by Victoire Cogevina Reynal’s mission is simple: to break the myth that women’s football cannot be profitable.
The Greek-Argentine businesswoman heads the Mercury/13 group which plans to invest $100 million (£79 million) in the women’s game by buying football clubs in 13 different countries across Europe and Latin America.
Named after 13 women who passed the astronaut test in 1960 but were not allowed to work for NASA afterwards, Mercury/13 members include former England winner Eniola Aluko – and nearly 200 teams have come into contact together since the consortium announced its plans in August.
“We can’t wait to show the world, hopefully in the next ten years, that we’ve created a way to do this work as a business and, in the process, make the world a better place for women,” she says. Cogevina. Reynal, speaking exclusively to Telegraph Sport. “I’ve been betting my whole career that we’ll achieve that.
“We are at a unique moment in history, where gender equality is one of the most important – if not the most important – goals of our generation. Women’s football is the best vehicle to deliver this on a global scale.
“We’ve all seen how unsustainable the business models are in men’s football. What is exciting for us, in women’s football, is that we will have to rewrite the rules of football ownership and rethink how that business can be sustainable in the long term.”
Cogevina Reynal’s career path to this point has been extremely varied. From working in the fashion industry, to co-founding an agency to represent Major League Soccer players, to creating a tech start-up in Silicon Valley, and being named a United Nations ambassador for gender equality in football in along with Brazilian legend Marta (“it’s very cool” she says of working with the six-time FIFA World Player of the Year) she has a rare combination of life experiences.
She is now a working mother, with daughter Charlotte sitting on her lap smiling during much of our interview, and her own mother’s varied life seems to have influenced her – she worked as a football agent, as a commercial pilot and as a wealth manager with Lehman Brothers – of that variety. footpath.
Before moving to London, Cogevina Reynal’s football-focused tech startup Gloria from Silicon Valley received financial backing from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, husband of Serena Williams. In turn, Ohanian’s involvement with Angel City – an NWSL club that can list actresses Natalie Portman, America Ferrera and Eva Longoria among its investors – helped shape Mercury/13’s vision. Cogevina Reynal believes the key is to understand that women’s teams can attract different consumers to the men’s game.
“Women’s teams not only need financial independence from the men’s game, but they also need a tailored approach in their marketing and financing,” says Cogevina Reynal, who describes herself as impulsive and activist. “When you go to a stadium, the experience has been much the same for the last 50 years: you go, drink a beer, watch the game and go home. Most women don’t drink beer – why aren’t you offering me rosé? I would pay a lot more for that than what the men pay for beer.
“My conversations are not with beer brands, they are with fashion brands, beauty brands and even fertility clinics. They are all businesses that have had female consumers since their inception and are now looking at women’s football as a way to speak to their clients and tell them they care about them.
“There’s a lot of data out there that shows that brands that had a female empowerment message generated bright returns. Be it Bumble, Taylor Swift’s Eras tour or the Barbie movie – these are all products that went out there, planted a flag and told women that they mattered. Women’s football has that message in its DNA.”
Lewes FC rejects Mercury/13 investment
For a while, this autumn, it looked like the first club to buy Mercury/13 would be English Women’s Championship side Lewes FC, with whom Mercury/13 entered into an exclusive period in their negotiations, but in of November that proposed measure ended. , because it conflicted too much with the Sussex club’s unique principle of funding their men’s and women’s teams equally.
“Lewes is a club I’ve known for many years and a club I absolutely love,” she says. “However, after doing our due diligence we realized that investing in Mercury/13 would have ultimately shaken some very core values at Lewes, and that is not the business we are It was mutually decided that this was not the case. the right betrayal.”
They still intend to buy an English club in the near future and Cogevina Reynal says: “It’s clear that England has the main professional women’s league in Europe, so it’s important for us to have an asset here. We are limited to acquiring one club per country, and making the right decision is a big part of our mandate as investors.”
