Securing our future.
Future Fund is our summer quest to re-ignite SCOUTED ahead of 2026/27.
No clickbait. No garbage. Just ideas, players and storytelling - great, intentional reading, the way it used to be.
Lock in for the year at 67p a week.
Dear reader,
Football writing is in a difficult place. Most outlets are stuck dealing with the consequences of publishing clickbait for ad revenue for the last decade, if they're not still at it. Paragraphs have never been shorter, listicles are everywhere, and most work is designed solely to enrage you. Writers are being laid off from low-wage jobs every day and publications are collapsing as we speak.
The reason is obvious. Writers are competing with social media, where algorithms are specifically designed to make you mad. Short-form video has obliterated attention spans. And those in charge at many big publications have doubled down on competing on these terms: chasing clicks, producing meaningless work in huge volumes, and serving AI slop like it's a delicacy.
Here's the thing. SCOUTED believes readers deserve better than that. We believe football deserves better than that. And we still believe in reading.
We don't raise the above points because we want you to feel sorry for us, or to complain and beg for charity. The challenge to writers and publications is clear. We are competing in the same space as addictive and enticing technologies: to survive, we must simply be better.
We must champion reading as not just a meaningful activity, an escape from the internet's noise, but as a pleasurable hobby that improves your everyday. We must lean further into the strengths of great writing, not neuter them to fit the whims of the latest trend. Most of all, we must provide work that's so good and entertaining and informative it makes reading easy, and other forms feel empty in comparison.
Tom Curren
SCOUTED is a magazine that publishes stories about the future of football. It features original essays and thoughtful ideas about where the game's going and where it's been. It introduces you to the players, thoughts and figures that will soon define it. It's powered by an internal team of technical scouts and recruitment analysts who work with many of the world's top clubs. And it believes, deeply, in the wonderful kind of storytelling only a beautifully written magazine can provide.
Our mission for 2026/27 is clear: be the better we want to see.
Our manifesto for this season:
- To publish one excellent essay on the future of football, every single week, and ensure it's always worth the time to stop and read
- To build a robust and regular print product, to ensure it's always possible to hold a SCOUTED magazine in your hands
- To financially support our single editor and small freelance team of talented artists and writers, and ensure they are always paid fairly and on time
- To curate the best space for football literature and reading on the internet
To support this future - and ensure we can deliver massive projects like SCOUTED50, future print magazines, and continue to pay our writers fairly - we need financial stability. That's why we're launching SCOUTED's Future Fund - our attempt at ensuring we can continue for another year.
Securing our future.
Help us deliver another year of beautiful stories from the future of football.
A weekly story, a monthly analysis essay, and a 20% discount on all print magazines.
67p a week.
A SCOUTED subscription gets you:
- A weekly feature story on the future of football
- A monthly SkillCorner analysis column from the recruitment team behind SCOUTED Pro
- A 20% discount on every SCOUTED print magazine
If you're looking for a place to escape the internet's noise, somewhere to spend an hour a week with a great story, somewhere that thinks about football as deeply as you do - welcome home.
Join while our subscription drive is active and lock in the entire season for £34.99. That's 67p a week.
We've done enough talking. Now we need to deliver the great football writing that makes your investment worth the while. We'll see you on the page.
Tom & the SCOUTED team