Bristol City Women’s takeover by Mercury 13 has officially been approved by WSL Football, with the club appointing a new interim chief executive officer.
The WSL 2 side are the second club to be acquired by the group after Italian side Como.
Bristol City has been owned by the Lansdown family for more than a decade under the Bristol Sport umbrella.
Under the takeover, Mercury13 will hold a majority stake, while the Lansdown family will still hold a minority stake.
Bristol City appoint new interim CEO after takeover
Lowri Roberts has been appointed as the interim CEO of Bristol City after the club’s takeover by Mercury13.
Roberts returns to the Robins 15 years after she started as a coach.
Bristol City director Lisa Knights added: “Throughout her time away from us, Lowri has always remained in touch and an advocate of Bristol City Women. She led the consultancy work on our three-year strategy launched last October and she is ideally placed to step into this role.
“I look forward to her working with the Board, Mercury13 and the wider team at the Robins High Performance Centre and Ashton Gate Stadium, as we move into an exciting new era for the women’s club.”
It was first revealed in September that Mercury13 had acquired a majority stake in Bristol City.
Following the takeover, Hannah Haynes, chief strategy officer at Mercury13, said Roberts will help head coach Charlotte Healy in attempting to get the Robins back to the WSL.
Who are Mercury13?
Mercury 13 is described as a “multi-ownership group” which aims to acquire women’s sides across Europe and South America.
In a previous statement, Bristol City, wrote: “he vision of the group is to become the benchmark in the women’s club ownership industry by identifying and investing in the clubs of the next decade, while enhancing their commercial capabilities to engage a large but historically underserved audience of women’s football fans.”
The club previously acquired Como, who were in the news earlier this summer, after signing Switzerland international Alisha Lehmann.
Co-founder Cogevina Reynal told The Athletic in September: “We had a year rebuilding Como women, and it’s been a great pilot, and now we couldn’t be more excited to extend it into other countries, other leagues, other audiences, as well, and continue making this vision a reality.”
