At The Football Week, we go beyond titles, we spotlight the individuals shaping football’s future. Today, we meet Hannah Haynes, the newly appointed Chief Strategy Officer at Mercury/13. With a career that bridges law, investment, and elite sports, Haynes is a powerful addition to a multi-club ownership group reimagining women’s football in Europe.
A Strategic Mind at the Heart of the Game
Hannah Haynes steps into her new role with a clear mission: To lead Mercury/13’s investment strategy and corporate development, identifying clubs with the potential to become the super teams of tomorrow. She is tasked with overseeing acquisitions across Europe’s top women’s football markets, ensuring that each move aligns with long-term competitiveness and commercial sustainability.
Her appointment marks a significant moment in Mercury/13’s evolution, one that reflects a shift in how women’s football is being structured, funded, and scaled globally.
From Law to Leadership
Trained as a lawyer with specialisation in sports and media, Hannah’s early career combined legal precision with a love for the game’s commercial side. She spent nearly three years at Falcon and Associates in Dubai, working on global events like the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the PSA World Series. Her legal and commercial consulting work provided early insight into the ecosystem of global sport, from tournaments and sponsorships to long-term development strategy.
She later became Senior Counsel and then Global Head of Business Strategy at SailGP, where she built the league’s five-year commercial plan, helped achieve record digital growth, and oversaw its women’s pathway programme. Her success at SailGP made headlines: under her leadership, the sport was named the “world’s fastest growing” by YouGov.
Investing in the Future of Women’s Football
Before joining Mercury/13, Haynes worked with Westerly Winds, a venture capital firm with strong ties to sport, media, and technology. Her time in VC honed her understanding of scaling platforms, aligning capital with purpose, and building systems for sustainable growth.
Now at Mercury/13, she’s combining every layer of her background (law, venture and elite sport) into a role that blends strategic thinking with deep industry knowledge.
“My vision is to position Mercury/13 as the benchmark for modern football ownership—grounded in sustainable models, global ambition, and a commitment to advancing the women’s game,” she says.
What Drives Her
What sets Haynes apart is her ability to connect the macro with the micro, investment strategy with grassroots impact. Her leadership is built not just on numbers and models, but on values: Equality, innovation, and accountability.
Colleagues describe her as calm, rigorous, and intellectually curious. She asks the tough questions, then rolls up her sleeves to build answers. Whether it’s designing a league’s growth model or scouting future club acquisitions, Hannah is known for combining analytical clarity with creative boldness.
A New Chapter for Mercury/13
As the women’s football industry scales rapidly across Europe, the challenge is no longer whether the game can grow, but how to grow it well. With Hannah Haynes leading strategic operations, Mercury/13 is positioning itself to set the standard.
Haynes represents a new kind of executive: Part strategist, part builder, and part advocate for a future where women’s football is not just professional but transformational.
Her story is just beginning at Mercury/13, but for those paying attention, it’s already clear she’s one of the key architects of the game’s next era.
Our Exclusive Interview with Hannah Haynes
Can you tell us about your early life and any experiences that shaped your interest in sport, strategy, or leadership?
I grew up with a strong sense of community and an early love of team spirit—those values were forged early on in my education and career, where academic rigour and strong work ethic came hand-in-hand with an almost rebellious belief that the sky really was the limit. That environment taught me resilience, hustle, and the confidence to step into rooms where decisions get made. It’s also where I learned that being underestimated can be a superpower—especially when you have the drive to back it up.
If there’s one influence that drives me more than anything, it’s my daughter. Mercury 13 isn’t just a great business opportunity; it’s a platform that shines a spotlight on a global movement toward gender equity—a world where women and girls live without limits. Where opportunity is given, talent is nurtured, ambition is backed, and progress is inevitable. The chance to help create that world for her motivates me every single day.
There’s a well-known MIT study that found athletes have more cultural influence than politicians—and when you think about what that means, particularly for women’s sport, it’s powerful. At Mercury 13, we’re not just investing in football clubs; we’re investing in stories. We’re building a storytelling platform that shows what happens when gender equity is no longer a debate or CSR initiative, but a reality. We still have a long way to go to reach parity, but if Mercury 13 can play even a small role in accelerating that progress, then that’s success worth chasing.
You’ve worked across elite sports, venture capital, and media, how have these varied experiences shaped your approach to leadership today?
My career has taken me across the full spectrum of sport, law, and business. I trained as a lawyer with the team that now is Northridge Law LLP, where I specialised in sport and media. I pivoted into venture capital partnering with ex BlackRock execs, held roles with broadcasters and governing bodies and also spearheaded the global strategy at SailGP, one of the fastest-scaling sports properties in the world. Think: start-up energy with Olympic-level execution.
That path gave me a unique lens—legal, commercial, financial, and strategic—all working in concert. I’ve seen what it takes to scale a business while maintaining governance, and I know firsthand the pressure of needing to show a clear pathway to profitability. More importantly, I’ve worked across the ecosystem of sport: leagues, broadcasters, investors, clubs, and players. That ecosystem view is vital in women’s football. It’s not about just owning a team—it’s about building an infrastructure that supports sustainable growth from the ground up.
Now, at Mercury 13, I bring that multifaceted experience to the table—leading strategic growth, forming high-value partnerships, and using data to drive innovation across our multi-club ownership model.
What are your top priorities as you step into your new role? What does success look like for you in year one?
I oversee Investments and Corporate Development at Mercury 13—which means I get asked one question more than any other: What clubs are you buying next?
It’s a fair question given our positioning as an MCO and I believe I have the best job in the business. I get to look under the hood of some of the most compelling football clubs around Europe and decide where we invest and operate by following a disciplined investment thesis.
We’re only buying one club per market, and it has to meet some key criteria:
- Commercial upside – stadiums, facilities, and a brand that lends itself to storytelling and partner activation. Can we build a prospective club into a commercial engine that drives significant revenue growth to underpin sustainable business models, fuel on-pitch performance and drive returns?
- Deal dynamics – we look for opportunities with room for valuation multiple expansion, the market in Europe is circa 5 years behind the NWSL and we see a huge opportunity to capitalise on a first mover advantage in the heartland of global football before markets froth and multiples expand
- Football operations – we want clubs with top-tier performance and strong foundations already in place, e..g a solid academy programme to mitigate the impacts of wage inflation, a focus on performance and strength conditioning to ensure player availability and recruitment capabilities to allocate spend resourcefully
- Fandom – we go deep on the locality of our clubs, understanding its people and its community – is there a women’s football culture in that location? What’s the heritage of the club and the appetite of the audience? How do the demographics of that location map to our insights on the growth potential of our fandom?
- League maturity – governance, structure, and committed commercial resources matter. We’re underwriting growth in the leagues as much as teams.
- Solid financials – we are mapping a pathway to near term profitability acknowledging the need to invest in dedicated commercial resource along the way. We seek clubs that are run like sound businesses, minimal losses or near breakeven.
It’s a strategic puzzle—and when you get it right, you move markets.
Women’s football is evolving rapidly. What excites you most about where the game is headed and what still needs to be addressed?
My vision is clear: Mercury 13 should be the gold standard for modern football ownership. That means being global in ambition but local in execution, and building sustainably while aiming high. Our mission is to create clubs that define leagues and elevate the women’s game—not just for a season, but for the long term.
And yes, we want to deliver outsized returns for our ownership group—but we’re doing that by building something sustainable, investing in a pathway to solid profitable businesses built to last.
What legacy or impact do you hope to leave? Both at Mercury/13 and in the broader world of sport?
We’re not just acquiring clubs—we’re building a blueprint for how modern women’s football should be owned and operated. In time we’ll have an expanded portfolio and a Mercury 13 club will feel distinct. From matchday to merch, from content to community, our fans and leagues will recognise the experience and values we stand for. Each club will retain a unique identity and local roots—but it will be unmistakably Mercury 13