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Dispatch: a series dedicated to immersive storytelling, where our photographers and writers journey to chosen places, combining evocative imagery with long-form editorials to uncover and share unique football cultures.

For This Generation And The Next: Building New Traditions With FC Como

WORDS Ili Hyseni de Brissac
PHOTOGRAPHY Akis Katsoudas

January 31, 2025

COMO, Italy — It’s a cold, crisp day at the Stadio Ferrucio in Seregno, a town just 20 miles away from the shores of Lake Como and home to the eponymous Serie A Femminile side FC Como. As fans begin to gather in the stands of this 1930s-era stadium, there’s a positive energy in the air, a real sense that good times are just around the corner for a club that stands out as a black sheep in this region, contoured by the lake and steeped in history and tradition.

When Mercury/13 acquired a majority stake in FC Como in March 2024, it did so with the stated aim of redefining women’s football club ownership. Since the takeover, the club has been at the forefront of shaping a new era of women’s football in Italy.

Unlike many women’s clubs, FC Como doesn’t operate in the shadows of a larger men’s club and were founded in 1997 as one of the very few independent women’s clubs in Italian football. While they’ve been playing in Serie A since 2022/23, the year the league went professional, 2024/25 has seen the club truly come into its own with a series of off-pitch moves that are reimagining the future of women’s football, not just in Italy but beyond.

“The beauty of football is its universality: any shift within the game reverberates far beyond it. If women are respected on the pitch, they’re more likely to be respected in the broader world.”— Victoire Cogevina Reynal, co-founder, Mercury/13

At the helm of it all has been Mercury/13 founder Victoire Cogevina Reynal, an American-born Greek-Argentine entrepreneur who has dedicated her career to figuring out how, as she puts it, “the other half of the world” can be included in football.

A lifelong football fan, Victoire’s story in the sport begins with her brother who was an ultra and devoted Racing Club fan. He would take her to games at El Cilindro from a young age and it was those formative years spent in the stands, where she was one of very few girls, that would shape Victoire’s ideas for an equitable future for football. “The unrelenting energy shaped my perspective on life. It taught me to see passion not just as something to admire, but as a driving force that fuels change”, said Victoire recalling those early days as a fan.

As an adult and serial entrepreneur, Victoire would take the experience of being in the stands with her into her work. From co-founding SR All Stars, an agency representing elite LATAM players, to launching Gloria, a football media platform that counted itself among 2% of female-led companies in Silicon Valley, Victoire has championed women in sport and business at every stage of her career.

With a background in startups, the opportunity to transform FC Como through Mercury/13 is one that Victoire has relished. At the core of it all is a desire to challenge norms and, in the spirit of entrepreneurship, break rules to find creative solutions to old problems.

Through FC Como, Mercury/13’s mission is to pave new pathways and challenge age-old traditions that were not designed with female participation in mind. For Victoire, it’s clear the traditional football model, the way most men’s clubs operate, doesn’t serve female players: “That doesn’t mean tradition is without value—some aspects of it are timeless and worth preserving. Instead, our focus is on building a new narrative for football—one that makes the game more inclusive, more dynamic, and ultimately more appealing to a whole new audience.”

At the start of the season, Mercury/13 appointed Elena Mirandola as CEO with the goal of instilling a high-performance environment at the club. As an outsider to the football industry, Elena has brought years of experience in advertising and tech with her main goal being to future-proof the club: “Lake Como carries an incredibly rich history and tradition, and recognizing this heritage is fundamental for us. The main challenge was uniting respect for our historical identity with an innovative, modern vision.”

Part of the approach has been to adopt a luxury fashion marketing strategy that has positioned FC Como as a luxury commodity rather than just a football club. Following a rebrand led by Communion Studio, the decision to opt for a highly curated, refined approach to club communications has helped FC Como attract new audiences- ones that may not connect with traditional football clubs.

Another cornerstone in the club’s marketing approach has been to foster brand partnerships and sponsorships. With ticket sales and TV deals not as significant a commercial factor in the women’s game, leveraging relationships with major brands has amplified FC Como’s reach.

A major milestone in this process was achieved at the beginning of the season, when the club signed a kit deal with Nike- marking the first time Nike had agreed to sponsor an independent women’s club in Italian football.

Under Mercury/13’s ownership, FC Como is laying out a completely new blueprint for European football. Alongside fostering a high-performance environment where athletes are supported on and off the pitch, the club follows a holistic approach when dealing with the needs of its players. They are people first, players second.

A major focus area for the club’s leadership has been around what happens to players after they retire. Female footballers face far greater challenges in finding opportunities compared to their male counterparts, who often have a financial safety net to fall back on. In response, the club has launched a careers initiative called ‘Beyond’ which aims to provide their athletes with fresh perspectives on what life after football can look like. Ex-athletes from across the world of sports have been invited in by the club to talk to players and offer advice on how they can thrive once its time to hang up their boots.

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So, what does the future look like for a club that is redefining women's football? Well, it’s clear that FC Como is here to stay and the club’s manifesto makes that clear in bold terms, ending with the statement: ‘WE BELONG HERE’. The message has resonated well on the pitch, with the team currently 5th in the Serie A Femminile table and doing their best to hunt down Fiorentina in 4th.

Off the pitch, the future lies in setting new, positive trends for women’s football and inspired by her brother who introduced her to football, bringing more people along for the journey is something Victoire is keen to do. “At Mercury/13, we don’t simply follow trends; we intend to create them. Our intention is to play a key role in welcoming this new wave of fans, players, and leaders into football.”

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