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Midweek, the Bay Collective group announced the recruitment of Van Ginhoven, the English national team's managerial lead working with Sarina Wiegman, taking on the role of overseer of worldwide women's football activities. This freshly established multi-club ownership body, featuring San Francisco’s Bay FC as the first club within its group, has a history in bringing in talent from the Football Association.

The selection this year of Kay Cossington, the influential previous technical director at the Football Association, as top executive acted as a clear statement by the collective. She knows women’s football comprehensively and now she has assembled an executive team with profound insight of the evolution of the women's game and packed with experience.

Van Ginhoven becomes the third key figure of Wiegman's coaching team to leave recently, with the chief executive departing before Euro 2025 and the assistant manager, Veurink, stepping down to assume the position of head manager of the Dutch national team, but her move arrived more quickly.

Stepping away proved to be a shock to the system, yet “I’d taken my decision to leave the FA quite a long time ago”, she says. “My agreement for four years, just as Arjan and Sarina had. Upon their extension, I had already said I was uncertain if I would do the same. I had accepted the thought that after the European Championship my time with England would end.”

The Euros turned into a sentimental tournament as a result. “It's sharp in my memory, speaking with the head coach when I disclosed about my decision and then we said: ‘Our ultimate aspiration, how amazing would it be that we win the Euros?’ In life, dreams don't dreams come true often however, against the odds, ours came true.”

Dressed in orange, she holds dual affections post her tenure working in England, during which she contributed to winning back-to-back European titles and served on Wiegman’s staff when the Netherlands won the 2017 Euros.

“The English side will always hold a dear spot in my heart. Therefore, it will be difficult, especially with the knowledge that the team will be arriving for the upcoming fixtures soon,” she comments. “When England plays the Netherlands, who do I support? Today I have on orange, but tomorrow it’s white.”

In a speedboat, you can pivot and accelerate swiftly. With a compact team such as ours, that is simple to achieve.

Bay FC was not part of the equation as the strategic expert was deciding that it was time for a change, but everything aligned opportunely. The chief executive initiated the recruitment and mutual beliefs were crucial.

“Virtually from the start we met we had that click moment,” states she. “There was immediate understanding. Our conversations have been thorough regarding multiple aspects around how you grow the game and what we think is the right way.”

Cossington and Van Ginhoven are not alone to uproot themselves from well-known positions in Europe's football scene for a blank sheet of paper in the United States. The Spanish club's technical director for women's football, González, has been unveiled as the group's worldwide sports director.

“I felt strongly drawn to that strong belief regarding the strength within the female sport,” González says. “I'm familiar with Cossington for an extended period; during my tenure 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 people who really inspire you.”

The extensive expertise in their team distinguishes them, notes she, with Bay Collective one of several recent multi-team projects that have started in recent years. “It's a standout feature of our approach. Different approaches are acceptable, but we definitely believe in ensuring deep football understanding,” she adds. “Each of us have been on a journey within the women's game, throughout our careers.”

As their website states, the ambition for the collective is to champion and pioneer an advanced and lasting environment within female football clubs, built on proven methods to meet the varied requirements of women in sport. Doing that, with collective agreement, eliminating the need for persuasion for why you would take certain actions, is hugely liberating.

“I compare it with transitioning from a tanker to a speedboat,” remarks Van Ginhoven. “You are essentially navigating 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 change direction and move quickly using a speedboat. Within a compact team such as ours, that is simple to achieve.”

González notes: “With this opportunity, we have a completely white sheet of paper to build upon. For me, what we do focuses on impacting football more extensively and that clean start allows you to do any direction you choose, within the rules of the game. This is the appeal of our joint endeavor.”

Their goals are lofty, the executives are saying the things athletes and supporters are eager to hear and it will be fascinating to follow the development of the collective, Bay FC and future additions to the group.

As a preview of upcoming developments, 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