my buying hub
Procurement and sustainability for football and sport

Premier League clubs lost £948m in one season. The fastest money back is sitting in your supplier contracts.

We're the procurement and sustainability team that sits beside yours. A team that's saved millions across OPEX and CAPEX, finding the suppliers, negotiating the deals and building sustainability projects with a business case your board will back.

Book a free benchmark Read our insights
The numbers your board has already seen
£948m

Combined pre-tax losses across the Premier League in 2024/25, up from £135m the year before.

Deloitte, July 2026
90%

Of professional clubs expected to report a loss for 2025.

BDO, January 2026
93%

Of Championship revenue spent on wages. Every other pound has to work harder.

BDO, January 2026
3.1%

UK inflation in August 2026, still above the Bank of England's 2% target.

ONS, September 2026

Deliver to the bottom line

Savings that show up in the management accounts, tracked against what you actually get invoiced.

Be part of the solution

Cut carbon where most of it actually sits: in what your club buys.

Be seen for the right reasons

Evidence you can put in your sustainability report and in front of sponsors, fans and the board.

Experienced in
Millions saved across OPEX and CAPEX
Energy, FM, catering, IT and capital projects
Finding suppliers clubs never see
Tender design to contract management

Saving money and saving the planet aren't two projects any more. They're the same job. Run them apart and you pay twice.

Every tender is a chance to cut cost and carbon in one go. The energy deal, the catering contract, the floodlights, the kit. Ask the right questions up front and the cheaper option is very often the greener one too. Most clubs never ask.

And inflation hasn't gone away. If your contracts carry CPI or RPI uplift clauses, they go up every year whether the service gets better or not. Leave them for three seasons and the drift becomes your new baseline. Nobody signs off a price rise. It just arrives.

Sustainability, proven in football
Experienced with the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework
Experienced with the Sports for Nature framework
Top 3, Sport Positive Leagues (EFL Championship)
What we do

We find the suppliers, negotiate the deals and stay with you until the contract ends.

From the first draft of the tender to the last day of the contract. Most firms walk away once the deal is signed. That's usually when the savings start leaking.

You have a procurement team

Partnered procurement

We work alongside your people on the projects they don't have the hours or the market reach for. More categories covered, sharper negotiations, and the win stays on their scorecard.

You don't have one

Outsourced procurement

We become your procurement function on demand. Finance needs a new system, operations needs the HVAC sorted. We run it properly, start to finish.

Our speciality

Sustainability with a business case

Solar, CHP, LED, EV charging. We cost it, find the right supplier, show the payback and the carbon it removes, and give your comms team a story worth telling.

All of it for a lot less than you'd expect.

The independent voice

You already know what needs doing. The hard part is getting the board to agree.

Procurement leads, CFOs and operations teams often see the right project long before anyone signs it off. But a case made from the inside gets read as somebody's agenda. We bring the outside view: an independent assessment, built on the numbers, that a board can trust because nobody in the room has a stake in it.

The numbers

A CAPEX business case with whole-life cost and payback a CFO can sign.

The carbon

What the project removes, and where it sits in your sustainability reporting.

The story

A planned campaign that turns the project into brand value with fans and sponsors.

Your co-pilot

It's yours. Use it.

Someone in the next seat who's flown this route before. Reading the small print, spotting the renewal before it bites, knowing which question turns a cheaper quote into a greener one. You keep the controls.

For the CFO

Savings you can defend

Verified OPEX and CAPEX savings, a fee that fits your budget, and numbers that hold up in front of the board and the auditors.

For procurement

Your team, only bigger

More tenders without a new hire, suppliers you'd never find on a search, and your name on every win.

For sustainability

Carbon written in, not bolted on

Carbon criteria in every tender from day one, and projects bought properly in line with UN Sports for Climate Action.

For operations

Nothing forced on you

Stadium, facilities, catering and grounds teams are in the room from the first brief, so what we buy works on a matchday.

Every contract that rolls over without a fight is money you don't get back. Most renew quietly. The next one on your list is probably closer than you think.

Check it before it renews

Better economics. A stronger brand. Lower carbon. And the technology to prove every number.

We pair two decades of buying experience with modern data and AI tools that read contracts, spend and supplier markets at speed. You get the depth of a big consultancy's analysis without the army of analysts, or the invoice that usually comes with them.

Limited places · 4 a month

A free procurement and carbon benchmark.

We run four benchmarks a month and the founder leads every one personally. When this month's places are taken, the next ones open at the start of next month.

Free. No obligation. Everything you share stays confidential.

Claim a place
01

Pick one category

Energy, cleaning, catering, IT. Start with the bill that's grown fastest.

02

We test it against the market

Price, service and carbon, side by side with suppliers you may never have met.

03

You see the number

Nothing there? You've lost nothing. Something there? We go and get it with you.

Tarang Panchal, founder of My Buying Hub
20
years in procurement and operations
10
years inside professional football
3rd
Sport Positive Leagues, EFL Championship, with Watford FC
5
sectors before football
Why we exist

Two jobs most clubs keep apart. Tarang did both.

Our founder, Tarang Panchal, spent a decade at Watford FC through Premier League and Championship seasons. One week he'd be squeezing a better price out of an energy contract. The next, he'd be working out what that same energy was doing to the club's carbon footprint.

He ran tenders for everything from energy to IT, took the club through a full carbon audit, wrote its net-zero roadmap and led its sustainability work to third among Championship clubs in the Sport Positive Leagues EFL table. Before football came twenty years of procurement and operations across five sectors.

He also watched good projects die in board meetings because nobody independent was in the room to make the case. The cheaper option and the greener option were often the same one. It just needed someone to prove it.

My Buying Hub is the team he's built to be that voice, for any club that wants it.

Insights

What we're seeing from the buying seat.

Short, practical pieces for finance, procurement and sustainability leads. No jargon.

Sustainability · Business case

Sustainability needs a business case, not a conscience

Most club sustainability projects don't fail on carbon. They fail in the board room. Here's how to build one a CFO will sign.

Tarang · 6 min read · Read it →
Finance · Contracts

The price rise nobody signed off

Inflation is still above target, and uplift clauses mean many club contracts rise every year on autopilot.

Tarang · 5 min read · Read it →
Procurement · Carbon

Cost and carbon live in the same contracts

Most of a club's emissions sit in what it buys. So does most of the money. Why the tender is your best climate tool.

Tarang · 5 min read · Read it →
Coming soon · By invitation

The My Buying Hub supplier marketplace.

A short list of suppliers chosen for sport, and every one of them vetted. That means we've either worked with them ourselves, or put them through an in-depth assessment: finances, references from current clients, service record, ethics and carbon.

We'd rather show you twenty great suppliers than two hundred average ones. Nobody pays to be recommended.

For clubs

Get first access

Founding clubs see the marketplace first and help decide which categories we vet first.

Request early access →
For suppliers

Apply to be vetted

Every application is read by a person. We say no more often than yes.

Start your application →
Questions CFOs ask us

The straight answers.

How do you charge?

Your choice. A share of the savings we find, so we're paid from money you wouldn't otherwise have. Or a fixed fee per tender, if a clean budget line suits your finance team better. Ongoing renewals and contract management can run on a simple monthly fee.

Will you replace our procurement team?

No. If you have one, we work alongside them and the credit stays theirs. If you don't, we fill the gap until you decide whether you need one in-house.

Can suppliers pay to be recommended?

No. Every supplier we put in a tender is there on merit, and we show you the evidence behind every recommendation.

What does "sustainability with a business case" mean?

It means a project gets judged like any other investment. Whole-life cost, payback, the carbon it removes and the brand value it creates, set out independently so your board can make a clear decision.

Is what we share kept confidential?

Always. We're happy to sign an NDA before you share a single contract.

Get in touch

What brings you here?

Pick the option that fits and you'll reach the right person first time. Every enquiry is read by a person.

Fastest route

Book a 20-minute benchmark call

Pick a time that suits you. Bring one category and we'll show you what's in it. If we can't find you money, we'll tell you straight.

Choose a time

Free and no obligation.

Or send us a short brief

We'll come back with a time to talk and a first view.

Prefer email? solutions@mybuyinghub.com

my buying hub
Money and planet. Same job.
my buying hub← Back to insights
Insights · Sustainability · Business case

Sustainability needs a business case, not a conscience

Most club sustainability projects don't fail on carbon. They fail in the board room. Here's how to build one a CFO will sign.

Tarang Panchal, Founder · October 2026 · 6 min read

For ten years at Watford FC I sat on both sides of the same conversation. Some weeks I was the one asking for money to cut the club's carbon. Other weeks I was the one being asked whether we could afford it. The projects that got approved were rarely the greenest. They were the ones with the clearest numbers.

That's the uncomfortable truth about sustainability in football. Almost everyone agrees it matters. Very few boards will fund it on principle alone, especially when 90% of professional clubs expected to post a loss for 2025. A good intention isn't a business case.

Why good projects stall

I've watched the same pattern play out many times. The sustainability lead brings a project forward. Finance hears "spend". Operations hears "disruption on a matchday". The board hears an internal team arguing for its own agenda. Nobody is wrong, exactly. But the project sits in the "nice to have" pile for another season while the energy bills keep arriving.

The problem usually isn't the project. It's how the case is made, and who's making it.

What a fundable case actually contains

A sustainability project should be judged the way a CFO judges any other investment. In my experience, the ones that get signed answer four questions clearly.

What does it really cost? Not just the purchase price. The whole-life cost: installation, maintenance, finance, what happens to the existing kit, and what it saves on energy and upkeep over its life. Floodlights, solar and heating plant all look expensive on day one and very different over fifteen years.

When does it pay back, and how sure are we? A payback period on its own isn't enough. Show what happens if energy prices fall, or rise faster than expected. Boards trust a case more when it admits its own risks.

What carbon does it remove, and where does that show up? Tonnes saved, and where they sit in the club's reporting. If you've committed to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, connect the project to the targets you've already published.

What's it worth to the brand? This is the part most cases leave out. A well-run project gives the commercial team something real to take to sponsors, and the media team a story fans will actually care about. That value is harder to put a number on, but it's real, and a planned campaign makes it count.

Why the voice matters as much as the numbers

Here's the part I didn't fully appreciate until I'd left the building. The same numbers land differently depending on who presents them. When the sustainability manager says a project pays back, the board wonders whether they've been optimistic. When procurement says the supplier is the right one, someone asks whether they've looked hard enough.

An independent assessment cuts through that. Not because outsiders are cleverer, but because nobody in the room can say they have a stake in the answer. It gives the CFO cover to say yes, and it gives the people who championed the project the backing they needed all along.

Where to start

Pick the project that's been stuck longest. Strip it back to those four questions. If you can't answer one of them with confidence, that's your gap, and it's almost always fixable.

In my experience, the projects that pay their way are usually there. They just need someone to build the case properly and say it out loud.

Got a project stuck in the "nice to have" pile?

Bring it to a free benchmark call. We'll tell you honestly whether it stacks up, and what it would take to get it signed.

Book a free benchmark
my buying hub← Back to insights
Insights · Finance · Contracts

The price rise nobody signed off

Inflation is still above target. If your supplier contracts carry uplift clauses, many of them are rising every year on autopilot.

Tarang Panchal, Founder · October 2026 · 5 min read

UK inflation was 3.1% in the year to August 2026, according to the ONS. That's well down from its peak, and it's easy to assume the worst is over. For a lot of clubs it isn't, because the damage isn't in this year's rate. It's in the clauses buried in contracts signed two or three years ago.

How the quiet increase works

Plenty of service contracts include an annual price review linked to an index, usually CPI or RPI. On the anniversary, the price goes up by the index. No negotiation, no new quote, often no conversation at all. The invoice just changes.

On its own, that sounds fair. Suppliers face rising costs too. The problem is what happens when nobody's watching. The uplift lands on top of last year's uplift. The service doesn't necessarily improve. And because RPI has historically tended to run above CPI, the choice of index can matter more than people realise when the contract is signed.

Then there's the renewal trap. Many contracts roll over automatically unless you give notice by a set date. Miss that window by a week and you're committed to another term at the inflated price, with no chance to test the market.

Why football clubs feel this more than most

Clubs run a lot of contracts with a small back office. Cleaning, security, catering, waste, energy, IT support, kit, travel. Each one is managed by a different department, and the paperwork often lives with whoever signed it. When that person moves on, the notice dates go with them.

With Championship wages taking 93% of revenue, according to BDO, there isn't much room for drift anywhere else.

What good contract management looks like

None of this needs a big programme. It needs discipline, and someone whose job it is.

Know every notice date. One list of every significant contract, its end date, its notice period and its uplift clause. If you only do one thing after reading this, do that.

Start early. Test the market six to nine months before a major contract ends, not six weeks. Suppliers price very differently when they know you have time to walk away.

Challenge the uplift. Check it's been calculated on the right index, from the right date, and that the contract actually allows it. You'd be surprised how often it doesn't quite.

Tie price to performance. At renewal, link future increases to service levels, and build in service credits when they're missed.

Ask about carbon at the same time. A renewal is the cheapest moment to change a specification. Lower-energy equipment, less waste, smarter delivery schedules. Cost and carbon often move together.

The question to ask on Monday

Which of our ten biggest contracts renews next, and when is the notice date? If nobody can answer in five minutes, that's where the money is.

Check your next renewal before it checks you.

Bring the contract that renews soonest to a free benchmark. We'll test the price, the uplift and the terms against the market.

Book a free benchmark
my buying hub← Back to insights
Insights · Procurement · Carbon

Cost and carbon live in the same contracts

For most organisations, the bulk of their emissions sit in what they buy. So does most of the money. That makes the tender your best climate tool.

Tarang Panchal, Founder · October 2026 · 5 min read

Ask most people where a football club's carbon comes from and they'll point at the floodlights. They're not wrong, but they're looking at the smallest part of the picture.

Where the carbon really sits

Carbon reporting splits emissions into three scopes. Scope 1 is what you burn on site, like gas for heating. Scope 2 is the electricity you buy. Scope 3 is everything else in your value chain: the food in the kiosks, the kit, the cleaning chemicals, the coaches, the building work, the waste.

For most organisations, Scope 3 is by far the biggest of the three. And almost all of it arrives through a purchase order. Which means the person writing the tender has more influence over a club's footprint than almost anyone else in the building.

Same contract, two wins

When I started treating cost and carbon as one question at Watford FC, something became obvious. The waste in a contract and the carbon in a contract are often the same thing. Over-specified equipment that burns more energy than it needs. Deliveries arranged around the supplier's convenience rather than yours. Packaging nobody asked for. Plant running out of hours because nobody set it up properly.

Take those out and the bill falls along with the emissions. That's not always true, and I'll come back to that. But it's true far more often than most boards assume.

How to write carbon into a tender

Ask for the data. Request suppliers' emissions information and their plans to reduce it. The quality of the answer tells you a lot about the company.

Weight it. Give carbon and environmental performance a real share of the scoring, alongside price and quality. If it carries no marks, suppliers will treat it as decoration.

Compare whole-life cost. The cheapest quote on day one is often the most expensive over five years once energy, maintenance and replacement are counted.

Challenge the specification. The biggest savings usually come before the tender goes out, by questioning what you're buying in the first place.

Bring operations in early. The people running the stadium on a matchday know what will actually work. A greener solution that fails at 2.45pm on a Saturday isn't a solution.

When greener costs more

Sometimes it does, and pretending otherwise is how sustainability loses credibility in the finance office. When there's a premium, put a number on it, set it against the carbon it removes and the brand value it creates, and let the board decide with clear eyes. An honest trade-off gets approved far more often than an inflated promise.

The suppliers matter too

None of this works with suppliers who can't evidence their claims. That's why we're building a vetted marketplace: suppliers we've either worked with ourselves or put through an in-depth assessment of their finances, service record, ethics and carbon. Better tenders start with a better shortlist.

Find out where your cost and carbon overlap.

Our free benchmark looks at price, service and carbon side by side for one category of your choice.

Book a free benchmark