Bristol City Women plot independent rebuild under new CEO Hannah Buckley
Hannah Buckley, appointed chief executive of Bristol City Women in May and starting the role in June, outlined plans to build the club as a standalone women’s organisation at the team’s pre-season media day at Ashton Gate in August, saying the aim is to “supercharge our growth and success.” She described an ambitious rebuild with promotion to the Women’s Super League firmly in focus.
Buckley, who has worked in football for more than 20 years with the past eight at the WSL, was speaking after the club’s takeover last year by the investment group Mercury13 that broke Bristol City Women away from the Bristol Sport group. She is also a board member at Somerset County Cricket Club and was part of the Football Association facilities team that developed St George’s Park into the national football centre. Buckley said the project is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s a true ‘build’ project.”
On operational changes she said the club has substantially increased its capacity: “Our headcount in staff has doubled. We’re having to put in place all the back-house services, which historically would have been carried by Bristol Sport. We’ve made improvements at the training ground, we have upgraded our training pitch, and I think I’d describe it as: ‘We’re in the marginal gain phase,’ reviewing what we have to do [to] supercharge our growth and success.” She added the club has hired a commercial director, a head of finance, a full-time marketing manager and a club secretary.
Buckley highlighted the ownership model and multi-club structure, noting Mercury13 has investment from “familiar names such as the former Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata” and owns FC Como Women in Italy, FC Badalona Women in Spain and Bristol City Women. She said: “Independent clubs don’t carry some of the risks that you potentially see where the men’s club may get relegated or [have a] change in ownership and so the independent nature of the club for me was a real opportunity. What’s really interesting for me with being part of a multi-club ownership group dedicated solely to women’s football is the opportunities for research, the opportunities for cross-collaboration with different sporting competitions, and actually demonstrating that you can make it work as a standalone women’s entity.”
Charlotte Healy, appointed head coach in June 2025 after roles at Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chesterfield and Derby, said the owners’ focus on women’s football has energized the squad and staff. “This football club, I really feel like it cares about its women’s team,” she said, adding that the workforce has grown from “probably [only] seven or eight staff” when she arrived. “[For example] we’ve brought a performance wellbeing manager in, which I think was really important – helping the players, because being a professional footballer is not easy, to come in and play under pressure environments and have to win. We brought in a head of performance services in January, who [has] great WSL experience – because we can talk about ‘being WSL ready’, but if we’ve got staff who don’t know what WSL ready looks like, how are we going to get there?”
Summer recruitment included the 20-year-old Australia defender Alexia Apostolakis, who signed from Melbourne City in July and said part of the reason she moved was “how ambitious Charlotte and the staff were to get promoted.” Healy described Alexia as “one of the best young players in Australia.” The Finland forward Lotta Lindström signed from London City Lionesses; Lindström, who featured in squads that won the division with London City in 2023-24 and spent last season on loan at Birmingham City, said: “I hope I can bring up that winning mentality and [help by] doing those little things right, those little things that actually make the difference between being good and being the best.”
Healy set out the on-field priority as reducing goals conceded after City finished fourth last season despite scoring the most goals in WSL2: “We want this club to be in the WSL. We understand the challenges that come with that – every team wants to be in the WSL. We need to be a little bit more consistent. We scored the most goals in the league last year and finished fourth, so it is really clear that we needed to be better out of possession. Our biggest evolution needs to be without the ball and making sure that we concede fewer goals – if we can do that, we’ll be right up at the top.” Buckley cautioned: “I would say it [WSL2] is the hardest league to get promoted from – you only have to slip up once or twice and the opportunity goes. You saw how tight the margins were last year. I’d hope that we achieve top three. I think that would be a fantastic outcome. But I also have to be really measured; we are technically nine months old as a business.”
Their opening fixtures are scheduled away to Sunderland and then at Ashton Gate against Newcastle, which Buckley called a good “barometer check” for progress, before adding: “Ask me again at Christmas!”