Jill Scott and Karen Carney collaborate with Crowd Network for Long Story Short, its first female athlete-owned podcast

Crowd Network (Crowd), one of Europe’s fastest-growing podcast networks, is joining forces with former Lionesses Jill Scott and Karen Carney for Long Story Short. It will be Crowd’s first podcast to be owned by female athletes.

Officially announced today at The Podcast Show, the podcast will be a platform to tell stories from throughout Jill and Karen’s decades-long friendship. With over 300 England caps between them, the pair will podcast together every week, bringing listeners stories from both on and off the pitch.

Jill Scott MBE is expanding her podcasting career; she’s already well-known for her regular appearances on football podcast series The Overlap’s Stick to Football. Since retiring from football in 2022, Jill has also been a regular fixture on television screens. She won reality show I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! in 2022 and is a team captain on sports panel show A League Of Their Own.

One of the most recognisable names in women’s football, she played in midfield for teams including Manchester City and Everton, with 161 appearances for England — notably, she was in the team that won the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022.

Jill Scott, co-host of Long Story Short, said about the podcast: “I’ve always loved catching up with Kaz over a coffee, so this podcast is just us sharing stories from football, friendship, and life — past, present, and future. From the changing rooms to green rooms, we’re giving people a chance to hear the moments you don’t usually get to hear. It’s been great working with the Crowd team to create something that’s ours, and we can’t wait to share it with you.”

Fellow Lioness Karen Carney OBE played for Arsenal, Chicago Red Stars, Chelsea, and Birmingham City, where she is a Hall of Famer. She also appeared 144 times for England before retiring in 2019. Karen has since been Chair of the 2022 “Future of Women’s Football Review” for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, exploring how the Government can grow the game in the UK. As well as being an ambassador for Visa and UEFA, including being on the UEFA Board, she is also the lead female pundit on TNT Sports and ITV Sport.

Karen Carney, co-host of Long Story Short, commented: “I’m excited to start this podcast with Jill, who I have a lot of good memories and history with — we always have a good laugh. It’ll also be a chance for people to get to know me without my serious punditry hat on and see behind the curtain on life in and out of football.”

Unlike podcast competitors, Long Story Short is owned by Jill and Karen. This is part of Crowd’s model, providing former athletes ownership of their podcasts to unlock exciting and meaningful post-professional retirement career paths.

Long Story Short is the latest example of Crowd’s commitment to championing women’s sports and female athletes, securing authentic, meaningful partnerships between their podcasts and big brands. Through its network of female sports podcasts, Crowd works with brands like Sage and Škoda on hit shows including For The Love Of Rugby and We Are Chelsea. This allows businesses to create multichannel content machines that access engaged listener communities by amplifying female voices.

And Crowd’s approach has a huge impact. Using content from the We Are Chelsea podcast, Chelsea FC Women’s TikToks received 50 million views in summer 2024 — more than any other women’s sports team globally.

Louise Gwilliam, Talent Manager at Crowd, noted: “Engagement with women’s football continues to grow, and with legends of the sport like Jill and Karen becoming household names, it’s showing no sign of slowing down. We’re thrilled to welcome them to our presenting team and give them the opportunity to take ownership of Long Story Short as a platform that’s uniquely theirs.”

The first episode of Long Story Short will be available on all streaming platforms on Wednesday 11th June.