Watford FC Women, who were founded 12 years ago as Watford Ladies, won the National League South title last season to return to WSL2, the second tier of the women’s professional game in England.
Under WSL2 rules, all clubs must pay their players minimum salaries which start at £17,500 for players aged 18-20, with a minimum salary of £26,900 for players aged 23 and over.
As a result, Watford expected their annual budget to quadruple to approximately £4million ($5.3m), prompting the Pozzos to consider offers for the team.
Founded by Norwegian businessman Tommy Nordam Jensen, a former professional volleyball player, in 2025, Pitch15 describes itself as a global platform dedicated to advancing women’s sport.
Earlier this year, it announced a commercial partnership with Essex County Cricket Club to increase the profile of the women’s team, boost revenues and inspire more girls to engage with cricket.
And later this month it will stage the inaugural Pitch15 Open, a new tournament on the Ladies European Tour’s Access Series combined with a women’s sports leadership summit and pro-am event, at Hertfordshire’s Hanbury Manor, a course only 25 miles from Watford.
Both Pitch15 and Watford declined to comment when approached by The Athletic but a source close to the deal, speaking off the record to protect business relationships, said: “Definitive agreements have been signed and transaction is now subject only to one final administrative step before completion.”
That step is the approval of WSL Football, the company that runs the top two tiers of the women’s professional game in England.
While Watford would be Pitch15’s biggest move to date, they are not the first women’s team to be sold off to specialist investors in women’s sport.
In 2024, Chelsea sold their women’s team to their parent company and then sold a minority stake in the WSL team to Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Foundation, a transaction copied by Aston Villa and Everton last year, with both clubs also selling minority stakes to North American investors.
And in WSL2, multi-club ownership group Mercury13 bought Bristol City Women last year, with Sunderland selling their team to American investment group Bay Collective in April.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Watford, Women’s Soccer
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