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Michele Kang: London City Lionesses owner’s dramatic impact on the WSL


Kang is a slight figure but when she walks into the canteen room in heels at Cobdown Park for the exclusive interview with BBC Sport, her presence can’t be ignored.

She shakes hands with everyone, introducing herself warmly before taking her seat, careful not to ruin her glamorous dress.

It is clear Kang is a highly-intelligent woman from early conversations. She has humour, compassion and a lot of knowledge in what she talks about.

Her multi-club ownership model has become a topic of conversation as women’s football continues to grow and explores new ways to seek revenue.

She has invested heavily in London City Lionesses’ infrastructure, playing staff and female-specific research and it has paid off so far.

Will it become a model that others follow?

“I don’t know if they say ‘we will follow this model’ but I think if you come into women’s football and have real, genuine interests of supporting women’s football, it’s a no-brainer conclusion,” says Kang.

“We don’t have the huge media deal that the men have. We don’t sell-out stadiums yet. We don’t have hundreds and millions of dollars of corporate sponsorships. But we still want to advance women’s football by investing in it.

“So what’s the natural conclusion? You have to build a scale. There is no reason why every team should invest in female research. We should pool that research together and share it. It’s the same with global scouting.

“I know it has bad connotations on the men’s side with greed and all those things, but in women’s football it’s a necessity until we have decent commercial resources available.”

Kang glows with pride at the work being done behind her, turning to point at the training ground’s construction work to improve facilities.

She has used the Premier League as a benchmark on the standards required for success and has designed, with architects, a plan she wants to replicate across all her clubs to provide the best environment.

Kang returns to this when asked if it is upsetting that some suggest she signs players from her other clubs in a way of manipulating the market.

Does she sign players from Paris St-Germain, Lyon’s rivals, to benefit her French club? It is one of the main criticisms of multi-club ownership – a model which is not universally liked.

“I understand it because they haven’t seen this yet so it’s only natural for people to assume that because in the men’s world, [it is perceived that] teams buy players so they can sell them for a much higher price,” adds Kang.

“In the absence of any other alternative, it’s not unreasonable to think, ‘oh, that is what she is doing’. I get that. My job is to ensure I don’t do that so they can appreciate they are not the same models.

“It is not about building a feeder system – that is not the purpose. It is to bring critical scale so we can invest in all the necessary infrastructure and research how our players need to be the best athletes. So we can put out the best product, so we can bring more people into the stadiums, and the media finds women’s sport attractive.

“It’s all related and all necessary. While we’re talking about comparisons… women’s football is very different to men’s football. We should really treat this differently.”

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