According to Michele Kang, multi-club ownership in women’s football is “necessary”

The owner of the London City Lionesses is convinced that multi-club structures for women’s clubs are a “necessity” in order to remain competitive in a sporting world that is increasingly dominated by big money.

American businesswoman Michele Kang has made waves by acquiring three women’s soccer clubs in three different countries – Washington Spirit, Olympique Lyonnais and London City Lionesses – with the aim of creating an international multi-club company in women’s soccer.

By pooling resources and research, Kang hopes to avoid the pitfalls faced by many women’s clubs that rely on partnerships with men’s teams, thereby constantly being at risk of a sudden loss of funding if the parent club runs into financial difficulties.

As an example, second division club Reading FC Women withdrew from the league yesterday, admitting that “in order to continue to compete at Barclays Women’s Championship level, the club requires a further injection of capital from the owners to build a competitive squad and meet the revised mandatory criteria ahead of the 2024-25 season.”

“While these requirements are in line with the exponential growth of women’s football, it is widely recognised that a direct financial return on annual investment cannot be expected for at least five years.”

Maggie Murphy, the former chief executive of Lewes FC Women, another FA Women’s Championship club that was relegated to the third tier at the end of last season, responded by warning on LinkedIn that Reading’s situation was symptomatic of a wider malaise in English women’s football.

“In our collective haste, we have made demands for progress and implemented decisions that have made it almost impossible for women’s teams to survive and thrive without a men’s club putting significant sums on the table – whether they want to or not. This dependence creates enormous weaknesses that may not come to fruition now, but could have devastating consequences later.”

“Year after year, the cost of Tier 2 licence requirements has increased at a rate that is disproportionate to clubs’ revenues or central distributions. As someone who has worked to implement these requirements, many have felt this was arbitrary. They were often required at such short notice that they could only be met by clubs that had men’s teams to beg for money from.”

Kang understands that the lack of media rights revenue in women’s sport makes profitability almost impossible in the short term, but she believes her multi-club ownership model, often derided in men’s football as rigging the system and weakening competition, can help women’s teams succeed in the long term.

Speaking after her groundbreaking 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-clubs, especially in the men’s game. In the women’s game, no one has had multiple clubs before. I would point out to you that multi-clubs are a necessity, not a luxury or a greed.”

“We have to invest. To professionalise women’s football to the level it deserves and to realise the potential of women’s football, we have to invest. Unfortunately, at the moment, due to a lack of media dollars, there is not that much money that could be invested.”

“When I took over as head of Spirit two years ago, I learned that women’s soccer has basically taken its training manuals from men’s soccer because there’s no knowledge there about how to train female athletes. They just do it a little bit less intensely and so on.”

“We decided to also conduct basic research because without this data we cannot train our players properly. Ultimately, our goal is to produce the best football games for our fans. In order to achieve this, our athletes must be in top form.”

“It’s not possible for a single team, for example, because it costs a lot of money and no women’s football team is currently making money, let alone losing a lot of money. If you have several teams, you can pool the resources and do it once at a central level.”

When asked when she thought women’s clubs could become profitable, Kang admitted: “It will take some time.” “At club level, with all the teams and the investments we are making, we now expect to at least break even in two to three years. Becoming profitable will be a little more difficult!”

One of Kang’s teams, Lyon, had previously partnered with another NWSL team, OL Reign. Questions were raised when several leading players moved between the two teams, which is similar to what happened with various teams in men’s soccer within the Red Bull and City Football Group, but Kang assured me that is not a model she plans to emulate with her clubs.

“That doesn’t mean that we have multiple teams and everyone else is just there to make one team successful. I’m asked who you would cheer for if Lyon, Washington Spirit and London City were playing. My answer is: let the best team win.”

“We will not sacrifice one team to help another succeed. Not at all. Our aim is to make every team champions in their respective leagues. That is why we, London City, will do everything in our power to become champions of the Women’s Super League.”