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Midweek, this new ownership entity announced the hiring of Anja van Ginhoven, England's managerial lead under Sarina Wiegman, as their global women's football operations director. This freshly established multi-team ownership group, featuring Bay FC of San Francisco as the initial addition within its group, has previously engaged in hiring individuals from the English FA.

The hiring earlier this year of Kay Cossington, the prominent ex-technical director for the FA, as the chief executive was a demonstration of ambition by this organization. Cossington understands women’s football comprehensively and now she has assembled an executive team that possesses extensive knowledge of women’s football history and packed with experience.

Van Ginhoven marks the third key figure of Wiegman's coaching team to leave recently, following the chief executive departing before the European Championships and assistant coach, Arjan Veurink, stepping down to assume the position of head coach of the Netherlands, however her decision came sooner.

Leaving was a shock to the system, yet “I had decided to exit the national setup well in advance”, she says. “The terms for four years, exactly like the assistant and head coach had. When they renewed, I had expressed I didn’t know if I would do the same. I was already used to the notion that following the tournament I wouldn’t be part of England any more.”

The European Championship was a sentimental event as a result. “I recall distinctly, having a conversation with Wiegman where I basically told her about my decision and we then remarked: ‘We share a single dream, what a triumph it would represent to clinch the European title?’ In life, it’s not like aspirations are realized often yet, against the odds, ours came true.”

Sitting in an orange T-shirt, she has divided loyalties after her time in England, where she helped achieve winning back-to-back European titles and worked within Wiegman’s staff when the Netherlands won the 2017 Euros.

“The national team will forever have an emotional connection for me. So, it will be challenging, particularly now knowing that the squad will be arriving for national team duty shortly,” she comments. “In matches between England and the Netherlands, where do my loyalties lie? I’m wearing orange at the moment, but tomorrow it’s white.”

In a speedboat, you can pivot and accelerate swiftly. With a compact team such as ours, it's effortless to accomplish.

The American side was not part of the equation as the management specialist concluded that a new chapter was needed, however the pieces fell into place opportunely. Cossington began assembling the team and common principles proved essential.

“Virtually from the start we met we had that click moment,” remarks Van Ginhoven. “There was immediate understanding. Our conversations have been thorough about different things related to developing women's football and our shared vision for the right approach.”

The two leaders are among several to uproot themselves from well-known positions in Europe's football scene for a fresh start in the United States. Atlético Madrid’s female football technical lead, Patricia González, has been announced as the organization's new global sporting director.

“I was very attracted by the firm conviction of the power of women's football,” González explains. “I'm familiar with Cossington for a long time; when I used to work at Fifa, she held the technical director role for England, and decisions like this come naturally knowing you are going to be surrounded by people who really inspire you.”

The profound understanding in their team sets them apart, explains Van Ginhoven, as Bay Collective part of a group new multi-club initiatives that have started lately. “It's a standout feature of our approach. It’s OK that people do things in different ways, however we strongly feel in incorporating football expertise,” she adds. “The entire leadership have progressed within the women's game, probably for the best part of our lives.”

As outlined on their site, the mission of this group is to support and lead an advanced and lasting environment for women's football clubs, based on what works addressing the different demands of women in sport. Succeeding in this, with collective agreement, eliminating the need for persuasion for why you would take certain actions, is hugely liberating.

“I liken it to going from a tanker to a speedboat,” states Van Ginhoven. “You're journeying through waters that there are no roadmaps for – that’s a Dutch saying, I don’t know if it translates – and you must depend on your personal insight and skills to make the right decision. Adjusting course and speeding up is possible in a speedboat. Within a compact team such as ours, that’s easily done.”

González continues: “With this opportunity, we begin with a clean canvas to start with. Personally, our work focuses on impacting football more extensively and that blank slate allows you to do any direction you choose, within the rules of the game. That is the advantage of our joint endeavor.”

The aspirations are significant, the executives are saying the things the football community hope to hear and it will be interesting to observe the evolution of Bay Collective, Bay FC and any clubs added to the portfolio.

To get a sense of future plans, which elements are crucial in a high-performance setting? “{It all starts and ends with|Everything begins and concludes with|The foundation and culmination involve