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This past Wednesday, the Bay Collective group disclosed the appointment of Van Ginhoven, the English national team's general manager working with head coach Sarina Wiegman, taking on the role of global women's football operations director. This freshly established multi-club ownership body, with the San Francisco-based Bay FC as the first club within its group, has a history in bringing in talent from the national football governing body.

The appointment earlier this year of Kay Cossington, the prominent former FA technical director, as top executive served as a clear statement by the collective. She is deeply familiar with the women's game comprehensively and now she has assembled an executive team with a deep understanding of the evolution of the women's game and packed with experience.

Van Ginhoven marks the third key figure of Wiegman’s setup to exit in the current year, following the chief executive departing before the Euros and assistant coach, Arjan Veurink, leaving to become head coach of the Netherlands, but her move arrived more quickly.

Moving on has been a shock to the system, but “I’d taken my decision to exit the national setup well in advance”, Van Ginhoven states. “I had a contract lasting four years, just as the assistant and head coach had. Upon their extension, I had expressed I wasn't sure if I would do the same. I was already used to the thought that following the tournament I would no longer be involved with the national team.”

The European Championship became a sentimental tournament as a result. “I recall distinctly, having a conversation with Wiegman where I basically told her about my decision and after which we agreed: ‘Our ultimate aspiration, how incredible it would be that we win the Euros?’ Generally, it’s not like dreams come true every day however, absolutely incredibly, it actually happened.”

Dressed in orange, Van Ginhoven experiences split allegiances following her stint with the English team, where she helped achieve claiming two Euros in a row and was a part of Wiegman’s staff when the Netherlands won at Euro 2017.

“The national team will forever have a special place in my heart. Therefore, it’s going to be tough, particularly now knowing that the squad are scheduled to come for national team duty in the near future,” she says. “In matches between England and the Netherlands, which side do I back? I’m wearing orange at the moment, but tomorrow it’s white.”

In a speedboat, you can pivot and accelerate swiftly. With a compact team such as ours, it's effortless to accomplish.

The club was not part of the equation as the management specialist was deciding that it was time for a change, however everything aligned opportunely. Cossington started to bring people in and common principles proved essential.

“Almost from the very first moment we connected we had that click moment,” states she. “We were instantly aligned. Our conversations have been thorough about different things concerning growing the sport and the methods we believe are correct.”

Cossington and Van Ginhoven are not the only figures to relocate from well-known positions in Europe's football scene for an uncharted opportunity in the US. Atlético Madrid’s women’s technical director, Patricia González, has been introduced as the group's worldwide sports director.

“I felt strongly drawn to that strong belief of the power of women's football,” González explains. “I have known Kay Cossington for an extended period; when I used to work at Fifa, she held the technical director role for England, and such choices are straightforward when you are aware you will have around you people who really inspire you.”

The depth of knowledge among their staff sets them apart, says she, with Bay Collective part of a group recent multi-team projects which have emerged in recent years. “That’s one of our unique selling points. It’s OK that people do things in different ways, but we definitely believe in incorporating football expertise,” she states. “All three of us have progressed within the women's game, for most of our lives.”

As their website states, the mission of this group is to champion and pioneer an advanced and lasting environment of women’s football clubs, built on proven methods to meet the varied requirements of female athletes. Achieving this, with unified understanding, eliminating the need for persuasion for why you would take certain actions, is hugely liberating.

“I liken it to transitioning from a tanker to a speedboat,” says Van Ginhoven. “You’re basically driving in uncharted waters – that’s a Dutch saying, not sure how it comes across – and you just need to rely on your own knowledge and expertise to choose wisely. You can pivot and accelerate rapidly using a speedboat. In a small team like this, that’s easily done.”

She continues: “With this opportunity, we start with a blank slate to start with. In my view, our mission is about influencing the game on a much broader level and that blank slate permits you to undertake anything you desire, following the sport's regulations. This is the appeal of our collective project.”

The aspirations are significant, the executives are saying the things players and fans are eager to hear and it will be compelling to observe the evolution of the collective, the team and future additions to the group.

To get a sense of future plans, which elements are crucial of a high-performance environment? “{It all starts and ends with|Everything begins and concludes with|The foundation and culmination involve