In a corner of northern Italy, perched on a sun-kissed lake, lies the town of Como. Renowned as a playground for the rich and famous, it’s a location that has long attracted investors. And now they are here for women’s football.
Six months ago, a new investment group called Mercury/13 bought FC Como Women, a mid-table team in Serie A Femminile. The group, co-founded by Victoire Cogevina Reynal, have pledged to invest more than £80m buying and transforming women’s clubs around the world. They describe investing in England as an "absolute priority".
"You will normally see a women's club within a male club, and most likely it will be in its shadow," Cogenvina Reynal, an American-born London-based entrepreneur and United Nations ambassador for Gender Equality in Football, tells BBC Sport. "A lot of magic happens when the women's team becomes a priority. We're not doing other sports.
We're not doing men's football. We have a 24/7 focus on women’s football." Their aim, she says, is to "rip up the blueprint" when it comes to football club ownership and unlock their team’s commercial potential.
"It's good business because it invites the other half of the world that has, in a way, been ignored in this industry," says Cogevina Reynal. "And we women are powerful consumers when we get behind something." Como ticked all the boxes for their first investment, with the location and the ability to commercialise the setup a big draw.
Since the takeover the club has been given a whol.
