Eniola Aluko is part of a consortium seeking to acquire control of 13 women's football clubs

Eniola Aluko Photo: Paul Grover

A consortium intending to acquire 13 women's football clubs and invest $100 million has entered a period of exclusivity leads in talks to become the new majority owner of their first target, English Women's Championship club Lewis.

Mercury 13, which includes former England striker Eniola Aluko, is a group led by Greek-Argentine businesswoman Victoria Kogevin Reynal. They say they want to identify and invest in the «super clubs of the next decade».

< p>They are aiming to acquire a majority stake in at least 51 per cent of the Lewis women's team, which reached the quarter-finals of the Women's FA Cup last season before being eliminated by Manchester United and finished ninth in the table in England's second competition. level last semester. Lewis will open their new league season with a home game against Southampton on Sunday 27 August.

Mercury 13 aims to advance Lewis into the Women's Super League and Kogevin Reynal said: «The women of Lewis FC are on the brink of greatness and we look forward to helping them achieve promotion and new scale commercialization in partnership with Mercury 13.

The group is also believed to be in talks with a Spanish sorority and an Italian sorority and hopes to finalize those deals by the end of 2023, but their first acquisition is likely to be Lewis Women.

In 2017, Lewis became the first club in the world to split their budgets equally between men's and women's football, and sponsorship revenue is expected to have grown twenty-fold since then. Their men's and women's clubs are fan-owned, and it is understandable that Lewis has now begun consultations with his 2,400 fan owners to get their views on the proposed takeover of the women's team before moving on.

Maggie Murphy, Lewis Chief Executive, said: “Through the efforts of our owners, volunteers, staff, coaches, players and directors, we have collectively built a club to be proud of. Keeping in mind that we have only touched the surface of our potential impact on and off the field, we have tried to find potential partners who could not only join, but also raise our club community.

“The Mercury 13 team has demonstrated its commitment to our enduring principles of equity, fairness, fan ownership and impact on the local and global community, which is no easy task for an investment partner, which is why we are committed to continuing negotiations.

Mercury 13 named itself after 13 women who were tested as astronauts in 1960 but subsequently denied entry to NASA. Investment bank Morgan Stanley is reportedly spearheading their investment operations and managing the group's funds.

Along with former Aston Villa sporting director Aluko, who also served as sporting director for US sorority Angel City and was part of the ITV Expert Team for the Women's World Championships this summer. The Mercury 13 also includes former FIFA chief innovation officer Luis Vicente and former Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Arianna Cricione.

Their board of directors includes the former Galatasaray boss. executive director Ebru Koksal, who was the first woman elected to the executive board of the European Club Association. She is also currently a non-executive director of the Professional Footballers Association and Chairperson of Women in Football.