Welcome to The Women's Ledger.

The Pyramid has spent the past year reading the accounts of English football clubs below the Premier League. This is the same work applied to the women's game — ownership, filings, investment, regulation, sponsorship and the economics underneath it all.

There is plenty of coverage telling you women's football is growing. There is very little telling you what it costs, who is paying, and what the accounts actually say.

That is what this is for. Every two weeks.

£22.4m Into London City: Kang's Bet on Independent Women's Football

£22.4 million.

That is how much Michele Kang's holding company put into London City Lionesses across two financial years — capital used to help build a training base, expand the organisation, win promotion and establish an independent club in the WSL.

The first accounts we examine in The Women's Ledger show what that ambition costs and, with a major Nike deal now signed, the first evidence of how the investment might begin turning into revenue.

Arsenal Women Made £21.5m. More Than Half Still Came From Arsenal FC

Arsenal Women finished 2024/25 as champions of Europe and, by Deloitte's measure, the highest-revenue women's club in the world. Turnover reached £21.54m, while matchday income climbed to £5.90m and broadcasting revenue more than doubled.

The largest single line, though, was £11.9m of group income from the parent club. Under the WSL's new financial rules, the distinction between revenue generated by the women's operation and support provided through the wider group is becoming increasingly important.

Why Is a Fortune 500 Company Investing in a Sixth-Tier Women's Team?

AIG has agreed in principle to become the largest minority equity investor in Salford City Lionesses, who play in the North West Women's Regional League Division One Central.

No valuation has been disclosed. What is clear is where AIG is entering — several promotions below professional football, inside a club whose stadium, academy and commercial operation already exist.

Three clubs in this first edition, and three different ways money is arriving in women's football. Kang building an independent club from the top down. AIG buying in at tier six. Arsenal growing revenue inside infrastructure a men's club spent decades building.

Over the coming editions we will be working through the questions the growth coverage leaves alone. How much of a WSL club's stated revenue comes through its parent. Which women's clubs are separately incorporated and which file nothing at all. Where outside capital is arriving, on what terms, and what it buys. How the Financial Sustainability Regulations behave in their first enforced season, and where they begin to constrain spending.

We are also building club pages for every side in the WSL and WSL2 at The Pyramid, with filed accounts, ownership structures, company numbers and group parents, alongside the men's clubs we already cover.

That's Edition 1.

If there's a club whose numbers don't add up, an ownership structure worth unpacking, or a filing you think we should be reading, hit reply and let me know.

Arthur Lewis
The Women's Ledger