by On a March morning on the shores of Lake Como, a piece of history was made. Mercair/13, a new ownership consortium that focuses entirely on women’s football, has acquired its first club – FC Como Women, from Serie A Femminile.
Mercury/13, founded by Victoire Cogevina Reynal, has pledged $100m (£85.5m) to build a portfolio of teams around the globe, a “pure play” investor that will unlock the commercial potential of clubs. Reynal and her co-CEO, Mario Malavé, have brought notable figures on board, including former England international Eni Aluko and Women in Football’s Ebru Koksal.
“Our aim from day one was to rethink football ownership,” says Cogevina Reynal of Moving the Backposts. “Women’s football gives you this opportunity to build a business from the ground up, having had a predecessor in the men’s game that was very successful but did some things that weren’t right. How can we learn and improve the model? Outside of being investors and operators, it’s really about building a sustainable business model so they can be truly independent.”
Como was a perfect fit for his initial investment. “Como rose to the top of the list very quickly for several reasons,” says Cogevina Reynal. “The location is the most obvious. Our whole thesis is making sure we can commercialize clubs … and having a great site certainly helps.
“When we started to dig into the reality of the club and understand how it is structured, we came across a great owner. Stefano Verga [Como’s president, who will continue in his role and remain a shareholder] extremely passionate about the team. It took more than five years, they were promoted several times, and now they are playing at the top of Italian football with a fraction of the budget of their rivals. They do it all with pride and care.”
The potential that Cogevina Reynal sees and the importance she places on the sport to be able to plow her own course is clear. Recent valuations of National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) clubs – Sportico valued Angel City, backed by celebrity investors including Serena Williams, Christina Aguilera, Eva Longoria and Billie Jean King, at an attractive $180m, for example – show how they can. success However, it should be noted that the culture of women’s soccer in the US differs from that of Europe, where most teams operate under the umbrella of men’s organizations.
Mercury/13 puts a lot of emphasis on the commercial potential of sport. “It’s very exciting because you get to talk to brands that have never even seen football as something to do,” says Cogevina Reyna. “We are talking to beauty and fashion brands, pharmaceuticals, baby products and fertility clinics. So many women are at the heart of their strategy. We show them a new world and show them what it looks like.”
Women’s teams have been burned in the past, promising much only to see it achieved when the waters become choppy. Cogevina Reynal argues that Mercury/13 is there for the long term. “In Europe we attract the interest of the big players who want to come and play for us because they are excited that we are thinking about the next 10 years, and we really want to find the best way to build understanding. this club,” she says. “That’s going to go in a lot of different ways, whether that’s their playing experience, whether that’s the additional services we can provide, but also post-career.
“All these things are happening because the only thing we do day in and day out is think about women’s football. That’s the reality that big men’s clubs don’t have today. It is not personal. It’s just a business decision when you need to focus on something else.”
The road was not always smooth during the new Mercury/13 journey. The group was in talks to take over Lewes but eventually pulled out, which Cogevina Reynal considers “a normal thing for your fund to do”. Despite the hurdles, entering the UK market remains a target and the group hopes to invest “before the end of this year”.
For now, however, Como is the focus of Mercury/13, with the team already on the ground. “I really believe that the world will fall in love with this club like we have,” says Cogevina Reynal. “This is a kind of utopia in the world, especially in a country like Italy where women are not where they deserve to be.
“It’s clear, [we want] better performance on the pitch but most importantly it will be a true example of commercial success. We are all waiting for that example. Angel City was great in the US, but we’re missing one in Europe. I hope it will be Como.”
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