Popularity of women’s football has taken a quantum leap in the last few years. It’s hard to pinpoint the trigger to this, certainly the victory of English women’s team, the Lionesses, at Euro 2022 accelerated the interest levels in Europe and maybe made a strong case for its growth. What followed in the following years seems like a chain reaction. The game witnessed a sustained growth in attendance, viewership and revenue. To give a context, the aggregate total revenue by the top 15 women’s teams were €63.8mn in 22/23. That grew by a whopping 80% in 23/24 to reach €114.6mn, out of which 64% / €73.6mn was the share of commercial revenue (not including PSG Women as they don’t share breakdown). Women’s football has come of age.
This is leading to creating separate and unique identities for the sport attracting focused growth related investments. Up until now, the structure of women’s football has been modelled around men’s football with many women’s teams affiliated to the men’s club. This seems to be changing. One can argue about the advantage of ready-made fan bases of men’s teams who would willingly be a part of women’s teams’ supporter bases. To an extent yes, but women’s football has the capability to develop a model and structure of its own. This is precisely happening now. In this blog we put our spotlight on the critical factor of investments in women’s football.
WSL Restructure
The path towards restructuring women’s football in Europe began with the implementation of a new governance structure at the top of the women’s game in the UK. In November 2023, the FA announced that all WSL and WC clubs had unanimously agreed to proceed with the formation of a new independent company. Initially known as Women’s Professional League Limited (WPLL), to govern women’s professional football in place of the FA, it rebranded in May 2025 to reveal new company and league names, new emblems and a new visual identity for the women’s professional game. Women’s Super League Football (WSL Football) becomes the name of the independent company overseeing the top tiers of women’s professional football following a formal change from WPLL. In addition, the Barclays Women’s Championship will become the Barclays Women’s Super League 2 (Barclays WSL2) from the 2025/26 season whilst the top tier of the competition, the Barclays Women’s Super League (Barclays WSL), will remain the same to bring both league names under one Women’s Super League Football umbrella.
An initial fund of £20mn has been loaned to WPLL, interest free, by the Premier League for initial development purposes. This grants Premier League a seat on the WPLL board until the loan has been repaid along with FA, reportedly under special conditions including having a share in future revenues (further details not yet made public), and the 23 clubs in the WSL and WC.
A key benefit in this new structure would be that WSL and WC will be part of a commercial organisation under a dedicated management team whose sole responsibility is to generate revenue and sustainable growth for the women’s league, for the first time. A summary of immediate changes can be seen below.
Chelsea’s commitment to women’s football is apparent from the long term plan specifically meant for the women’s team. First, they sold the women’s team to their parent company BlueCo for £198.7mn, helping the company and Chelsea move into profit and away from the PSR regulations. Then, in May 2025, it was announced that Alexis Ohanian, Reddit founder, who has a track record of supporting women’s sport, had purchased an 8-10% stake for £20mn.
Mercury/13 – Dedicated to Women’s Football
The increase in revenue, viewership and attendances, high-decibel public discussions has led to women’s football beginning to stand on its own feet. Potential growth is seen and dedicated investment interests are definitely piqued. Women’s football is now at the juncture where dedicated investment fund is being formed.
One such is Mercury/13
It is a buyout fund aimed at buying controlling stakes in women’s football clubs in Europe and South America with the goal of investing $100mn. Their vision states “a worldwide movement transforming the landscape of women’s football through multi-club ownership” displaying bold ambitions with the mission clearly “leveraging commercial power of women’s football”. As the first investment, Mercury/13 has acquired a controlling stake in Italian top-flight soccer club Como Women. They had almost finalized Lewes FC in the UK but the discussion could not proceed since Mercury/13’s intention to invest only in women’s team posed a limitation to Lewes FC’s Foundation. Their search for an English club continues.
Michelle Kang – Leading Proponent
Another leading personality in advocating women’s football through investments is American businesswoman, investor, and philanthropist, Michelle Kang. Her investments in women’s football range across the globe starting with NWSL team the Washington Spirit, which she bought in 2022. In 2023, Kang signed an agreement with OL Groupe to acquire OL, Féminin creating the first-of-its-kind global multi-team women’s soccer organisation. Further, in December 2023, Kang further expanded her impact acquiring the London City Lionesses, the only fully independent women’s-only football Club among England’s top two professional women’s leagues. She structured all the clubs under the umbrella of Kynisca Sports International Ltd. That’s not all. At the heart of her sports empire is Kynisca Innovation Hub (KIH), a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing female athletic performance with plans to raise $100mn to support its mission.
Her investment success is seen from the fact that Washington Spirit, her NWSL franchise, is the fifth-most valuable team in the NWSL, worth $54mn according to Sportico’s latest valuations.
In Conclusion
Women’s football is standing on its own feet. Will it begin to run? It’s too early to say that but by the way things look, it is definitely showing all the signs of a long haul, fast paced journey. As Dr. Christina Philippou, a football finance expert, puts “There is a lot of potential and better value for money investing in women’s sport at the moment compared to men’s sport. But that needs to be sustained and grown in a way that then allows women’s football to come out of this growth phase and become a more mature league.”
We look forward to this!
