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THE LASSES LEDGER
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I have spent the past year watching Sunderland Women navigate something that feels significant yet strangely quiet; a process that’s unfolded mostly behind closed doors but has the potential to reshape the future of the club in a way we’ve not seen before.
It’s been a year of conversations, negotiations, pauses, restarts and the kind of cautious optimism that comes when you know something big might be happening but you also know how easily big things can slip away.
As someone who’s followed this team closely and watched the club grow and stumble and grow again, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about what this moment means — not just for the people in the boardroom but for the players, the staff, and the supporters who’ve carried this team through years when the rest of the football world barely noticed it existed.
The story really begins with the recognition that the women’s game has changed. Not “is changing”, but “has changed”.
The pace has been dizzying at times and clubs that once treated their women’s teams as an afterthought are now scrambling to catch up. Investors that wouldn’t have looked twice at women’s football five years ago are now circling with serious intent, and Sunderland, with all its history and potential, has found itself right in the middle of that shift after being approached by multiple parties over the past year, all interested in taking a majority stake in Sunderland Women.
That alone tells you how different the landscape is. A few years ago, the idea of investors competing to buy into the women’s team would’ve sounded like fantasy. Now it’s simply the reality of the sport.
Kay Cossington, right, Bay Collective CEO, speaks during an introductory press conference for Emma Coates, left, Bay FC head coach, during Q and A with Duda Pavão, center, host, on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, in San Francisco. (Photo by Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Kay Cossington, right, Bay Collective CEO, speaks during an introductory press conference for Emma Coates, left, Bay FC head coach, during Q and A with Duda Pavão, center, host, on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, in San Francisco. (Photo by Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
The most prominent of those interested parties has been Sixth Street, a major American investment firm with a growing presence in global sport.
Their women’s sport arm, Bay Collective, has been in talks with Sunderland for months.
They were initially given a period of exclusivity to negotiate a deal and although that exclusivity has now expired, the conversations haven’t ended and that the door is still open — even if it’s longer the only door. Other bidders are back in the picture, and the club is weighing up what the best long‑term option looks like.
Sixth Street aren’t just another investment group looking for a quick win. They’re the people behind Bay FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, a club they launched in 2023 after paying a record expansion fee.
They’ve poured money, expertise and ambition into that project, and they’ve made it clear that they see women’s football as a serious growth market. Bay Collective is led by Kay Cossington, who spent years shaping the England women’s pathway at the Football Association, and her move to the United States was a statement in itself.
She’s someone who understands the women’s game deeply, who knows what it takes to build something sustainable and has the credibility to attract players, staffband partners.
When someone like that takes an interest in Sunderland Women, it’s not something you brush off lightly. It tells you that the club has something worth building on and that the potential people here have always talked about is not just a romantic idea but something that people outside the North East can see too.
But it also raises questions.
What does it mean for Sunderland to sell a majority stake in the women’s team, and what does it mean for the identity of the club? What does it mean for the connection between the women’s team and the wider Sunderland community? These aren’t small questions — they’re questions the club can’t afford to get wrong.
HETTON-LE-HOLE, ENGLAND - JANUARY 25: Eleanor Dale of Sunderland celebrates scoring her team’s first goal with teammates during the Barclays Women’s Super League 2 match between Sunderland and Southampton at Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground on January 25, 2026 in Hetton-le-Hole, England. (Photo by Molly Darlington - WSL/WSL Football via Getty Images)
HETTON-LE-HOLE, ENGLAND - JANUARY 25: Eleanor Dale of Sunderland celebrates scoring her team’s first goal with teammates during the Barclays Women’s Super League 2 match between Sunderland and Southampton at Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground on January 25, 2026 in Hetton-le-Hole, England. (Photo by Molly Darlington - WSL/WSL Football via Getty Images)
WSL Football via Getty Images
The Athletic published a detailed piece recently outlining the talks between Sunderland and Sixth Street, and whilst it didn’t reveal every detail, it confirmed what many of us already knew.
The interest is real. The conversations have been serious and the club isn’t rushing into anything — which is importantly. Sunderland have been through enough in the past decade to know that quick fixes rarely fix anything. They’ve taken their time, spoken to multiple parties and tried to understand what each potential investor would bring. It’s not been a case of taking the first offer that comes along — it’snbeen a case of trying to find the right fit.
This is where the story becomes more complicated, because Sunderland’s history in the women’s game isn’t straightforward.
The Lasses have produced some of the best players England has ever seen, from Steph Houghton to Lucy Bronze to Jill Scott. It’s a club that dominated the domestic game long before the WSL existed but has also been let down by structural decisions, underinvestment and the kind of short‑sightedness that’s held back so many women’s teams across the country.
The decision not to apply for a WSL licence in 2018 still hangs over the club. It was a moment that changed the trajectory of the team, and it’s impossible to talk about the present without acknowledging that past.
When Kyril Louis‑Dreyfus arrived, things began to change. Investment in the women’s team increased dramatically and the club went from spending £83,000 on the women’s side in 2020/2021 to more than £1 million by 2023‑24.
That was the kind of increase that tells you the club finally understood that the women’s team needed proper support, yet even that level of investment has its limits as competing with the top teams in the country requires resources that go beyond what Sunderland can provide internally.
That isn’t a criticism. It’s simply the reality of modern women’s football. The clubs at the top are spending millions, building training facilities, hiring specialist staff and investing in youth development. If Sunderland want to return to the top tier and stay there, they need partners who can match that ambition and that’s why the talks with Sixth Street matter — as does the interest from other investors.
This is not about selling off the women’s team for the sake of it. Instead, it’s about finding a way to give the team the resources it needs to grow and recognizing that the women’s game is moving quickly and that Sunderland can’t afford to be left behind again.
I’ve spoken to people who worry about what external ownership might mean.
They worry about losing control, losing identity and about becoming a satellite project for a bigger organisation. Those worries are valid as we’ve seen enough in football to know that not every investor has the best interests of the club at heart.
However, I’ve also spoken to people who see this as an opportunity and who believe that the right investor could transform the women’s team in a way that would’ve been unthinkable a few years ago. I find myself somewhere in the middle — hopeful but cautious, excited but grounded.
Sunderland chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus ahead of the Premier League match at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland. Picture date: Monday November 3, 2025. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
Sunderland chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus ahead of the Premier League match at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland. Picture date: Monday November 3, 2025. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
PA Images via Getty Images
What gives me confidence is the way the club has approached this situation,with no rush, no panic and no sense that Sunderland are desperate to sell.
Instead, there’s been a quiet determination to get this right. The club wants to retain a minority stake in the women’s team, ensuring that the team remains connected to the wider club. There are no plans to create a new legal entity or to separate the women’s team entirely, meaning the identity of Sunderland Women will remain intact. That matters, as it ensures that any new investor will be joining something, not replacing it.
The expiry of the exclusivity period with Sixth Street has created a new phase in the process. It means the club can speak to other bidders again. It means there is competition — and competition is good. It gives the club options, leverage and ensures that Sunderland aren’t backed into a corner.
I keep coming back to the idea of potential — and Sunderland Women have so much of it.
The fanbase is there, as is the history and identity and ambition. What’s often been missing is the level of investment needed to unlock all of that, and that’s what this moment is about: unlocking potential and giving the players, the staff and the supporters the chance to see what this club can be when it’s backed properly.
I also think about the players who have come through this club, the ones who went on to become England internationals, Champions League winners and European champions. I reflect on what Sunderland could’ve been if the investment had been there earlier — and then I think about what Sunderland could still become if the investment arrives now. That is where the hope comes from. Not from nostalgia, but from possibility.
The women’s game is growing faster than anyone expected and Sunderland have a chance to be part of that growth in a meaningful way. They have a chance to build something that reflects the history of the club but also looks forward. They have a chance to create a team that can compete at the highest level, not just survive there.
I know there will be bumps and moments of uncertainty along the way, but I also know that this club has been through far worse and come out on the other side.
The resilience of Sunderland Women is one of the things that’s always drawn me to them. They’ve survived decisions that would’ve broken other clubs, rebuilt themselves more than once and kept going when the rest of the football world barely noticed.
Now the world is noticing. Investors are noticing. People with serious money and serious ambition are noticing. That’s is not something to be afraid of — it’s something to embrace, carefully but confidently.
I don’t know which investor the club will choose, whether it’ll be Sixth Street or someone else. But I do know that the club is approaching this with the seriousness it deserves. I know that the people involved care deeply about getting this right. And I know that the future of Sunderland Women, for the first time in a long time, feels full of possibility.
There’s something hopeful about that. Something exciting and something that makes me think that the next chapter of this club could be one of the most important yet. And as someone who’s watched this team through the highs and the lows, through the growth and the setbacks, I can’t help but feel that hope.
Because Sunderland Women deserve this moment. They deserve investment, they deserve ambition and they deserve a future that matches their history. For the first time in a long time, that future feels within reach.