The former England masterminds looking to build a ‘superpower’

If a successful experiment succeeds, it makes sense to retry it.

A crucial – if largely unknown – aspect was Kay Cossington and Anja van Ginhoven’s expertise when the Lionesses won the Euros in 2022 and again in 2025.

The former Football Association employees have since formed a new partnership with Bay Collective, a multi-club ownership company that supports global women’s football.

Bay Collective already owns Bay FC in its entirety, and it wants to move to Europe as well.

Van Ginhoven was hired in October as director of global women’s football operations while Cossington serves as the company’s chief executive officer.

Cossington and Van Ginhoven want to use Sixth Street as a tool to make the $115 billion (£87 billion) available to them.

Their main goal is simple: to help their clubs win football games.

Van Ginhoven was at the top of Cossington’s list when she was given the task of finding the “best in the world” to replace Cossington, who described herself as “a kid in the candy store.”

The former FA general manager collaborated with England manager Sarina Wiegman on her three Euros triumphs, starting with the Netherlands in 2017 and the Lionesses in 2022 and 2025.

Cossington requested that she join her in San Francisco as soon as she learned that Van Ginhoven’s intention was to end her summer contract.

“We want to be a global organization with unmatched standards,” Cossington said. “We evaluated everything,”

Anja and her abilities are incredibly special. She is aware of both the performance and business facets of a football team.

She has demonstrated her ability to bring the two together. We identified her in the pool of the best, best talent.

It also matched my culture, she said. It was a simple choice to work with someone who had the same goals, values, and demonstrated exceptional job skills.

Van Ginhoven, who had worked with Wiegman at Dutch club Den Haag and in international football, had to make a big decision to leave the FA.

She claims that Bay Collective is “everything she believes in,” and that she couldn’t resist getting together with Cossington.

Van Ginhoven told BBC Sport, “It’s about using the uniqueness of women’s football to build clubs and improve players.”

“If you are connected, you can act as a superpower as a team, club, and organization to properly advance women’s football.”

We are from different countries, we were raised in different ways, but what connects us is our passion for the beautiful game of women’s football.

Van Ginhoven had the opportunity to celebrate the Lionesses’ success at Euro 2025 before taking up her new position.

She said, “It took a few weeks to a little bit to slow down.” We will do really cool things together, and the first impressions were incredible.

Van Ginhoven recalled Wiegman’s statement that she was leaving.

We said, “We have a dream; let’s do everything and everything we can to finish high.” She said, “Sometimes I still can’t believe it actually happened.”

Sarina and I have a long history, respectively. She never changed as a person, which is what I learned most from her. You can adapt to the situation, but I believe it’s crucial that you remain that good person with high values no matter what happens in the world around you.

“I closely observed that, and I will carry that with me throughout my entire life.”

Cossington had left the FA in May, but he had a significant part in the logistics of their time in Switzerland.

Important factors were making sure Wiegman’s squad had all the resources they needed, organizing friendly opposition in the build-up, and planning basecamps and travel.

She claims that because there were people who “understood the women’s game” and believed in a strategy, she wasn’t surprised by England’s success.

We were “obsessed over the processes,” she said, “particularly the way we coached, how we played, how we operated, the facilities, the basecamps, and everything else.”

“The gains were about the 100% gains, not just the 1% marginal gains. Everything was there. A group of people who had played the women’s game for years came up with the strategy.