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This past Wednesday, Bay Collective 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 new collective club ownership initiative, featuring the San Francisco-based Bay FC as the inaugural team in its portfolio, has prior experience in recruiting from the Football Association.

The selection this year of Kay Cossington, the prominent previous technical director at the Football Association, as the chief executive was a signal of intent from Bay Collective. She is deeply familiar with the women's game thoroughly and currently has put together a leadership team with profound insight of the history of women's football and filled with professional background.

Van Ginhoven is the third key figure of Wiegman’s setup to depart in the current year, with the chief executive exiting prior to the European Championships and deputy manager, Veurink, moving on to assume the position of manager of the Dutch national team, however her decision came sooner.

Stepping away has been a shock to the system, yet “My choice was made to exit the national setup well in advance”, she states. “My agreement covering four years, similar to Veurink and Wiegman had. As they re-signed, I had already said I was uncertain about renewing myself. I had grown accustomed to the whole idea that following the tournament I would no longer be involved with the national team.”

The European Championship became an emotional event as a result. “I recall distinctly, having a conversation with the head coach in which I informed her of my choice and then we said: ‘We share a single dream, how incredible it would be if we were to win the European Championship?’ In reality, it's rare that aspirations are realized frequently yet, absolutely incredibly, ours came true.”

Dressed in orange, she holds dual affections after her time with the English team, during which she contributed to securing consecutive European championships and was a part of Wiegman’s staff when the Netherlands won in the 2017 European Championship.

“The English side will always hold an emotional connection for me. So, it will be difficult, especially with the knowledge that the squad will be arriving for the upcoming fixtures shortly,” she says. “When England plays the Netherlands, who do I support? Today I have on orange, but tomorrow I'll be in white.”

You can change direction and move quickly in a speedboat. In a lean group like this one, that’s easily done.

The club was not initially considered as the strategic expert determined that a new chapter was needed, however everything aligned opportunely. The chief executive began assembling the team and mutual beliefs proved essential.

“Almost from the very first moment we met we had that click moment,” remarks Van Ginhoven. “There was immediate understanding. We've discussed extensively regarding multiple aspects around how you grow the game and the methods we believe are correct.”

These executives are among several to uproot themselves from prominent roles within European football for a blank sheet of paper in the United States. Atlético Madrid’s technical director for women's football, Patricia González, has been announced as the organization's new global sporting director.

“I felt strongly drawn by the firm conviction regarding the strength of the women’s game,” González says. “I'm familiar with Cossington for many years; when I used to work at Fifa, she served as England's technical director, and decisions like this come naturally knowing you will have around you colleagues who drive you.”

The depth of knowledge among their staff sets them apart, says Van Ginhoven, as Bay Collective part of a group new multi-club initiatives which have emerged lately. “That’s one of our unique selling points. Different approaches are acceptable, but we definitely believe in incorporating football expertise,” she states. “Each of us have progressed in women’s football, for most of our lives.”

As their website states, the ambition for the collective is to support and lead a forward-thinking and durable system within female football clubs, founded on effective practices to meet the varied requirements of female athletes. Doing that, with unified understanding, eliminating the need for persuasion for specific initiatives, is incredibly freeing.

“I equate it to going from a tanker to a speedboat,” says she. “You are essentially navigating across unmapped territories – a common Dutch expression, I'm unsure if it translates well – and you just need to rely on your own knowledge and expertise to make the right decision. You can pivot and accelerate rapidly with a speedboat. In a small team like this, that is simple to achieve.”

She adds: “With this opportunity, we start with a blank slate to work from. Personally, our work focuses on impacting football more extensively and that blank slate enables you to pursue anything you desire, following the sport's regulations. That is the advantage of our joint endeavor.”

The ambition is high, those in leading roles are expressing sentiments players and fans are eager to hear and it will be interesting to monitor the progress of this organization, Bay FC and any clubs added to the portfolio.

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