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This past Wednesday, Bay Collective revealed the appointment of Anja van Ginhoven, the English national team's general manager working with head coach Sarina Wiegman, to serve as their overseer of worldwide women's football activities. The new collective club ownership initiative, featuring Bay FC of San Francisco as its inaugural team in its portfolio, has previously engaged in bringing in talent from the Football Association.

The selection in recent months of Cossington, the well-respected ex-technical director for the FA, to the CEO role served as a signal of intent from the collective. She knows the women's game inside out and now has put together an executive team with profound insight of the history of women's football and laden with practical experience.

Van Ginhoven marks the third core member of Wiegman's coaching team to leave recently, with Cossington exiting before the Euros and deputy manager, Veurink, leaving to assume the position of head coach of Holland, but her decision came sooner.

Leaving was a shock to the system, but “I’d taken my decision to depart the Football Association quite a long time ago”, she states. “My agreement for four years, exactly like the assistant and head coach did. When they renewed, I had already said I was uncertain whether I would. I had accepted the whole idea that after the European Championship I would no longer be involved with the national team.”

The European Championship became an emotional competition as a result. “I remember very clearly, vividly, discussing with Sarina in which I informed her regarding my plans and we then remarked: ‘Our ultimate aspiration, how incredible it would be if we were to win the European Championship?’ Generally, it's rare that aspirations are realized every day yet, against the odds, this one did.”

Wearing a Netherlands-colored shirt, Van Ginhoven has divided loyalties following her stint with the English team, where she was part of winning back-to-back European titles and served on the manager's team during the Dutch victory the 2017 Euros.

“The national team will always hold a special place in my heart. So, it will be difficult, notably since that the players are scheduled to come for national team duty in the near future,” she notes. “When England plays the Netherlands, which side do I back? Today I have on orange, though tomorrow English white.”

You can change direction and move quickly in a speedboat. In a small team like this, it's effortless to accomplish.

Bay FC was not part of the equation as the organisational wizard was deciding that a new chapter was needed, however the opportunity arose at the right time. Cossington began assembling the team and common principles proved essential.

“Virtually from the start we got together we experienced an instant connection,” says Van Ginhoven. “You’re immediately on the same level. Our conversations have been thorough about different things related to developing women's football and our shared vision for the right approach.”

Cossington and Van Ginhoven are not the only figures to relocate from well-known positions in the European game for a blank sheet of paper in the US. The Spanish club's female football technical lead, González, has been introduced as the organization's worldwide sports director.

“I was highly interested in the deep faith in the potential within the female sport,” she says. “I'm familiar with Cossington for many years; when I used to work at Fifa, she was the technical director of England, and it’s easy to make these decisions when you are aware you will have around you colleagues who drive you.”

The profound understanding in their team distinguishes them, says she, for the collective part of a group fresh club ownership ventures that have started over the past few years. “It's a standout feature of our approach. It’s OK that people do things in different ways, however we strongly feel in incorporating football expertise,” she adds. “The entire leadership have progressed in female football, for most of our lives.”

According to their online statement, the ambition of Bay Collective is to advocate and innovate an advanced and lasting environment for women's football clubs, founded on effective practices addressing the different demands of women in sport. Doing that, with collective agreement, eliminating the need for persuasion for why you would take certain actions, provides great freedom.

“I compare it with going from a tanker to a speedboat,” remarks Van Ginhoven. “You are essentially navigating in uncharted waters – as we say in the Netherlands, I don’t know if it translates – and it's necessary to trust your individual understanding and experience for making correct choices. Adjusting course and speeding up is possible with a speedboat. In a lean group like this, that is simple to achieve.”

She notes: “With this opportunity, we begin with a clean canvas to build upon. For me, what we do involves shaping the sport on a much broader level and that clean start allows you to do anything you desire, following the sport's regulations. This is the appeal of our joint endeavor.”

The aspirations are significant, the management are voicing opinions players and fans want to hear and it will be fascinating to monitor the progress of Bay Collective, the team and other teams that may join.

As a preview of upcoming developments, 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