Женсэлийн супер лигт дэвшсэн Лондон Сити Лионесс клуб Алексия Путеллас, Мэри Ирпс зэрэг нэр хүндтэй тоглогчдыг эгнээндээ нэгтгэж, санхүүгийн зохицуулалтын хүрээнд өргөн хүрээтэй хөрөнгө оруулалт хийж байна.
Америкийн бизнесмэн Мишель Кангийн эзэмшдэг тус клуб нь Аваргуудын лигт өрсөлдөх болон орлогоо нэмэгдүүлэх зорилгоор ододтой гэрээ байгуулж байна. Тэд өнгөрсөн пүрэв гарагт Найк компанитай олон жилийн хугацаатай, өмсгөлийн ивээн тэтгэгчийн гэрээ байгуулснаа зарласан нь клубийн санхүүгийн стратегийн нэг хэсэг юм. Энэхүү түншлэлийн үнэ цэнэ нь эмэгтэйчүүдийн спортын түүхэн дэх хамгийн өндөр дүнтэй гэрээнүүдийн нэгд тооцогдож байна.
Женсэлийн супер лигийн санхүүгийн дүрмийн дагуу багууд жилийн орлогынхоо 80 хүртэлх хувийг цалинд зарцуулах ёстой бөгөөд эзэмшигчид тодорхой хэмжээний хөрөнгө оруулалт хийх эрхтэй байдаг. Лондон Сити Лионесс нь ирэх таван жилд тогтвортой, ашигтай ажиллах бизнес төлөвлөгөөгөө хэрэгжүүлж байгаа бөгөөд одоогоор аль нэг тоглогчийн үндсэн цалин нэг сая фунт стерлингээс даваагүй гэх мэдээлэл байна.
Хэдийгээр тус клуб нь зах зээл дээрх цалингийн түвшинг өсгөж байна гэсэн шүүмжлэлд өртөж байгаа ч ирээдүйд залуу тоглогчдод анхаарлаа хандуулах бодлого баримталж байна. Дүрмийн дагуу санхүүгийн зөрчил гаргасан тохиолдолд торгууль ногдуулах эсвэл оноо хасах хүртэлх хариуцлага хүлээлгэх боломжтой тул клуб бүр ивээн тэтгэгч болон телевизийн эрхийн орлогыг нэмэгдүүлэхэд онцгой анхаарч байна.
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The names just kept coming, one after the other: Alexia Putellas, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner; Mary Earps, named the best women’s goalkeeper by FIFA in 2022 and 2023; Mapi Leon, a four-time Champions League winner; and Kadidiatou Diani, who has earned more than 100 caps for France.
But how are the London City Lionesses, owned by American businesswoman Michele Kang, complying with the Women’s Super League’s financial rules to pay these big-name players?
What is London City’s strategy?
Invest before revenue.
Kang, a Korean-American businesswoman, bought the club in 2023, helping them win promotion to the WSL in 2025. Finishing sixth in their debut top-flight season was respectable, but this summer, they have gone big. London City have splashed out on star players — albeit mostly on free transfers — for two reasons: they want to qualify for the Champions League and increase their revenue as soon as possible.
Earnings have to rise so they can afford to pay this set of players. London City are banking on marquee names attracting larger sponsorship deals and a new fanbase that will increase revenue down the line. On Thursday they announced a first-of-its-kind multi-year front-of-shirt partnership with Nike. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Kang, however, said the value exceeds some Premier League men’s teams’ shirt deals and the $4million (£2.9 m) annual value of the NWSL’s Atlanta expansion franchise’s recent front-of-shirt agreement, believed to be the wealthiest jersey sponsorship in women’s sports.
Michele Kang celebrates with Championship trophy after London City Lionesses won promotion in May 2025 (Matt Lewis/The FA via Getty Images)
Invest before revenue is a common strategy in women’s football and reflects its ‘start-up’ nature. In a league where attendances have stalled, London City have taken it upon themselves, for better or worse, to inject some dynamism into the WSL.
“That piece of the puzzle (revenue) is missing,” Christina Philippou, associate professor in sport finance at the University of Portsmouth, tells The Athletic. “But Kang is too smart for this to be: ‘Let’s go wild and spend for fun’.” As Kang has proven in the past, if she wants to make something happen, she will.
The WSL introduced financial rules a year ago but crucially, any breach of the salary cost could not be enforced until this upcoming season.
What are the rules?
The WSL’s permitted squad salary requirement (PSS) limits clubs to spending a proportion of revenue on players, but allows for increased spending when owners provide equity funding.
PSS limits spending on player salaries to 80 per cent of a club’s annual revenues, plus an allowance for ‘relevant cash funding’, capped at 25 per cent of those annual revenues or £4million ($5.4m), whichever is higher.
“That allows for some owner investment to push the team forward but not go completely wild,” says Philippou.
Relevant cash funding from owners doesn’t have to be equity, with ‘soft loans’ — interest-free borrowings that are at the back of the queue when it comes to the team’s liabilities — also included. For most clubs, such funding will max out at £4m. At last check (accounts for the 2024-25 financial year), only Chelsea and Arsenal recorded revenues beyond £16m, suggesting only they could inject more than £4m.
Determining a WSL team’s relevant revenues will require more nuance than has previously been evident. PSS dictates clubs can’t count money sent from fellow group undertakings (ie, men’s teams) as revenue, and any revenue from sponsorship deals spanning both forms must be ‘reasonably allocated’. That will require a clear definition of splits to be distributed between the men’s and women’s teams going forward.
Whatever the topline figure ends up being, clubs will only be able to spend 80 per cent of it on their ‘total salary cost’ — a slightly misleading tagline, as it only refers to players’ wages. The WSL has laid out a list of what comprises these player salary costs, including player agent payments and image rights.
Notable exceptions include pension contributions, payments towards player education, parental leave or childcare, helping ensure that clubs don’t cut back under the guise of compliance with the rules.
How much have London City spent and what are the risks?
Well, we won’t know until the financial accounts are released in approximately 18 months. But according to multiple sources — speaking anonymously to protect relationships, like some others in this piece — there is no player at London City earning a baseline salary of more than £1million.
London City have been criticised for inflating wages at the top end of the market, but one source points to Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s salary — Manchester City’s star striker signed a new four-year contract in June that, as The Athletic reported, is worth an annual £1.6m, excluding performance-related bonuses. There is an argument, however, that London City’s activity has driven wages at the middle-to-lower levels of the table, where clubs are fighting to build their fanbases and compete.
Khadija Shaw announcing her new contract on stage in May (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
Over the coming years, London City plan to shift their sights to younger, more affordable players, keep wages down, and hope the allure of their squad, facilities, and the prospect of competing in Europe will attract the next generation of talent. They do not want to become the go-to team for out-of-contract 32-year-olds.
During their promotion 2024-25 season from the Championship (now WSL 2), their total expenditure (£11.5m) was the fourth-highest in English women’s football, only behind Arsenal (£21.6m), Chelsea (£20.2m) and Manchester City (£14.0m). Their revenue was only £902,000, in contrast to Chelsea (£21.3m), Arsenal (£21.5m), Manchester United (£10.7m) and City (£10.6m). Generating revenue is vital now that London City have higher-earning players on their books.
The independent club has, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, developed a five-year business plan to make the project sustainable and profitable. Any club can spend now but their revenue generated at the end of the season, when they have to declare their figures, is an estimate. London City’s fanbase, according to the source, has already significantly increased and sponsors are offering more because of the names attached to the club. The WSL also negotiated an improved five-year TV deal, starting from the 2025-26 season, which will increase revenue.
The risk is overestimating the impact of such transfers, especially in the case of their biggest star, Putellas. What if sponsorship deals do not come off? What if she gets injured or wants to move? What if the new fans at their ground in Bromley, south London, with a capacity of just 5,160, are not engaged as the club predicted? There are a lot of what-ifs, but London City are hedging their bets.
What are the punishments if a club breaches the PSS?
Let’s be clear: there is no sense that London City have done anything wrong yet.
Perhaps learning from the past ambiguity of sanctions in the Premier League, the WSL has been prescriptive when detailing what might befall London City, or anyone, if they breach PSS.
The regulations section breaches are split into four types: minor procedural, major procedural, salary floor threshold and salary cost threshold.
The former two range in seriousness from late filings to ‘attempts to circumvent’ the rules in bad faith by, for example, “falsifying exclusions to redirect funds to a player and therefore reduce their salary cap value”. Minor procedural breaches carry low penalties but major ones can lead to point deductions.
A salary floor threshold breach occurs when clubs are found to have paid players less than the bare minimum required by WSL rules. Those salary floors are flexed by age and tier: in the top flight, minimum salaries range from £26,900 for players aged 18-20 to £42,500 for over-23s; in WSL2, the range is £17,500 to £26,900. A breach here sees clubs allowed time to rectify the issue. If they don’t, point deductions are possible.
Salary cost threshold breaches — which, from the outside, look like London City’s most obvious concern — are split into their own minor and major categories.
A minor breach is when a club exceeds its threshold by up to 20 per cent and incurs a fine. They taper upwards in line with the size of the breach and can total up to 40 per cent of the club’s excess spending. For example, if the maximum amount a club can spend, according to revenue generated, is £10m but they spend 20 per cent more (£12m) they will be fined 40 per cent of the £2m excess (which is £800,000).
Anything beyond a 20 per cent excess comprises a major breach and would incur a more severe fine (50 per cent of the excess) and a points deduction. If a top-flight club exceeds its salary cap by 20 per cent but by less than £100,000, they will be docked one point. Anything that is both 20 per cent and £900,000 over a club’s threshold will see them docked at least 10 points. So if a club’s threshold is £10m, they exceed it by 30 per cent, rising to £13m, they will be fined £1.5m and docked at least 10 points.
If clubs have not met their revenue target at the end of the season, some may embark on creative ways, such as club tours, to close the revenue gap.
Some teams in men’s football could calculate that taking the financial hit and points deduction would leave them better off if they qualify for European competitions — the source, who has been briefed on the situation, stresses that is not London City’s intention.
But it is still a possibility for any club.
Is this good or bad for the WSL?
On the one hand, bringing high-profile players into the WSL attracts more eyeballs, driving the league’s growth. On the other hand, you can understand why some teams, especially mid-table clubs, may be irked. Aggressive spending widens the competitive gap between teams and creates pressure for others to invest in order to compete, potentially beyond a club’s means. The financial regulations are in place to prevent clubs from doing that.
“The better your accountants and lawyers, the more wiggle room you can get,” says Philippou. New regulations have lots of loopholes in them and clubs test the limits. As the league progresses, the rules get stronger and more loopholes are closed.
What is beneficial for the women’s game is, when the financial accounts are published, a more transparent understanding of wage to revenue ratio. For now, London City are prepared to speculate to accumulate.
