London City Lionesses will host Manchester City at Hayes Lane, Bromley, on Sunday in a Women's Super League clash that chief executive Martin Semmens has called "the No 1 game in the women's game in the world this weekend." The club, third in the table, trail Chelsea and Manchester City by three points.
Semmens said the club's Instagram page has generated 34m hits since Alexia Putellas won the Ballon d'Or on Monday evening, adding that two clubs with seven of the top 30 players in the Ballon d'Or rankings will meet. He described the occasion as "awesome for the WSL."
Putellas impact on and off the pitch
The independent women's club, owned by businesswoman Michele Kang, are third in the top flight two and a half years after finishing eighth in tier two. Semmens believes signing the world's best player has changed everybody at the club's mindset.
"Her impact on our commercial business is extraordinary," he said. "From a leadership point of view, she allows us to start thinking about really winning. The environment today feels like it can beat Man City on Sunday and that's a lot down to her."
Putellas, a World Cup winner with Spain and four-time European champion with Barcelona, has more Instagram followers (3.7m) than a men's club the size of Porto. Semmens said she was pivotal in helping the club secure what they claim is the largest front-of-shirt sponsorship deal in the women's game with Nike, worth more than the new NWSL franchise Atlanta's sponsorship of $4m (£3m) a year.
Investment strategy and salary cap compliance
Semmens, the former Southampton chief executive, described the approach as "invest first, invest in the everything to make it awesome, and then the commercial deal will be big." He added: "Michele's vision was: 'I'm going to invest now to prove that we can bring these deals in.' That deal allows us to kick forward, it allows us to keep investing in players and infrastructure, because without it, we're just burning Michele's money, which is not the plan."
On signing Putellas, who had been loyal to Barcelona for 14 years, Semmens said: "The conversation went: 'Wait until I've finished winning a Champions League with Barcelona, and then we'll have a conversation,' which we loved and we respected, but we always had a feeling she would come." He cited her buy-in to the club's independence, the power of London as a city, the WSL as a growth brand, and Kang's impact, quoting Putellas: "Well, she said she was going to do all this stuff and she's done it. So I want to be part of that."
The club recorded an operating loss of more than 10 times their revenue for the 2024-25 season, when they won promotion as second-tier champions. WSL salary cap rules now state no club's player wage bill can exceed 80% of revenue, plus up to £4m or a further 25% of revenue, whichever is higher. Last season, when London City finished sixth, the handbook said no punishments would be dished out for breaches of that cap for that campaign only; from this term, points deductions could apply.
Semmens said: "We are 100% within the rules, we will always be. It's so important to Michele." He said the "goal of the business" is to be profitable within five years and likened last year's investments to a "start up fund": "The [salary cap] rules were set up with a clear understanding that they wouldn't come until this year. The handbook is 100% clear. We want to see investment coming into the women's game. Anything that kind of restricts positive and good investment obviously worries [me] but there is a need for rules and we're 100% fine with that. We are super-transparent. We can reassure the fans that we are financially viable, sustainable, and we've made serious investments over the last two years to be profitable and successful in the future."
Champions League eligibility and future goals
Asked whether the club would be eligible for the Women's Champions League given Kang also owns OL Lyonnes, Semmens said in reference to Uefa's multi-club ownership rules: "One hundred per cent, it can be resolved. We will continue to argue the case that you should be able to [invest into multiple clubs] to see the women's game accelerated." He added: "It's not about exchanging players like the men's game. It's not about one club dominating and the other being a feeder club. It's a different model but we fully understand and respect the rules. Therefore, we will set ourselves up in a way where we're allowed to and can compete in Europe together. There are clear rules, clear precedents in the men's game and clear things you can do to allow both teams to flourish. We're fully aware of that and we'll comply with the rules."
Semmens said the aim is to "build a squad that is consistently in the top three." He concluded: "This is probably the No 1 game in the women's game in the world this weekend. That's what we want to be: on the map."
