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Before the first whistle blew at the Emirates, our team had already been running for weeks. Our PACE team composed of Said Morales, Karim Teufel, and Emma Gray were on the ground in London for the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup 2026™ – and what they brought back is more than a tournament story.
There’s a particular kind of Monday morning that only happens in football. The kind where your team has flown in from three different cities – Berlin, Munich, Hamburg – converged on a bakery in Dalston, East London, and is running through final checks over flat whites and pastries before heading across to the Emirates Stadium. That was the start of the week for Said, Karim, and Em. By Sunday, they’d lived through 120 minutes of rain-soaked history.
The FIFA Women’s Champions Cup was the first of its kind – six continental champions, a single-elimination bracket, and a London final that ended 3-2 after extra time, Arsenal edging Corinthians through a Caitlin Foord strike in the 104th minute. For most people watching, it was a memorable match. For the PACE team inside the stadium, it was the final chapter of months of planning, partner coordination, and real-time problem-solving – all delivered at tournament pace.
Welcome to the day-in-the-life of three people who help make these moments work.
The work starts long before kick-off
Ask Said Morales – who led the partnership activation side of the operation – what the most important lesson from a week like this is, and the answer comes quickly.
“Early involvement allows for better alignment and more complete planning. It gives space to think through different scenarios, potential challenges, and realistic backup options ahead of time.”
In practice, that means months of calls before anyone sets foot in a stadium. Aligning on partner needs. Stress-testing timelines. Working through approval chains so that when things move fast on matchday – and they always do – execution feels considered rather than reactive.
“Once the tournament is live, you want to be solving for the unexpected, not still working through the expected.”
Anyone who’s worked inside a major venue knows the reality of working in a naturally high-paced intense environment: noise and movement and set-up that shifts between every session.
“Finding places to work from inside the stadium is never easy – it’s really inconvenient,” admits Karim Teufel, who led the team’s broader on-site coordination. “But it feels better to be in the middle of the action.”
That proximity matters. Not as a perk, but as a professional advantage. Being on-site gives you a read on atmosphere and fan behaviour that you simply cannot replicate from a remote setup. The energy in a corridor before kick-off, the way a crowd reacts in real time, the small operational details that only reveal themselves when you’re standing in the middle of them. You feel the tempo of the game, and it adds something different to every decision you make.
The content window: 90 minutes, no margin
For Emma Gray, the most time-critical part of the week wasn’t the match itself – it was what happened in the minutes immediately after each key moment inside it.
“Delivering final, publish-ready assets fast enough to align with the key moments of the match. The timing is critical because the content needs to land while that moment still matters in the wider conversation.”
Miss the window, and the moment is gone. The fan emotion has shifted. The wider conversation has moved on. The post loses its relevance, its reach, and its impact – for fans and partners alike.
That rhythm – react, build, approve, publish – ran on a loop throughout the week. And the switch from planning mode to delivery mode is, for Em, the best part of the whole process.
“You go from weeks of proposal decks, mock-ups and timelines to reacting in real time – problem-solving, adapting to the game, moving fast and pushing content out into the world. Seeing something that started as an idea go live and immediately connect with fans is the most rewarding part.”
What a global tournament actually looks like from the inside
One of the things that made this tournament genuinely different was the breadth of what was in the room. Four clubs from four different footballing cultures, all under the same roof – or, on a wet Sunday evening in north London, under the same rain.
“Having four completely different women’s clubs in one place was the highlight for me personally,” Em reflects. “Gotham FC were a team I’d hoped to see on a trip to New York but never managed to. Arsenal are a club I follow closely. And experiencing Brazilian and African club football in the same place was incredibly cool – it’s a rare opportunity”
The fans confirmed it. Before the final, you could hear the Corinthians supporters before you could see them. Drums getting louder through the hallways. Then the corridors erupt into singing and dancing. By the time the match kicked off, one end of the Emirates had transformed into something that felt far removed from a typical London winter evening.
“Seeing fans arrive in their different club jerseys, scarves and club colours did give it a global feel,” Em says. “The Brazilian supporters in particular brought a completely different energy. Taking it all in with a classic stadium pie in hand made it a different kind of match-day moment.”
Karim, watching that same section from his vantage point, saw something more in it.
“The Corinthians supporters were impossible to miss. From early on, their section carried its own rhythm – drums, chants, movement – and it stayed consistent throughout the match. In a city like London, where many fans live and work day to day, the stadium became a space where culture was visibly re-activated. You could sense that this wasn’t only about the final. It was about showing up together, wearing colours, and sharing something familiar.”
Even after Arsenal’s winner, the energy didn’t hollow out. The score had changed; the sense of belonging hadn’t. That’s the difference between a fan who came to watch a result and a fan who came to be part of something.
The commercial question: is women’s football ready?
For brands still sitting on the fence about getting involved, Karim has a direct answer.
“Yes, 100%. Great competition, close matches, and 90 minutes of high effort play. There’s great teams in every corner of the world.”
But the sharper question is how and when. For Said, the answer points firmly in one direction.
“For brands joining such an event early, there’s plenty of space and time to own big parts of the experience if you go all in – a structural advantage, shaping formats and deeper integrations with relatable storytelling vs a later stage generic presence. Much easier to play a bigger role and be a supporter from day 1.”
Early entry isn’t just about budget efficiency. It’s about having the runway to build something that actually integrates with the event, rather than bolting on at the last moment. The difference between a brand that shapes an experience and one that simply appears in it.
And the format itself – compact, global, high-stakes – is something Karim believes will grow in meaning over time.
“I think it created lasting memories and images that will start to carve this event into the football calendar. Slowly but steadily.” The mini-but-global format still has questions to answer around stakes and travelling fan motivation, he acknowledges – but the foundation is being laid. “The first edition plants the flag. What comes next builds on it.”
What makes it stick
Ask any of the three what they’ll carry from this week and you get the same thread running through each answer.
For Said, it’s the lesson that adaptability is more in the preparation.
“I’m most proud of how well the teams worked together on-site and how quickly solutions were found as things evolved. Tournament environments are dynamic by nature. If I could change one thing, it would be deepening early-stage contingency planning – cross-checking material feasibility, particularly around footage and image rights. That learning is invaluable for future tournaments.”
For Karim, it’s something harder to put in a debrief document.
“The team on-site realises why we do things. Who we do it for – clients and fans. And what the memories are that we take home. I’m usually only proud of a project when I’ve suffered a bit for it, when I’ve put my heart and soul into it. When you’re at the event, it becomes 100x easier to make those core memories.”
For Em, it came down to what it feels like to experience something you’ve been building for months from the inside, rather than through a screen.
“After working so closely with the content – the highlights, the edits, the key moments we plan around – being in the stadium gives you a completely different perspective. You feel the tempo of the game, the crowd reaction, the small details you don’t always see on screen. It adds a different energy to the whole process.”
When the final whistle confirmed Arsenal as the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup™ champions – 3-2 after extra time, Caitlin Foord the hero, the rain still falling – the PACE team packed down, gathered the last of the assets, and started the debrief. The tournament was over. The blueprint was already forming for the next one.
The long journey came to an end. And as Karim put it simply: that’s the point. Long journeys, properly made, are the ones you remember.