An all-female executive leadership team will run the top two leagues of English women’s football, after the Football Association (FA) legally handed ownership of the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Championship to a new independent company on Thursday.
That new company, which had previously been called NewCo, has been temporarily renamed “Women’s Professional Leagues Limited” (WPLL) and will now run the WSL and Women’s Championship, which is roughly akin to the EFL’s authority over the men’s Championship, League One and League Two. A longer-term name for the WPLL is still to be chosen.
The new entity’s four-strong executive leadership team, who will report to the chief executive, Nikki Doucet, has been named for the first time as: the chief operations officer, Holly Murdoch, the interim chief marketing officer, Ruth Hooper, the chief football officer, Mirelle Van Rijbroek, and the chief revenue officer, Zarah Al-Kudcy, whose switch from Chelsea was revealed by the Guardian in June.
The WPLL has also confirmed previous reports that the men’s Premier League has provided a £20m interest-free loan to WPLL, and as a result the Premier League will have a seat on the WPLL board until that loan is repaid. The Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Masters, said: “We look forward to being closely involved in this exciting period for women’s football.”
The 23 clubs in the WSL and Women’s Championship will be shareholders of the new company, along with the FA, which will own a “special share”. The size of the share has not been disclosed. The FA will also have a seat on the board and “a right to share in the revenue once certain thresholds are met, which the FA will dedicate to reinvesting in grassroots projects for women’s and girls’ football”. The FA had previously run the WSL and Women’s Championship itself, since the divisions began in 2011 and 2014 respectively.
Now the day-to-day running of the divisions will be led by Doucet and her new quartet, who will be some of the most influential figures in women’s football. Murdoch had been assisting with the NewCo transition since 2022, having been at the FA since 2012. She has also worked previously in the horse racing industry. Hooper has worked in sport for more than 20 years and has experience as a brand director at Nike, as well as having previously worked with the Premier League, the FA Cup and the holiday company Center Parcs.
Van Rijbroek, who arrives as chief football officer, has worked in senior roles in football talent identification in the Netherlands with the Dutch FA and for US Soccer. She recently worked for the American National Women’s Soccer League club Utah Royals. Chelsea’s commercial director, Al-Kudcy, will switch to work for the WPLL from September, having spent one season with the WSL champions. She previously led the sponsorship team at Formula One.
Separately to that quartet, some of the board of directors have been named, chaired by Dawn Airey, who is continuing in her role as chair of the existing WSL and Women’s Championship board. The WPLL have also named three independent non-executive directors: Sean Cornwell, previously the chief executive of Direct Ferries; Maria Raga Frances, who was the chief executive of online marketplace Depop, which was purchased by Etsy for $1.6bn in 2021; and the former Aberdeen striker, Malcolm Kpedekpo, who has been a non-executive director at the Scottish Football Association since 2019.
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The WPLL wants to embrace a “startup mentality” and said in a statement: “The completion of the agreement spearheads a new era in the sport, dedicated to driving growth and maximising potential, placing players and fans at its core.”
Doucet extended “heartfelt gratitude to the FA” and said: “We look forward to building upon this solid foundation and elevating women’s professional football in England to unprecedented levels.”
The new Women’s Championship season gets under way on Sunday 8 September, before the WSL campaign starts on Friday 20 September.
Source: theguardian.com
