Bristol City Women chief executive Hannah Buckley is overseeing an ambitious rebuild after the club split from the men's team, with WSL promotion firmly in sight.
Breakaway from Bristol Sport
Buckley was appointed as the Women's Super League 2 side's chief executive in May, starting her role in June, after the team was taken over by the investment group Mercury13 last year to break away from the Bristol Sport group that oversees Bristol City's men's team and the city's rugby union and basketball sides.
The breakaway has ensured a relentlessly busy summer. Buckley, in her first sit-down interview, explained some of the changes: "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."
Independent women's club model
Mercury13, which has investment from former Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata, owns three women's clubs: FC Como Women in Italy, FC Badalona Women in Spain and Bristol City Women. Their standalone focus on women's football, without ties to a men's team, excites Buckley, who recently led the WSL's design guidelines for building or upgrading venues specifically for women's teams.
Buckley 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."
New staff and signings
Head coach Charlotte Healy, who took over in June 2025 after coaching at clubs including Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chesterfield and Derby, said: "This football club, I really feel like it cares about its women's team. We had to evolve the workforce – when I came in, I think there was probably [only] seven or eight staff – but we're already starting to see that the people we've brought in the building are good people and we're really starting to see the benefit of their expertise."
Healy added: "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?"
Buckley added: "We now have a commercial director and a head of finance, we now have a full-time marketing manager, a club secretary."
New players include the 20-year-old Australia defender Alexia Apostolakis, who signed from Melbourne City in July and says part of the reason she moved was "how ambitious Charlotte and the staff were to get promoted". Healy said: "We felt we needed more squad depth, and I think we've made some really good signings. We've again looked at younger players. Alexia is one of the best young players in Australia."
The Finland forward Lotta Lindström, who signed from London City Lionesses, says Healy's team having been the top scorers in WSL2 last term was part of the attraction. The 21-year-old has for two years running been in squads that have won the division, with London City in 2023-24, then on loan at Birmingham City last season. She 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."
Promotion ambitions
Healy is not shy about stating their goal, as they try to improve on last season's fourth place. Last term, the top two were promoted, with the third-place team going up after a playoff against the WSL's bottom side. This time, there will be one automatic spot and the sides in second and third will battle for a place in a playoff against the second-bottom WSL side.
Healy said: "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 said more cautiously: "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. There are so many facets to success – building the right culture here, first and foremost, is the important thing, professionalising our environment and setting ourselves up for success. 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."
She points to their opening fixtures – away to Sunderland, another side taken over by a multi-club women's-focused ownership group, the Bay Collective, then at Ashton Gate against promotion-chasing Newcastle – as a good "barometer check", before concluding: "Ask me again at Christmas!"
