The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Matt Beard remembered, WSL latest and Mercury13’s big move – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Sophie Downey to pay tribute to Matt Beard, who has died at 47. They also speak to Victoire Cogevina Reynal about Mercury13’s investment in Bristol City Women

This is The Guardian. Hello, I'm Faker others and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. We'll be remembering Matt Beard and the legacy he leaves behind on the pod today. The football seems largely irrelevant given the news we had over the weekend. But we will cast our eye over the games and reflect on all. all the fantastic tributes. Itana Bon Mati reigns supreme, winning the Ballondor for a third time. We'll give you our thoughts on that.

And we'll be speaking to Mercury 13 co-founder Victoire Cojavina Raynell as the group announced their now majority shareholders at Bristol City Women. All that plus we'll take your questions. And that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. What's a panel we have today? Susie Rack, happy birthday to you, belated. Happy birthday to me, yeah. Nice weekend off, apart from obviously the horrific news.

Yes, absolutely. Tom, we'll discuss that in a second, but how are you? I'm okay, thank you, yeah. In the midst of NCT classes, learning all about how to change nappies and learning a lot, I think. So, yeah, it's been a really tough weekend, for sure. But, no, I thank you to, Susie's just given me some very helpful advice about baby poo. So we can take that onwards with happiness in the course of the

week. I feel awful that we're actually talking about that right at the top of the pod, but we did spend about 15 minutes because Ted, my little boy, came in and said, Mommy, I need a poo just before we were about to start recording, which has then meant that we've just been talking about that for the last 10 minutes. Sophie Downey, how you doing? I'm good, thank you. Just recovering from a weekend in the North West. as Tom said, a very tough weekend. So long journey up, long journey back, but it was a good weekend. Yeah, it has been a really tough weekend.

And that is where we're going to start. There is nowhere else to start, really. The women's football world shocked on Saturday evening to learn the devastating news that Matt Beard had passed away at the age of 47. Our thoughts, obviously, with his wife, Debbie, children, family and close friends as well. We all knew him, and anybody who worked with him,

knew him affectionately as beardy. He was a stalwart of the sport as well, hugely successful on the field, widely loved, respected off of it. In terms of his career, if he didn't know, he started off at Millwall, went on to manage Chelsea in the pre-Emma Hayes era, went to Liverpool twice, Boston Breakers as well, West Ham, Bristol City, and most recently Burnley. He brought unprecedented success to Liverpool during his first spell at the club. They had back-to-back WSL titles and he went back there in 2021 leading them back into the top flight, winning the championship in his first season. And if you remember as well, against all odds, he led both Chelsea and West Ham to the FA Cup finals. But it's perhaps his work behind the scenes where he

had the biggest impact. He just need to look at the tributes posted all over social media and at various points in broadcasts, etc. this weekend to understand the lasting impact that he had on so many people, how many careers that he helped, how much he genuinely cared about the women's game, and how much he genuinely cared about those who work within it. It was just such a tough news to get, Susie. Yeah, really shocking news. You know, nothing anyone expected to hear. And it really, really, really difficult to hear because so many knew him. And I think, you know, the outpouring on social media has shown the depth of the depth of. feeling towards him as a person and a manager how like utterly adored he was and yeah all of our

interactions with him you know as journalists like for me have been nothing but brilliant um i always really admired the way he handled like speaking to the press after defeats and particularly really heavy defeats because there was always this like real like honest humbleness and like weariness at like a lack of resources and like having to battle with so little which was so often the case for him and his teams and I was really lucky in that when he was at West Ham I got invited

he agreed that I could come and watch an entire behind closed doors training session with just me sat there in the stands ahead of the game I was covering which was their game got complete access to all their tactical insight watching him on the training pitch like right in the middle of things, literally placing players.

Taking players by the shoulders and moving them into the position he wanted them to be in and then talking through it and obviously being really loud and vocal. But like a real, like, you know, there's a lot made of his character as a people person and someone who was really, really good at understanding players and getting the best out of them in that sense and of, you know, recruiting really well. But like his tactical brain was phenomenal too.

And, yeah, it's just devastating news. I'm really glad to see the crowd funder to raise money for his funeral and for his family moving forward has, like, done so well. And again, speaks to like the depth of feeling around him. Yeah, one thing you said actually there, Susie reminds me of a moment, I think it was four or five years ago. And his team had just had quite a bad defeat. And one of the staff members sort of was talking to me and said, oh, I hope you're going to be kind in your match report. and Beadey just jumped in and was like, no, no, we were crap. You need to say we were crap.

It's about driving the standards and stuff. And I mentioned that because he really had a lot of respect for this profession and the media, and he did a lot, he had a lot of time for all of us who worked in the media. And that's really important to say, going way, way back, going all the way back to, you know, the early WSL and in those early WSL years, the journalists who covered his teams there. I remember they saying the same thing and look on a personal level this still doesn't really feel real

you know the last time we spoke earlier this month we were making plans for a beer which has not which has not happened but it doesn't really feel like it's true yet but obviously the kind of shock and sadness that we're feeling will be nothing in comparison to his family so you know our love and all goes out to them

and I hope they are heartened by the tributes that have been flooding in from all over the world of women's football and I think what people are spoken to you in the last couple of days, it's noticeable how even if you didn't play for him, you appeared to really love him. But those who did play for him frequently wanted to sign for his next clubs again. You know, there are so many examples of players who followed him from club to club and wanted to carry on playing under him because they saw him as like a big brother.

And that kind of tells you everything you need to know about how well he was thought of with his players. So it would be dearly, dearly missed. And on a football level, if I could just add a few bits and bobs. There are, it's really worth remembering how many clubs he helped transform. Faye mentioned this at the start, you know, but that was Chelsea's first cup final, which if you think about that now, that's sort of hard to imagine, right, but Chelsea, he took them to their first cup final. West Ham, he took them to their first cup final. And realistically, since then, they've never had such a good day as, as that. And obviously, Liverpool will be where he'll be most sorely missed not only a two-time.

time WSL winner and winning them promotion back up to the WSL, but somebody who gave a lot of time to the supporters was always keen to meet them for a drink down the pub and I think will be remembered for a very, very, very long time. Yeah, I'm not going to rehash what Tom and Susie have said because they've said it so well, but I guess just more on a, maybe on a personal, I've known Matt on and off for the last 13 years of my life, you know, bumping into him at football grounds here and there, interviewing in post-match. He was very, very supportive of our journey, mine and Rachel's, with girls in the ball. He would always check in when he saw us, always give us a hug or right surf or right

Rach, and to think that that's not going to be there anymore is kind of hard. I think it's testament to him as well that I just will think about that press conference at Man United for a long time on Sunday. You know, it's a very emotional press conference with Mark Skinner and I think that just shows how much he impacted, not just the people he worked with day-to-day, but the people who came across him every weekend covering us a media and stuff like that. And there was a lot of emotion. I shout out Mark Skinner as well because he made sure that we were all okay afterwards. He came around and gave us all a big hug.

And I think that's a testament to him as well. But yeah, it's a very, very sad weekend. And, yeah, it doesn't feel real. So just Sophie mentioning that game there reminds me of just the immense respect that I think we all have for Scott Rogers and Joe Potts who obviously worked under Beardy and were there in front of the cameras as staff members at Man United obviously really really finding that tough and the same to Olivia Smith and Taylor Hines who played and it must have been such emotional circumstances and I think to all four of them and everyone else who you know carried on with so professionally amid such grief I think that will all. always stick with me and how strong they were to go through on Sunday and play and work in such a professional way. It meant respect to them because that was not an easy day for anybody. Yeah, and that's exactly what people have said. That's what Matt would have wanted them to do as well. And there were tributes everywhere across the grounds, as you would expect on Sunday,

a moment of silence and applause in the 47th minute, while Liverpool's fixture against Aston Villa was postponed at the request of the players. of whom had obviously played with him for many years and you know, you couldn't expect them to turn out and play like that. And obviously the football feels really trivial in these kind of circumstances, but there were fixtures on Sunday and we are going to go through them. And of course, when you think of the legacy that Matt Beard leaves, there's not a club really that he hasn't touched in some way.

And we're going to start at Lee because, as Sof said, amazing tributes from Mark Skinner but Olivia Smith who you just mentioned Tom was brought to England by Matt Beard last season named in the starting 11 for Arsenal's trip up to Manchester United Taylor Hines former Liverpool vice captain on the bench and Renee Slager spoke about her pride

in them as well after the game goaler straw is how it ended record crowd actually at Lee Sports Village really as you maybe expect Susie, not that much attacking quality, few clear-cut chances. The defences really came out on top on both just four shots in total in the entire game. What did you make of it? Yeah, not a great game for me to watch as a fan being off this weekend as Friday was my birthday.

I sat down thinking, oh, you know, great day of football. I'll watch the women's Arsenal game and then I'll watch the men's Arsenal game and we'll all be happy. And both were pretty crap from an Arsenal point of view. But, you know, it is what it is. I think, you know, United have an exceptional defense, a really well-organized. I'm not sure I agree with the tactic of starting Sina Blackstanius and Alessi-Ruso together. Like, I'd, you know, fine to experiment with that, like, it's not been tried very regularly, so why not give it a go? But I think Arsenal really lost them of their players that really stretched the game off the bench when they started both Blackstanius and Olivia Smith.

I think that maybe then cost them because you then have to take those players off for others instead of having the players that are going to come on and stretch the game. So I think that was maybe something that they'll reflect on a little bit. Story of resilient defence is ultimately it, but a pretty boring game for someone to sit at home and watch. Yeah. Rennings Slegger's odd decision according to Susie Sof, but also maybe an odd decision for Mark Skinner as well. Elizabeth Turlin scored a hat trick in midweek but Mark Skinner opted for Melvin Mallard

instead what should make of that? Yeah, I think he wanted to try and attack the spaces behind Arsenal's defence and try and hit them with her speed. She's obviously in good form as well at the moment but it was a surprise because of the kind of form that Elizabeth Terland had showed she was so good in that game against Estia Brown so it was a bit of surprise in that respect

I do think Mark Skinner kind of called Renee's Leger Bluff. I just remember the post-match against S.K. Brann. And he literally said, Renee Sleggers is going to start with Stina Blackstanias. She always starts with Stina Blackstanias up front against Stas. And she did. So I think they were very prepared for it in that respect. They were both looking to get in behind the defences. Both defences managed it pretty well. A big shout out to Katie Reed as well, who was phenomenal in the back line, as was Letizier down the other end. So I think that was the story of the day. But there wasn't great quality of a game, to be honest.

know the defending was good, but in terms of like the attacking product, you would have probably expected a little bit more. Yeah. Elizabeth Talland had done her job midweek because United actually came into this fixture on the back of a history making week, reaching the Champions League for the first time after beating SK Brand 3-0 in qualifying Tom. Massive moment for the club and for Mark Skinner as well. What could this kind of confidence boost do for their season? Yeah, a history moment for the club. And I think really crucial. short of their season, I think if they hadn't qualified for the group stage, there would

have been that underlying tone of disappointment throughout everything else that had come afterwards, no matter what they'd achieved. So it's a big step for them. And I think our worries will still remain, though, about whether they have the depth on the bench to contend with the extra matches. They're going to rotate between Thurland and Mallard, which in attack is a great option to have. But we're already starting to see some of the thin areas. I thought Celine Bizet did very well, actually, against Arsenal covering it right back.

That was a very good performance from her, you know, against such good Arsenal wingers to help them keep a clean sheet. But, you know, that's clearly not the ideal situation that you would want to have as your backup at right back going into a championship campaign. But it's important to be positive in this answer because they did play very

well against Brown. They thoroughly deserved to go through. And I think they're certainly the danger team in that third part of teams for sure. And all the teams who have drawn to play against Manchester United have a difficult draw because they certainly do not have a gimme from their pot three opponent. So I think they'll cause a few problems for lots of teams in the championship. I'm looking forward to seeing how they get on. Yeah, me too. Manchester City travelled to London. It was a comfortable 5-1 victory over Tottenham

Hot Spur who perhaps came a bit more down to earth with a bump. It was a scare though in the first half, Lauren Hemp forced off with an ankle injury. Despite that, though, a dominant attacking performance from City, which just shows their depth really, doesn't it, Susie? Yeah, it really does, which, you know, it is a pleasure to see after a year of them struggling with, like, severe injuries and things like that. A real positive start, some lovely play, dominant, like, I think this is the sort of performance we expect for them when they've got their players fit and it's good to see it back that way. Martin Ho looked pretty frustrated Tom, I have to say.

His side's defence just collapsed a little bit, didn't they? Is there cause for concern? Should they go back to the drawing board or is this just, you know, a little hiccup? There'll be defensive issues that they'll want to address for sure. That is a concern, but I wouldn't say big panic. They performed very well in the two games they would have targeted winning out of those first three fixtures, kept clean sheets in those and played very well at Everton, so there were going to be teething problems. It's still a very early days, and they've also really still not got the

squad to challenge for a top sort of four spot. So I don't think they should overreact to the defeat, and, you know, they've won the games that they'll be judged more on. So I don't want to be too critical. It was poor performance, but if you'd offer them six points in their first three matches, I think they would have snapped your arm off, so they've done well. It's the same with London City's first two games, right? They're not the games that are going to define any of the team outside the top three or four season, right? Like, you know, London City come off the back of that and get the win against Everton. Like, there's going to be bad results against the top three. They're that far ahead. And yet, five one to City is going to

hurt, but it's never going to be the result that defines their season. I think, like, You know, you can get your head down about a defeat more, a close defeat to someone sort of in and around where you are more than you would necessarily in a game like this, despite the fact that the result is so frustrating and big because the gap is so big for me. Well, you mentioned London City Lionesses. Sof was at Goodersen Park on Friday for their first win in the WSL,

2-1 victory over Everton. Isabel Goodwin scoring a brace. Yuka Mamiki pulled one back from the spot to make it a nervy finish in the end. But how impressed were you, Sophie, with London City's performance? And what's happening at Everton? I think it's both sides just taking a bit of time to come together. I think London City did really well on the night. They started really well.

They've got Isabel Goodwin up and faring. And we all know what kind of talent she is in terms of what she can do. And it was only a matter of time before she opened her account in the Barclays, WS. She is such a good young talent. and I'm so excited for her to come through the England ranks as well. Just completely instinctive, but got so many different aspects of her games. She can play out wise. She can play up front.

And she really leads that line. And she's played every single minute for London City so far. That kind of shows what she's all about. I think Jocelyn Pressure was very much about finding the right pieces and that's going to take him time to get things working and get things cohesive. So it is a matter of just time for them. I think the same could be said for Everton. He's, Brian Sorensen said nine new signings as well.

He's still figuring out everything about it. They probably, I think Tom said in the post-match press conference, if there'd been 10 minutes longer, I think Everton probably would have found the equalizer. They were on the ascendancy in that final 20 minutes of the game. They performed really, really well. They just couldn't find the back of the net. But I think for Brian Sorenson, the worry will be the slow starts. They keep making slow starts.

They keep being on the back foot and having to claw themselves back into games. and sometimes leaving it too late. So I think for both, it's just a figuring out process. I'm not too worried about it, like for Everton, I think it will come good. You can see the signs there. And I think London City will continue to build. Brighton Building as well, their first win of the season two,

beating West Ham by four goals to one. It was a real clinical attacking display, actually, from Brighton, Susie. Four different goal scorer, which they'll be pleased with. Is this where they lift off? Yeah, I think so. I think things are starting to click. It was great to see Rosa Kaffaji on the score sheet after making her first start for the side.

Obviously, you know, difficult season last year on the bench for Arsenal for most of the season coming on very, very occasionally. So it's nice to see her sort of start to get some game time in the WSL and build up that experience and things. For what Michelle Adjaman, while she's still not got a goal, was a real handful, causing all kinds of problems

and forcing errors that led to some of the goals, including Kaffajis. and I also thought Frank Kirby like was an absolute menace and absolutely everywhere and it's quite wonderful to see a player who you know is surely at some point coming to the end of her career like roll back the years and be as good as she was you know sort of five ten years ago even and yeah a real impressive performance so to have you know four different goals scorers and you know such a comfortable victory and and, you know, so many players sort of stepping up

and seeming so cohesive, I think they'll be really, really happy with that. Vivian Asai had made it 2-1. On 51 minutes, Tom, but, you know, ultimately, again, they capitulated West Ham. They're bottom of the table without a point yet. Are they panicking, do you think? What's Rianne Skinner's head at the minute? There's still a lot of time. I really don't think they should be panicking,

but the worry I would have is how vulnerable they look defensively. I don't think I was alone in thinking that they would be really exciting to watch their season going forward. And that hasn't really come to fruition yet either. I think I will hold judgment until we've seen them have a couple more opportunities. But yeah, it's the backline looking so leaky that would be my concern for West Ham. Well, listen, can I just say that nobody reserved judgment on Leland? Leicester at the beginning of the season. I think everybody tipped them to go down. And actually, although

it was a defeat to Chelsea, it was a very narrow defeat, just the one goal. And I think everybody would have expected this game to have ended in Chelsea's attacking line, having great fun. As it was, it was just Aggie Beaver Jones on the score sheet in the seventh minute. What did you make of it, Sov?

I think Leicester, as Tom's said, have got their defence figured out. I think they are very hard to break down. They're so resilient. They work really hard for each other. They know how to pack the box as well, which makes it hard for any shots to come off. You would, as you said, expect Chelsea to come out on top. I think it just shows the work that Lester have done over the last year in terms of the off-the-ball stuff that doesn't often get praised, the out-of-possession stuff. They regularly, like, I mean, actually, they registered something like 46% possession

in this game, which is crazy for them when they averaged 36% possession the whole of last season. That's actually one of their highest possession stats. So the fact that they came to Kingsmeda and did that, I think, is impressive. I think for Leicester, for me, it's about, you know, finding the right personnel up front. If you're going to play that out of possession game where you're looking to hit people on the counter, yes, it's great to have the speed of the wingers that they have, but they do need a target player. And I think, but yeah, I mean, positive signs for them. I think they are better than I thought they would be. For Chelsea, I think it's a question of things clicking together. Sonia has said they're adjusting things, they're working things out

still. I think that's the case. They've got a lot of moving parts, a lot of pieces of the puzzle, a lot of stars to fit into that lineup. They're one constant at the moment. Seems to be Aggie Beaver Jones, who is doing the business out front. She is really making herself undropable three goals and three. So yeah, I think interesting game for both. Lester's so nearly equalized in the injury time they hit the bar and that would have been quite something. But it was a brilliant save from Hannah Hampton. Yeah, and we'll discuss Hannah Hampton in a second. That's it for part one in part two.

We'll reflect on the winners of the Ballondor. I've just given you a spoiler there, haven't I? And have a chat with Mercury 13's Victoire Cojaveena Raynell. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Week. So last night, the 2025 Ballondeur Award ceremony took place in Paris. And it was a shock, actually. Itana Bon Mati picked up the main award for the third year in a row. She faced stiff competition from the likes of Mariona Caldente and Alessia Russo.

Talk to me, people, because I was very surprised by the result and a little bit disappointed, actually. Susie? Yeah, like, I do think it's a little bit ridiculous that she's won it. And that's no disrespectful, Matty. I think she is one of the best players to have ever played the game. And, you know, we'll all go down in history as one of the best to have ever played. She's superb to watch. I love watching her.

I do not think last season was her best season. It was a phenomenal season in comparison to most players, but it wasn't her best season. And others had better seasons, including other players who played for me, for Spain and Barcelona, including Patrick Guerr, even Alexia, particularly for Barcelona last season, I would say had a better season. Mariona Caldente, for Spain obviously arriving in England, winning player of the year in the first season in a new country and then going on to win the Champions League with a new team against the team that she left. Like those alone, I think, worthy of winning. And then you've got Alessia Russo who had a phenomenal season, who scored in the final

of the Euros who won the Champions League and the Euros, who was incredibly influential in the quarter-final of the Champions League against Real Madrid, when asked not to come from two goals behind in the first leg to win three, nil in the second leg, she scored two of those goals, hugely influential for England, particularly her hold-up play and stuff during the tournament.

So, like, for me, it just felt a little bit disappointing, well, actually very disappointing, to not see some of those achievements recognised ahead of Itana's last season, who I think by her own admission would say it was not her best campaign. So, yeah, I mean, we know why these things happen. Like, I think the fact that they have a very similar way of doing the judging to the men's tournament, except instead of 100 judges, it's 50, one each from the top 50 ranked UAFA nations.

It's a journalist. Now, whilst on the men's side, you could have 100 journalists from the top 100 around Lakers and they'll be dedicated football journalists in every single country. For the women's, there won't be. And so there's a real, like, I would say, knowledge gap between, say, the journalists from England or the US or Canada or France or Spain, where there are people who regularly follow the women's game versus some of those nations towards the bottom of that 50 UAFA ranking of countries

who aren't afforded the wonderful privilege that we are in being able to work in this game full time and watch it as religiously as we do. And so I think there's a gap there where it doesn't really, when you take the system for the men's and you put it on the women's and it doesn't really align or work properly and that's an issue for me. Yeah, a few issues, but let's do the celebration, shall we?

Because plenty of lioness's representation, Serena Vigman, receiving the Johann Croyfe trophy, which is for manager of the year. Hannah Hampton winning goalkeeper of the year and Arsenal winning club of the year. Were they expected for you, Tom? I think those were all fair and well deserved, actually. And I think Hampton, you know, fully deserved that

with the way she performed in the clutch moments for, you know, the Euros, which at the end of day, you know, these events are really judged on the major tournaments, I guess. But that's also my big concern with this whole awards night was just how little recognition. there was, for the fact there was a Wafcon, there was a women's copper America, and did you know, did they really know? Did they, did the people organising this event really realised that had happened? I mean, the whole, all of the top 10 play the football in Europe.

And I guess I feel a bit of sympathy for anyone who played for Brazil or Nigeria who was watching that last night thinking, hello, we played really well as well. There's a bit of a danger that this event just becomes Europe focused. There's still still not quite realizing that equal should mean equal, really. So hopefully that will change. in the future. And Eva Paior picked up the Gerdmuller Trophy, which is for striker of the year. And now the Champions League draw was made on Friday, as we know, Manchester United are now in it. After qualification finished last week, it's going to be a really busy league phase. Three English teams involved. So Champions Arsenal are going to face Leon, Real Madrid and FC20 at home.

And Bayern Munich, Benfica and Leuven away. Chelsea come up against two of their old rivals, meeting Barcelona at home. and Wolfsburg away. Oof, they're also going to face AS Roma and Paris FC at Stamford Bridge and travelled to St Poulton and FC20. Finally, Manchester United face a tough inaugural campaign.

They're going to host Leon, PSG and Valorenga at Lee Sports Village and Wolfsburg, Juventus and Athletic Home Madrid on the road. Right, we're going to say goodbye to Tom and to Sof, actually, because we've got a really fascinating interview

coming up. Not that you two aren't fascinating, obviously. But me and Susie are going to be speaking to Victoire Kojavena Rinal. So Tom Garry, I think with your little boy imminently arriving into the world in the next few weeks, Susie and I have terrified you with the bodily functions you are going to have to be dealing with when he arrives. So have a good week. Thank you. I'm off to buy some nappies. Take care. Excellent. So always lovely to see you. Great to see you too. Thank you. Right, there was some big news last week

as multi-club ownership group Mercury 13 announced they'd acquired a majority stake in Barclays WSL-2-side, Bristol City. So we thought we'd catch up with the group's co-founder, Victoire Cojavina-Reynale, to find out a bit more about the deal and what we can expect for the future of the club. Congratulations, first of all, Victoire.

When you get these kind of deals over the line, I know how exciting that can be. Huge news. How are you feeling? Good. Great. I think as a team, we've been working really hard in the background to get this done on both sides, both Bristol and ourselves. And so now that it's finally done and the ink is drying over the contract, we're starting to focus on the future and what's to come. Obviously, myself and Susie know everything about Mercury 13. But for anyone listening who perhaps doesn't know what the group does and what you do personally, can you just explain a little bit more about it because you're not the traditional

you don't have the traditional ownership model, do you? Well, I am not the traditional owner of a football club, my wife. I'm a Latin woman with tattoos that is 34 years old. I don't think a lot of people would expect me to own a football club. But we were born two years ago in August of 23 with a mission to bring football to the other half of the world. So for us, we would do that by investing and operating women's football clubs, and we would focus on this 24-7. So we don't invest in other sports, and we don't invest on the men's side of the sport.

And four months after inception, we had acquired our first team, which is FC Como Woman, playing in the city of Feminile, which is the top division of Italian professional football, and started really applying essentially what we call our transformation. playbook. So how we were going to get this team that is an independent woman's team to be able to compete against the eventus and the romas of this world when everything was completely under invested in a way. And so we started a wonderful journey with that team and a lot to share on that front. But it was very much the beginning of what we believe is going to be a model that we can replicate across many leagues, across many clubs and hopefully across many continents. And Bristol City is our second club in that quest.

I think it's great that you've taken your time to sort of kind of get an understanding of things at Como before you've then moved on to your next club. You've been looking to enter the English market for a while. Why Bristol City? What made you choose Bristol as the team to invest in? We hadn't made it a secret that we want. wanted to be in the WSL. We believe that this is going to become the best league in the world

for professional club football for women. And we wanted to make sure that we had the right asset in this market. We have a cost opportunity as part of the business that we operate and that if we invest in one team, that we can't really invest in any others. So we had to make this choice very carefully. Our wonderful chief strategy office, Hannah Haynes took on the challenge of mapping the top three divisions in the country and really understanding what was available, what was also open for a new structure because for us, control and operational and commercial control was very important. We weren't going to take a minority stake and that obviously made kind of the pool quite smaller in that sense. It was an unprecedented

and the deals. And so we had to make sure that we did our research. And Bristol, I think, was very clearly at the top of that list from the beginning. This is a deal that took 16 months from beginning to end. And it really ticked every single one of our boxes from the incredible infrastructure that it has in Ashton Gate, in the Robbins High Performance Center, in the Tier one academy that has already produced international talent, all the way to the fact that from a commercial standpoint, this club represents the southwest of England, which we believe is very much a sleeping giant in terms of fandom. So when you look at all of that put together, and of course a partner on the other side, which was the Lansdown family, open to really

figure out the structure that would make sense. All we had to do was find a way to get it done. The fans are going to want to know what it means for them and what it means for the club's future as well. So how involved are you going to be with the day-to-day running of the club? And where do you want to take Bristol City? What's the aim? So we'll start with the easy piece. I think that Bristol City always belonged to the WSL,

to the top division in this country. And right now that's what we're focused on. We want to have that promotion. Football is football. We don't know how long it's going to take, but we're surely investing and ensuring that. that we give the team the best chances. And then after that, I think that the sky was never the limit.

It's our tagline at Mercury 13. There's a lot that we can do. We were very involved with Como because we're not just investors. We're very active operators in the business. So we're now working on the long-term plan and making sure that there's a strategy in place to make this club not only the best performing team on the pitch, but also the most followed club in the country.

You know, a lot of people outside who don't work within football, some people who do work within football, are actually worried about conflicts of interest. How do you respond to that? What's your opinion on that? And how do you allay people's fears? Well, look, this company was launched by convincing a lot of people that the MCO model was one that actually is much better suited for women that it was ever for men. And it all starts by the premise that women's teams are completely under-resourced by every single metric that you can measure. And so if you have a group that can give resources at a much higher level to those clubs,

then you're giving them a much better chance to succeed. And that can be everything from the commercial standpoint, You know, we have world-class talent that's looking after these teams that a team like Como could never be able to afford. But because they're at the group level and we're sharing that resource across multiple groups, now they have access to these. Same on the marketing front. It can also, the case can also be made on HR and recruiting and the performance side, the football side of things. So for us, it's really about demonstrating how the MCO actually in this. particular case and at the maturity in which the women's game is at can actually accelerate

its growth exponentially in comparison to any other model. Of course, we're at the beginning of that journey. Now that we do have two clubs in the portfolio, we're going to start demonstrating this, but it's always been the thesis that we've had and the one that our investors have coming back as well. Obviously, you mentioned the like severe underfunding of women's football and investment in women's football teams there. Where do you see the biggest potential for growth moving forward? The audience. I think that that is where we all need to be focusing

because that is a long-term answer to any problems that we've had. If we have an audience, if we have fans coming into the stadiums, watching the games over the weekend, following our athletes, buying our merchandising, then these teams are going to be able to exist independently and with autonomy, and that at the end of the day is all we need to do. If we continue to propagate the problem by now making these teams dependent on investors, then what's the point of everything we're doing? Women are going to stadiums because they feel like they're actually standing up for themselves

and asking for something much bigger for themselves. And that is whether you're a fan or a player on the pitch, we're all united in this. And if we don't actually translate it into culture, and we're not able to articulate this, then I think we're missing the point of women's football at large. Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it? It's almost like creating a subculture to begin with and then expanding it out as people get on board

and feel like they belong. It's really fascinating the work that you're doing, and I've followed what Mercury 13 are doing from afar for quite a while now, and I expect you have a strategy beyond what's going on with Bristol City at the moment. So the club portfolio is now two. The big question is, what is the aim for the future? Are you going to invest in any more clubs? Yes, we are.

Yes, we are. It's always been part of what we said we're going to do. But I think what most people don't realize is that this deal take a long time. These clubs are not built to receive investment. They were never structurally ready for this. This has happened so fast over the last two years. And, you know, suddenly all these clubs are trying to understand how can they bring in a partner like us

and make it make sense with the rest of the club. So it's going to take a little bit more time, but we're certainly doing that. We've made it no secret that Europe is our priority market in terms of finding the right assets in the top. five leagues here and then you know whatever else we can do we will be looking into it and there's so much more i mean this is we're very much at the beginning of something huge there's continents like latin america and africa that i think are going to play a huge role in in the talent piece

and you know we'll be remiss not to be looking at opportunities over there as well take business out of it what do you love most about women's football here in the uk The resilience. I think it's when you know the history and you know what has happened to the sport in this country and you see the comebacks of all comebacks, right? This is really it, the lionesses, bringing it home before their men's team

and how that has then bled across the entire culture. The fact that football is such a huge part of society, but for whatever reason has never included women, which is literally the other half of this country, and now you're seeing this opportunity to do it. I think that that's what's the most exciting bit. Every time I go to any women's football match here in the UK, whether it's in London or anywhere around the country,

and you see people have been going to these matches and supporting these athletes for so long, and now they're finally getting the attention, the resources that they deserve. I think we're at the beginning of something very, very special and it's an honour to be able to write a small part of that story. It's honestly, it's been a real honour to talk to you, Victoire. It's been brilliant hearing what your plans are for the future,

how you're going to look after Bristol City as well, and we hope that you'll come on the Guardian Women's Football Weekly again. Thank you very much for having me. And hopefully we'll have more to share with you soon. look forward to it. Susie, I know that, you know, you have concerns about multi-club ownership, but when you hear from someone like Victoire and what's going on at Mercury 13 and the impact that they're able to make on clubs,

especially when we think about Bristol City and the journey that they've been on, what are your thoughts? The women's game is a bit of a sort of a crossroads about the direction it takes and how this growth looks moving forward. you know anyone listening to victoire and seeing what they're doing or michelle kang and sort of seeing the intention behind what they're doing is is going to welcome that into women's football but it's yeah you know i think it's important that we we ask those questions and we you know quiz what we want women's football to be moving forward um you know where we want

profits to go uh what we want investment in it to look like and that kind of thing i think they're really important conversations to be having around around these topics by the sounds of it they welcome that as well and work more of as a collaborative it's going to be fascinating going forward Susie always fascinating to be in your company and I look forward to seeing you soon yeah fingers crossed we'll actually see each other face to face

sometime soon it would be really lovely I owe you a birthday drink I'll take it excellent keep having your say let us know your thoughts actually on that interview and anything else that you've heard in the pod today you can send in your questions via X or email us at Women's Football Weekly at The Guardian.com. As ever as well, a reminder to sign up for our bi-weekly women's football newsletter.

All you need to do is search Moving the Goalposts sign up. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray. Music composition was by Laura Iodale. Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens. Thank you.