UP359 Mercury 13's big bet on the value of women's football

Victoire Cogevina Reynal is asking some really interesting questions about the value of women’s football, now and in the years to come.She is the founder of Mercury 13, an investment consortium created to build a multi club ownership group in women’s football clubs across Europe and Latin America.The consortium includes former players such as the ex-England forward Eni Aluko, who is also a former Aston Villa and Angel City sporting director, the former Italy goalkeeper Arianna Criscione, Fifa’s former chief innovation officer, Luis Vicente, and Nancy Hensley formerly worked of Stats Perform.Last week, the group’s attempt to invest in Lewes FC broke down following an initial exclusive negotiating period.This would have seen Lewes, in the second tier of English women’s football, become the first of a multi club network of women’s teams, part of $100 million Mercury plan to invest over the coming years.So this is a timely conversation, which covers a great deal of ground, from Lewes, FC Barcelona and Angel City to the appeal of a closed Super League, the media rights market for women's soccer and the toxicity of the culture war era.You’ll hear us reference our Unofficial Partner Women’s Football Brainstorm event at DAZN HQ, link here.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.