Spirit, Lyon owner Kang buys London City Lionesses

Michele Kang announced her on Friday has acquired London City Lionesses FC, an independent club competing in the FA Women’s Championship. The English club is another “fundamental block” in its vision to grow its global multi-club organisation, following its agreement earlier this year to acquire OL Feminine and become owners of the Washington Spirit.

“As you can imagine, if you’re trying to build a premier women’s soccer organization, you have to be where the center of gravity is,” Kang said. The Athletics ahead of Friday’s announcement. “England is certainly one of them. I was looking for an opportunity to land, and with London City Lionesses being the only independent team it was a no-brainer.”

Rather than having to convince a men’s club to allow Kang to split their women’s team outside the club structure, Kang can immediately jump into the second tier of women’s football in England, with an eye on the WSL.

“Obviously our goal is to get promoted,” Kang said with a smile.

That independent structure only came about because LCL founder Diane Culligan stepped in to help Millwall FC a few years ago as they struggled to finish the season on the women’s side. Culligan had already established himself independently in youth sports.

While a standalone women’s team model is the norm in the US and other countries, that is not the case in England, where many teams are affiliated with top-level men’s clubs.

“I think it’s fair to say that my ideas and the people running the club at the time were not compatible, and that’s when we decided to part ways,” Culligan said. “That’s why London City Lionesses was born, and we went from there. The only truly independent professional women’s football club in Britain, in terms of a professional match.”

The Lionesses currently sit ninth in the Championship, although they finished second and third in the previous two seasons. Their head coach is Carolina Morace and the home games are played at Princes Park in Dartford, 18 miles south-east of central London.

“It is the middle of the season, we are going to do everything we can to complete the season as successfully as possible,” said Kang. “We’re going to figure out where we can add some help here surgically, in terms of resources, without disrupting what they’re doing.”

As has always been its plan, even with the takeover the Lionesses will retain their brand and identity – similar to how Lyon and the Spirit operate. Adding another team also provides additional justification for greater centralized resources in the multi-club organization. “I can make the kind of investments at scale that men’s teams can afford,” Kang said.

In May, Kang said The Athletics that its goal was to add three to five additional teams by the end of 2023. While the Lionesses are the only team to add them this year, there are conversations going on around the world about potential teams.

“We have a number of conversations going on in Asia; that will definitely be the first part of next year,” Kang said. “We’re going to try to pick up where we left off.” She is still focusing on other European countries, South America and Mexico – which she noted on Friday. Kang also said they have already started talks in Africa.

In the case of London City, Kang wants to balance finishing the 2023-2024 season with a long-term strategy, not just of promotion, but of becoming a top team in the WSL, and then winning it. From a business perspective, the timing is promising, with the top divisions moving to an independent structure outside the Football Association and under NewCo in November. To earn this reward, the Lionesses must first be promoted, but Kang has shown in the past that she is willing to invest for such a result.

“The NewCo model for BWSL and BWC is a great example of how women’s sport will be improved in England and globally,” said Kang. “We need more investment focused solely on the women’s game so that resources are uncompromised.”

There is also a huge example for Kang to consider regarding the potential of moving into a lower division: Wrexham. In-depth stories have already been told about a Championship club being promoted to the WSL, with Liverpool as producer a 90 minute documentary about their move to the WSL. But it’s hard to ignore the way ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ has increased attention and involvement in the lower divisions of English football here in the US, as well as benefiting enormously from the team’s new ownership.

When asked if it was on her mind, she couldn’t help but laugh before replying: ‘Absolutely. That’s what we’re here for, and we’re definitely going to write another chapter.”

(Photo: Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)