As well as the French champions, Kang owned two other teams as part of her multi-club Kynisca group, the US side Washington Spirit and the London City Lionesses, based out of Bromley and playing in the second tier of English women\u2019s football. Two years on, driven by Kang\u2019s vision and fuelled by her deep pockets, London City have secured promotion and undergone a remarkable makeover. From that Champions League final alone, they have signed not just Putellas, making the Spain international and World Cup winner the biggest overseas signing in Women\u2019s Super League<\/a> history, but two of her Barcelona team-mates in Mapi Leon and Jana Fernandez. From sister club Lyonnes, London City have signed two of their starting forwards in Kadidiatou Diani and Delphine Cascarino, as well as midfielder Danielle van de Donk. <\/p>\n Within two years, London City have disrupted women\u2019s football and have now set their sights on challenging for the WSL title. It has not come cheap: Putellas was a free transfer but is one of the highest-paid women\u2019s footballers in the world at around \u00a31m per year. Before the new season, London City have also signed former England goalkeeper Mary Earps<\/a> from Paris Saint-Germain and have built a team set on challenging Arsenal<\/a> and Chelsea<\/a>\u2019s dominance in the capital. In terms of transfer fees within the WSL, only Arsenal and Chelsea have come close to matching the \u00a31m London City paid PSG for midfielder Grace Geyoro last summer<\/a>. Their position is also a unique one. Of the 14 teams in this season\u2019s expanded WSL, London City are the only independent outfit with no affiliation to a men\u2019s club, yet their spending comfortably exceeds that of Manchester United and Liverpool, despite the riches that flow from the Premier League. <\/p>\n Kang is the driving force. The 67-year-old, who made her fortune through healthcare technology in the US, is an investor in the true sense of the word, believing in the untapped value and potential of women\u2019s sports. Her philanthropy has extended to making $30m and $4m donations to US Soccer and USA Rugby respectively, the latter just hours after watching the US women\u2019s rugby sevens team win bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics. London City are likely to make a financial loss in their second season of playing the WSL, but Kang\u2019s investment is not charity: she believes signing stars of the level of Putellas raises the value of the league and is a bet that will pay off in the long-term. On the eve of the WSL season, London City unveilved a groundbreaking shirt deal with Nike, which Kang claimed was worth around \u00a33m<\/a> and was worth more than the front-of-shirt sponsorships for some Premier League clubs. <\/p>\n In addition, Kang has put $50m into the creation of the Kynisca Innovation Hub, a centre that focuses on improving the health of elite female athletes. All three of Kang\u2019s clubs will have access to Kynisca\u2019s studies into female-specific training and injury prevention, both of which are areas that are severely under-researched. London City are also in the process of building a state-of-the-art training facility in Kent, designed to meet the needs of female athletes, while pooling together their resources with Lyonnes and Washington Spirit to unlock advancements in the preparation and conditioning of their players. The tangible benefits that may come further down the line could be game-changing for player development. It is why Kang believes that her multi-club ownership model is a \u201cnecessity\u201d, despite the negative connotations of multi-club ownership that have stemmed from the men\u2019s game. <\/p>\n Growing the game or \u2018sporting integrity\u2019 at risk? <\/p>\n When Barcelona defeated Lyonnes to win last season\u2019s Champions League, the goalkeeper Cata Coll appeared to be directing criticism at Kang when she said \u201cmoney isn\u2019t everything\u201d. It is not just London City who have signed players from Barcelona; Lyonnes have too by adding Ingrid Engen and Salma Paralluelo on free transfers in successive summers. In 2024, Washington Spirit appointed Jonatan Giraldez as their head coach from Barcelona. After a short spell in the US, Giraldez returned to Europe \u2013 but joined Lyonnes. The frustration Coll was alluding to following May\u2019s Champions League final was that three different clubs in three different foreign leagues, but with the same owner, had the means, and some would argue motive, to pick at Barcelona for their talent. <\/p>\n Uefa\u2019s rules on multi-club ownership do not differ between men\u2019s and women\u2019s football. If London City\u2019s ambition is to win the WSL then they also aspire to play in the Champions League, alongside the record eight-time winners Lyonnes. Uefa\u2019s regulations state that no individual or group may have \u201ccontrol or influence\u201d over more than one club taking part in the competition. While there are workarounds (Brighton and Hearts are both allowed to play in this season\u2019s men\u2019s Conference League despite Tony Bloom owning both clubs, due to the group\u2019s carefully managed ownership structure), Uefa\u2019s head of women\u2019s Nadine Kessler was clear when she said earlier this year that she wanted to \u201cpreserve the sporting integrity\u201d of women\u2019s football. <\/p>\n There are also tight financial controls to negotiate in the WSL, which limit London City, or anyone else, from blowing other teams out of the water. Clubs are permitted to spend 80 per cent of their revenues, attributed only to women\u2019s football, plus up to \u00a34m from their owners, on player salaries. Such sums are small change compared to the Premier League, but are designed for financial sustainability within women\u2019s football \u2013\u00a0so their accounting sheets will have to be carefully managed. <\/p>\n From this season, breaches of the salary cap can result in points penalties, with the punishments increasing incrementally. London City\u2019s revenues are significantly lower than those of Arsenal and Chelsea, who will be playing all of their home games at the Emirates and Stamford Bridge respectively, and they need Kang\u2019s millions to bridge the gap. The club\u2019s last reported finances, from their promotion campaign from the Championship in 2024-25, saw a \u00a310.6m loss, more than ten times their revenue of \u00a3900,000. <\/p>\n If London City have designs on operating a self-sufficient model then growing their home attendances and maximising their matchday revenue will be key. Kang\u2019s vision has allowed London City to pull some of Europe\u2019s best players but the 5,400-capacity Hayes Lane in Bromley has a rather low-key feel for such star names. Attracting supporters towards an independent club and breaking through the grip of Chelsea, Arsenal and reigning WSL champions Manchester City is a further challenge. <\/p>\n The signings of Putellas and Earps has the capacity to move the dial, and may just be the start of the Kynisca group\u2019s impact on the WSL. But the question at the heart of Kang\u2019s long-term goal can also echo the sentiment of Field of Dreams. It\u2019s one thing to build it, but will they come? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[27,47911,7837,47912,3507,47913],"class_list":["post-117331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-london","tag-london-city-lionesses-v-atletico-madrid-femenino-pre-season-friendly-copperjax-community-stadium","tag-pa2026","tag-soccer-football","tag-women","tag-womens"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117211272619625725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Michele](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2213363917...jpeg\")
Michele Kang celebrates London City’s promotion to the Women’s Super League in 2025 (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Michele](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2277835977...jpeg\")
Michele Kang shaking hands with Barcelona president Joan Laporta and alongside Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin before the 2026 Women’s Champions League final (Getty)<\/p>\n