I've really enjoyed getting to grips with the Brighton story. I've been briefed on it by a big fan on our team over the last 24 hours. It is extraordinary what you've been able to do in order to make. Right. Move up the league, but also the way you run it as a business. It seems fastidious, disciplined and quite data-driven as well. Tell us about it. Well, 25 years ago we were almost out of the professional football leagues and out of business altogether. We had no stadium and no home, no training ground. So to get to play in European football finished second sixth in the Premier League last last season. In that period of time is quite something. It's quite a journey, but that's a lot of hard work from a lot of people are very clear. Vision for the club. A great owner, Tony Bloom, who has invested a huge amount and we're enjoying the ride that we're on. Now let's talk about Tony Bloom. I know is your boss. I'll be careful. He has a long history in in. He's a gambling tycoon. I think we can call him that. He's a mathematics frame to what I understand. Tell us how that influences the the way that you staff and you manage the players but almost everyone in the club as well. Well, first of all Tony is very objective in about everything that he looks at so he has a very clear focus. And mathematicians tend to look at things in a very black and white way. There aren't many Shades of Grey. But I think in terms of what he's brought to the club, obviously the investment has been significant. I think we're very data-driven. So we we do use a lot of data to help with our player recruitment. We have to do that because we're not the biggest club in the Premier League by any means. So, but we have to compete with those bigger clubs who have bigger budgets, bigger resources. The data just helps us to narrow down the sorts of players that we can afford that we think would add value and quality to our team. And then it's our job to go and get them. Now, it is interesting the way you pick the players. So Moneyball is one of my favorite movies about, you know, this American baseball team and the way they use data to pick players, perhaps not the most popular ones, but you're looking at players internationally that could have not only good results for the club, for Brighton, but could have a really good resale value as well, right. Yeah, we have the fish at first of all, we have to fish in different ponds. We can't afford to fish for players in the bigger markets at the bigger clubs are in. So we go to the smaller markets, we look for players. Perhaps younger, less developed, that we can coach, that we can develop, we can progress in the Premier League and if we're able to make a success of that, it does give us an opportunity to sell them at much higher value and that profit can then be plowed back into the club to start the cycle all over again. And of course we combine that with our own Academy where we're developing young players from the local area and hopefully make them into Premier League players and and carry on the model. What really appeals to me about that strategy is this idea that no one is replacing irreplaceable. So everyone is replaceable and it's actually quite similar to this industry, showbiz, TV, journalism and everything else like that. I think it's always important to remember you can always be replaced and you're looking at replacements two or three levels down the line, aren't you? We are. And it's not not just on the field, but off the field as well. So we try and look at the top 25 roles within the club, on and off the field. We're then looking at how vulnerable those people are in those roles. If they're doing well, they're if they're a player, they're more likely to be taken by a bigger club. If they're a staff member, the same could be true. That we're trying always to plot the future and make sure we have people in key positions ready to actually take over if someone is taken away from us or sold if they're a player. And that strategy enables us to carry on regardless of any changes and without any breaks into the momentum of what we're trying to achieve In terms of the financial solvency of the club, like you said, Bloom has brought in a lot of investment, I think around 500 million over the last decade or so. You've managed the finances very well. Not only that, but you've created investment back into Brighton, the the, the place as well in terms of managing finances well in clubs. Other clubs haven't been as successful. I won't name names but many of the viewers will know some of the clubs I'm talking about. They've come in for penalties for this and they're finding themselves punitively deducted for it. What, what? What? What's your advice in terms of making sure you remain financially solvent whilst having a really good playable team? Well, football sometimes is is is not looked at as a a normal business. You know, people do spend more money than they have and if you do that on a consistent basis, it is going to get you into serious trouble, not just financially but also in terms of regulation breaches. It's very difficult as well though to to try and maintain the balance. We're all trying to compete to play at the highest level we can. We want to beat each other. In order to do that, we have the best players. The best players cost a lot of money and we're constantly fighting to find ways of generating new revenue to fund those acquisitions of players and the wages of players. So it is very easy in football to get Carrier. Carried away with the emotion of the game and forget that it is a business at the end of the day and as much as it provides enjoyment for millions of people every week, we do have to also protect jobs and we have to run the business sustainably and getting that balance right is very difficult. There must be something deeply satisfying about selling a player to a team like Chelsea a bit of a mark up and then beating them. Well, we we we don't mind who we sell to and we certainly don't mind who we beat. It just so happens over the last year or two that that Chelsea had bought a few of our players. But equally, you know we're we're very open in the market to selling to anyone. Now I'm interested to get your brains on a few sort of topical things in football at the moment, namely Saudi Arabia and women not connected. But I know with regards to women's football, it's in the press a lot at the moment. We've seen a huge uptick in interest. Of course it's the Euro since the World Cup. Talked to us about what women's football means to brighten Hoven album. Brighton and Hove Albion. Yeah, women's football is really important to us. First of all, you know we've got a lot of female staff and I think it's important and respectful to to show that we're as interested in the women and. Those game, as we are, the Mens and the boys, we've invested a huge amount of our in our infrastructure, our training ground for our women's and girls players. We see a great future for the game. It's still relatively underdeveloped in in our country. TV rights values are still quite low, crowds are still relatively low, but there's a huge amount of growth potential. And you know, as as more clubs invest in women's and girls football, more girls get the opportunity to play football at school. We see this as a very important part of our business for the future and something we've invested very heavily in already. Not everyone is on board with that message, including some very outspoken former professional footballers. But do you think the tide really is turning in this country? It is. And and unfortunately there's always gonna be one or two voices that that will express their own opinions And of course people are entitled to opinions, but the vast majority of people realise there's great potential in the women and girls game from a business point of view. Half the population is female and you know we've got an opportunity there not only to encourage girls to play the game and to become professional athletes in the game. But also a lot of people who want to come and watch not just men's football, but women's football as well, and we're seeing those crowds growing year on year and TV audiences will follow.