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Midweek, the Bay Collective group disclosed the appointment of Anja van Ginhoven, the English national team's general manager working with Sarina Wiegman, taking on the role of overseer of worldwide women's football activities. This new collective club ownership initiative, featuring San Francisco’s Bay FC as its inaugural team within its group, has previously engaged in bringing in talent from the Football Association.

The selection earlier this year of Kay Cossington, the well-respected ex-technical director for the FA, as the chief executive acted as a clear statement from Bay Collective. Cossington is deeply familiar with female football comprehensively and now has gathered an executive team with a deep understanding of the history of women's football and laden with professional background.

She marks the third central staffer of Wiegman's coaching team to leave recently, following Cossington leaving prior to the European Championships and the assistant manager, Veurink, stepping down to become head coach of Holland, but her move arrived more quickly.

Leaving proved to be a jarring experience, but “I had decided to leave the FA some time back”, Van Ginhoven says. “My agreement for four years, similar to the assistant and head coach had. Upon their extension, I had already said I wasn't sure whether I would. I had accepted the whole idea that following the tournament I would no longer be involved with the national team.”

The European Championship was a deeply felt event as a result. “It's sharp in my memory, speaking with Sarina where I basically told her regarding my plans and after which we agreed: ‘There’s just one dream, how incredible it would be that we win the Euros?’ In life, it's rare that aspirations are realized often however, against the odds, it actually happened.”

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 the manager's team when the Netherlands won in the 2017 European Championship.

“The national team will forever have an emotional connection for me. So, it will be difficult, particularly now knowing that the team will be arriving for the international camp soon,” she notes. “When England plays the Netherlands, where do my loyalties lie? I’m wearing orange at the moment, but tomorrow I'll be in white.”

In a speedboat, you can pivot and accelerate swiftly. In a lean group like this one, that’s easily done.

The club was not initially considered as the management specialist was deciding it was time to move on, however the opportunity arose at the right time. Cossington initiated the recruitment and their shared values proved essential.

“Virtually from the start we connected we had that click moment,” says she. “There was immediate understanding. We have spoken at length about different things related to developing women's football and the methods we believe are correct.”

Cossington and Van Ginhoven are not alone to make a move from high-profile jobs within European football for a blank sheet of paper in the US. Atlético Madrid’s technical director for women's football, González, has been introduced as Bay Collective’s new global sporting director.

“I was very attracted by the firm conviction of the power within the female sport,” González says. “I'm familiar with Cossington for an extended period; when I used to work at Fifa, she was the technical director of England, and it’s easy to make these decisions when you know you'll be working alongside colleagues who drive you.”

The extensive expertise among their staff makes them unique, says she, for the collective part of a group fresh club ownership ventures to launch lately. “This is a key differentiator for us. It’s OK that people do things in different ways, but we are firm in our belief in incorporating football expertise,” she says. “Each of us have traveled a path in female football, for most of our lives.”

According to their online statement, the ambition of this group is to champion and pioneer a progressive and sustainable ecosystem within female football clubs, built on proven methods for the diverse needs of women in sport. Achieving this, with everyone on the same page, eliminating the need for persuasion for specific initiatives, is incredibly freeing.

“I compare it with transitioning from a tanker to a speedboat,” states Van Ginhoven. “You’re basically driving through waters that there are no roadmaps for – a common Dutch expression, I don’t know if it translates – and it's necessary to trust your own knowledge and expertise for making correct choices. You can pivot and accelerate rapidly in a speedboat. Within a compact team such as ours, that is simple to achieve.”

González adds: “In this role, we start with a blank slate to work from. For me, our mission focuses on impacting football more extensively and that blank slate permits you to undertake any direction you choose, adhering to football's guidelines. That’s the beauty of our joint endeavor.”

The aspirations are significant, the executives are saying the things the football community want to hear and it will be interesting to observe the evolution of the collective, the team and future additions to the group.

To get a sense of future plans, what are the key aspects for a top-level environment? “{It all starts and ends with|Everything begins and concludes with|The foundation and culmination involve