(Bloomberg) -- Mercury 13, an investment group targeting women’s football clubs, said it hopes to buy a team in England, having previously tried and failed to purchase the women’s team of Lewes FC.

Mercury 13 already owns a controlling stake in FC Como women in northern Italy, and is planning to build a stable of clubs in a bid to capitalize on the growing interest in the sport, its founder Victoire Cogevina Reynal told a panel at Bloomberg’s Women, Money & Power conference in London on Tuesday. “England is the leading league and we want to have a presence here,” she said.

Eniola Aluko, a former England international footballer and a current adviser and investor with Mercury 13, also announced that FC Como had secured a sponsorship deal from WeAre8, a social media app founded by tech entrepreneur Zoe Kalar.

Chelsea Football Club is currently considering the sale of a stake in its highly successful women’s team. Mercury 13 was previously looking to acquire a majority stake in the women’s team at Lewes, a fan-owned club near Brighton on England’s south coast, but the deal fell through. 

The majority of women’s football teams in Europe are owned by men’s clubs, generating a fraction of the revenues. The women’s team with the greatest revenue is FC Barcelona Femeni, with reported revenues of €13.4 million ($14.1 million) in 2022/23, according to Deloitte, compared to €800.1 million reported by the club as a whole that year.

Investor Amanda Staveley, who recently sold out of Newcastle United, said “it was vital” that a women’s team was at the heart of any investment she makes in football. Staveley said she missed football since her departure from Newcastle and is actively looking at a serious investment in the game.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.