The makeshift black banners read Home of London City Lionesses, but the badges of Bromley FC, the stadium’s owners, still loom. A year ago, the Lionesses made Hayes Lane, south London, their permanent abode. Now to do the same with the Women’s Super League.
Except for the newly promoted, it is never that easy. The gap between the top two flights has gradually become one of the most insurmountable in football; in each of the last two seasons, the team that went up – Bristol City and then Crystal Palace – went straight back down, with a gap of nine points and 10 points respectively. The clubs before them who avoided that fate, Liverpool, Leicester, Aston Villa and Manchester United, were affiliated to major men’s clubs.
Ordinarily, it would be a mistake to pin too much hope in that trend changing –that is precisely what makes London City so unique.
The maxims of Michele Kang, the majority owner who in 2023 added the south London outfit to an eye-watering portfolio already featuring Lyon and Washington Spirit, ought to sound like common sense. “With proper investment and resources,” Kang says, “anything is possible”. For most clubs unattached to a Premier League side – and even for many who are – they remain elusive.
The history of London City Lionesses can broadly be split into three 1) the split from Millwall in 2019 amid the threat of administration 2) the early days under Anthony and Diane Culligan 3) The arrival of Kang in 2023 and, 18 months later, promotion to the WSL.
Few clubs like them would survive in these waters but then again, nobody has attempted to do what they have done. Their most audacious summer approach was for England forward Beth Mead, who opted to stay at Arsenal. The additions they have made have international pedigree: Nikita Parris, Katie Zelem, Danielle van de Donk, Alanna Kennedy and Saki Kumagai. Jana Fernandez arrives direct from Barcelona. Last year, still in the second tier, Sweden international Kosovare Asllani became the biggest signing in WSL2 history.
But Wassa Sangare is where it gets interesting. Kang has used her muscle in the women’s game and an extensive contact book to great effect – and Sangare is a loan from Lyon, another club where the US owner is also majority shareholder.
Men’s football has already started to fall foul of the perils of multi-club ownership: Crystal Palace expelled from the Europa League; Watford investigated over signings from the Pozzos-led Udinese; Chelsea facing scrutiny for their dealings with Todd Boehly’s Strasbourg; the tentacles of City Football Group spreading across the globe. Some interpret it as little more than playing the system.
Kang’s view is different, that in the women’s game, the multi-club model is essential for pooling resources. Those who rely on income streams from the men’s wing of the club risk collapsing when those revenues dry up – take Reading under Dai Yongge, who had to withdraw from the Championship and drop to the fifth tier of the pyramid.
The increasing demands on women’s clubs have been turbocharged by England’s back-to-back Euros triumphs but come with contradictions– play in bigger, costly-to-run stadiums, but don’t hike ticket prices and freeze out families; smash the £1m transfer but watch the gap between the haves and have-nots; attract investment, but not just at Chelsea.
So Kang’s approach is unique, and one which faces its biggest test as London City attempt to beat the odds in the WSL. None of this was imposed from above. The appetite for change was there, the Culligans moved on after an email from players asking them to sell. Coach Mel Phillips had already been lost to Angel City. The squad believed the Lionesses’ “very existence” was at stake.
When promotion finally came in May 2025, Kang’s presence in high heels and sunglasses at the forefront of the celebrations was no Trump-at-the-Club-World-Cup. The Kang project and the Lionesses’ fate are entwined. The premise is simple – that a women’s team can succeed far more quickly if it is the only focus of its institution.
Manager Jocelyn Precheur is an innovator too; at PSG he was one of the first coaches in the women’s game to insist upon the need for sports psychologists to be part of the staff.
If the first job of Precheur’s “mental trainers” is to teach players to play without fear, that job has already been made harder, with the pressure higher than ever. The team that finishes bottom of the WSL will enter a “relegation play-off” against the third best team in the second tier, in order to allow the league to expand to 14 teams from the 2026-27 season.
Yet there is no reason to suppose London City will be involved at all. Their campaign begins away to European champions Arsenal. The most ambitious predictions from inside and outside have them shooting for Europe themselves – not merely navigating the toughest relegation battle in football.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/sSo2g4X
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