There are a lot of differences between the men’s and women’s games but, in England, one worrying similarity is the concern surrounding the growing gap between the first and second tiers. In the 2023-24 season, all three of the Premier League’s newly-promoted teams were immediately relegated for the first time since 1998. Then it happened again in 2024-25.
At the same time, newly-promoted teams have filled the Women’s Super League’s sole relegation spot in back-to-back seasons, ending a spell of eight years without an immediate demotion. Amid rising finances, it’s getting harder and harder to make the jump.
Of course, the money involved is still much greater on the men’s side, meaning it is still an easier leap to land for those reaching the WSL – and it is with money that it is successfully done. In recent seasons, the likes of مانشستر يونايتد, Tottenham, أستون فيلا و ليستر City have all come up and stayed up on the women’s side, investing heavily to turn their teams professional and set them up for the top-flight before they’ve even reached it.
Now, a much less recognisable name is looking to follow suit. Back in early May, Birmingham City were one win away from promotion back to the WSL, following relegation in 2022. But despite investment in the women’s side by Blues’ new American ownership, it would be another well-financed project that prevailed in a decisive clash at St. Andrew’s. Needing only a point to secure the second-tier title, London City Lionesses fought back from 2-0 down to draw and win promotion to the WSL.
Their sights now are not just set on bucking the trend of recent seasons and staying up, either; the club from the capital are out to make a real splash.
There are a lot of differences between the men’s and women’s games but, in England, one worrying similarity is the concern surrounding the growing gap between the first and second tiers. In the 2023-24 season, all three of the Premier League’s newly-promoted teams were immediately relegated for the first time since 1998. Then it happened again in 2024-25.
At the same time, newly-promoted teams have filled the Women’s Super League’s sole relegation spot in back-to-back seasons, ending a spell of eight years without an immediate demotion. Amid rising finances, it’s getting harder and harder to make the jump.
Of course, the money involved is still much greater on the men’s side, meaning it is still an easier leap to land for those reaching the WSL – and it is with money that it is successfully done. In recent seasons, the likes of Manchester United, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Leicester City have all come up and stayed up on the women’s side, investing heavily to turn their teams professional and set them up for the top-flight before they’ve even reached it.
Now, a much less recognisable name is looking to follow suit. Back in early May, Birmingham City were one win away from promotion back to the WSL, following relegation in 2022. But despite investment in the women’s side by Blues’ new American ownership, it would be another well-financed project that prevailed in a decisive clash at St. Andrew’s. Needing only a point to secure the second-tier title, London City Lionesses fought back from 2-0 down to draw and win promotion to the WSL.
Their sights now are not just set on bucking the trend of recent seasons and staying up, either; the club from the capital are out to make a real splash.
London City’s intent was evident last year, in the build-up to the 2024-25 Women’s Championship season. One of the most notable press conferences of the summer transfer window saw Michele Kang, the club’s billionaire owner, sat alongside two eyebrow-raising recruits.
One was Kosovare Asllani, the السويد icon who has represented the likes of Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid across her storied career. The other was Jocelyn Precheur, who had left his role in charge of PSG for the second-tier of English football.
Asllani was the headline name from the Lionesses’ 14 summer transfers, which also included another couple of Sweden internationals in Sofia Jakobsson and Julia Roddar, plus a flurry of young English talent. The six-figure fee paid for Sheffield United winger Isobel Goodwin was particularly eye-catching, given the women’s world transfer record was still yet to hit seven figures at the time, while the addition of Saki Kumagai, a World Cup winner and five-time European champion, was a huge statement back in January. It would all culminate in promotion.
The stars have continued to arrive this summer. Danielle van de Donk, the creative هولندا midfielder, has joined from Lyon, while England veterans Nikita Parris and Katie Zelem add even more experience. The same can be said of Elena Linari, who signs fresh off the back of playing a key role in Italy’s historic run to the semi-finals at Euro 2025, and Alanna Kennedy, who has played over 100 times for Australia and won trophies in three different countries.
Jana Fernandez, might be the pick of the lot, though. Aged 23, she’d have been starting regularly for برشلونة this season if it wasn’t for the Spanish club’s financial issues making a sale attractive.
Unsurprisingly, it’s created plenty of expectation, both internally and externally. When Asllani and Precheur were unveiled to the press last summer, the desire to win promotion that season was incredibly evident, with this ambitious group urgent to get to the top table and kick on. That drive is growing now they’ve ticked that first box.
“Personally I would not be happy for us to be a mid-table team at the end of the season,” Asllani told بي بي سي سبورت last month. “A good season would be top four.”
Asked if a mid-table finish would represent success, she replied: “It would be acceptable and maybe realistic. We are heading into maybe the best women’s league in the world. But from a personal point of view, you always want to come as high as possible. It would be against all my principles to say I would be happy with mid-table.”
Given what many of the players in this squad have achieved – triumphing in the World Cup, European Championship and Champions League – plenty feel similar.
“For us, it’s not about staying in the WSL,” Kumagai concurred, speaking to الجارديان. “It’s about pushing towards that top three or four so the following season we can start pushing for Champions League qualification.”
That attitude filters from the top down and is a consequence of Kang’s approach as well as the personalities recruited. Born in Seoul before moving to the United States for university, Kang began investing in women’s football in 2020, beginning in the U.S. with the Washington Spirit. The club would win its first, and thus far only, NWSL Championship a year later and then, in 2022, Kang officially became the majority owner.
A year after that, Kang joined the OL Groupe, which owns Lyon’s women’s team, the most successful in Europe. She would go on to purchase the eight-time Champions League winners and has been a key figure ever since, regularly cited by players as a big reason for either joining the club or renewing their contracts.
It was at the end of 2023 that Kang then started to become involved with London City Lionesses, an independent club formed after Millwall Lionesses split from Millwall FC, a second-tier men’s club, back in 2019. Independent teams used to be a regular sight at the top of women’s football, but have recently become much rarer, unable to compete with the money that clubs with hugely successful men’s teams have. When one has an owner as driven and wealthy as Kang, though, that all changes.
“As an independent team, to accomplish this in one year is proof that with proper investment and resources, anything is possible,” Kang told سكاي سبورتس after London City achieved promotion back in May. “This is proof. We are only going up.”
It must be said that Kang isn’t without her critics. Through her company Kynisca, the 66-year-old now owns multiple clubs, which is incredibly controversial in modern football. It can present conflicting interests and fans of teams in these models can become concerned that their side is not the priority.
“I am fully aware of the negative connotation of multi-club ownership on the men’s side, but I will submit to you that multi-club ownership is a necessity, not a luxury or greed, on the women’s side because we need to invest to the level that the players deserve to deliver on the potential of the women’s game,” Kang countered last summer.
Then there is the rather remarkable situation which unfolded at Lyon back in May. Kang announced a complete rebrand of the club’s women’s team, including a new badge and new name, in أولمبيك ليون, that certainly did not go down well with all fans.
Underneath it all, though, remained that bullish investment. At the same time, it was revealed that the team would play all its home games at Groupama Stadium, the 59,186-seater venue used predominantly by the men’s side to that point, and that work would begin on a new campus dedicated to the women’s team.
Certainly, Kang cannot be called out for a lack of commitment or investment at this point, not in Lyon, Washington or London, with incredibly ambitious projects unfolding in all three locations.
Will it all result in a successful debut in the WSL for Kang’s Lionesses? While most of London City’s marquee summer signings are nearing the end of their careers, that has been balanced out by heavy recruitment of promising prospects from clubs such as Barcelona, تشيلسي, أرسنال, Real Madrid and أياكس to create that clichéd blend of youth and experience. It’s a strong squad that the newly-promoted side enter the top-flight with.
However, it’s also a squad that has seen an incredible amount of change over the summer and, as such, it’s hard to predict immediate chemistry alongside a step-up in level. “It is a challenge to get everyone on the same page,” Asllani admitted. “But that is what we are working towards.”
Even with Kang’s investment, even with such an eye-catching transfer window and even with the ambition that has engulfed the only independent club in this season’s WSL, it would be a real shock to see London City Lionesses mixing it with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United straight away, in those top four places. After all, it’s 11 years since an English club outside of that quartet qualified for the Champions League.
But if anyone is going to muscle in and threaten to upset the applecart, maybe it is London City, with their momentum and their incredible belief in this project. They look set to make their mark one way or another, that much is for sure.
