LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 27: London City Lionesses owner Michele Kang speak to the media
The owner of London City Lionesses believes multi-club entities are a “necessity” for women’s clubs to compete in a sporting world increasingly dominated by big money.
American businesswoman Michele Kang has raised eyebrows by acquiring three women’s clubs in three different countries – Washington Spirit, Olympique Lyonnais and London City Lionesses – as part of an attempt to create an international multi-club entity in women’s soccer.
By pooling resources and research, Kang hopes to avoid the pitfalls encountered by many women’s clubs dependent on their partnerships with men’s teams, therefore leaving them continually susceptible to a sudden loss of funding if the parent club encounters financial troubles.
To illustrate this, fellow second tier side Reading FC Women yesterday withdrew from the league admitting that “to continue to operate at Barclays Women’s Championship level, the club requires further ownership cash injection to build a squad capable of competing and to meet the revised mandatory criteria ahead of the 2024-25 season.”
“Whilst these requirements are in-line with the exponential growth of the women’s game – it is widely accepted that a direct financial return on annual investment is not expected for at least five years.”
Maggie Murphy, the former CEO of another FA Women’s Championship side, Lewes FC Women, who were relegated into the third tier at the end of last season, reacted by posting a warning on LinkedIn that Reading’s situation is symptomatic of a wider malaise in the English women’s game.
“We have, in our collective haste, made demands for progress and implemented decisions that have made it close to impossible for women’s teams to survive and thrive without a men’s club stumping up significant cash – whether they want to or not. That dependency creates huge fragilities that may not come to bear now, but could have devastating consequences later.”
“Year on year, the cost of the requirements in a Tier 2 licence have increased at a rate disproportionate to club revenue or central distributions. As somebody who worked to implement those requirements, many felt arbitrary. They were often required with such short notice that they could only be soaked up by clubs that had men’s teams to beg from.”
Kang understands that the lack of money coming from media rights in women’s sport makes profitability almost impossible in the short-term. She however believes her model of multi-club ownership, often derided in the men’s game as manipulating the system and weakening competition, is something that can help women’s teams succeed in the long term.
Speaking after her landmark signing of Swedish national team captain Kosovare Asllani last week, Kang told me “I am fully aware of some of the negative connotations of multi-club, especially on the men’s side. On the women’s side, no-one has had multi-club ownership before. I will submit to you on the women’s side, multi-club is a necessity, not a luxury, or greed.”
“We need to invest. To professionalize women’s football to the level that they deserve and to reach the potential women’s football has, we need to invest. Unfortunately women’s football right now, because of the lack of media dollars, there isn’t that much money to invest.”
“As soon as I took over the Spirit two years ago, I learned that women’s football basically borrowed their training manuals from the men’s game because there is no knowledge about how to train female athletes. They just make it a little less intense and so forth.”
HARRISON, NEW JERSEY – JUNE 23: Trinity Rodman #2 of Washington Spirit talks with Michele Kang Owner … [+]
“We decided to take on the primary research as well because without that data, we can’t really properly train our female players. At the end of the day, we are in the business of producing the best football games for our fans. For us to do that, our athletes have to be in their best shape.”
“For you to do that for one team for example, it’s not possible because it takes a lot of money and no women’s football team right now makes money, let alone losing a lot of money. If you have multi-teams, then you can pull the resources and do it once at the central level.”
When pushed as to when she believes women’s clubs could turn a profit, Kang admitted “it’s going to take some time.” “At the multi-club level, across all the teams and the investment we’re making, we are now thinking we will at least break-even in two to three years. Profitable is going to be a little more challenging!”
LYON, FRANCE – MAY 17: Jean-Michel Aulas Olympique Lyon president (R) awards Yongmee Michele Kang … [+]
One of Kang’s teams, Lyon, previously were in a partnership with another NWSL side, OL Reign. Questions were asked when several leading players were switched between the two sides, mirroring what has happened with various teams in the men’s game within the Red Bull and City Football Group, but Kang reassured me that this is not a model she is looking to replicate with her clubs.
“This is not to say, we own multi-teams, everyone else exists to make one team successful. I get questions about if Lyon, Washington Spirit and London City are going to play, who are you going to cheer for? My answer is to let the best team win.”
“We are not going to sacrifice one team to make another team successful. Absolutely not. Our goal is to make every team the champion in each of their leagues so London City we are going to do everything in our power to be the champions in the Women’s Super League.”
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