Amsterdam could get a new all-women pro football club

Plans are underway to start a new professional football club in Amsterdam that is only for women. The club will be named Hera FC and wants to play their home matches in the Olympic Stadium. It would be the first professional football club in the Netherlands with only women as members.

Author and entrepreneur Marieke Visser came up with the idea to start the project after the Ajax women's team won their league championship. But Ajax was in crisis mode as their top men's club was set to finish the 2022-23 Eredivisie season in third place, their worst finish in 14 years. The club acted dismissively towards the women's team, and decided against organizing an official celebration for them even as they won praise from fans and the city's political leaders.

“That would never have happened with the men,” Visser explained. Hera FC would be owned and managed exclusively by women, she said, noting why it was important to start the club. “We are seeing a worldwide trend of special women’s teams being founded.” Visser told NOS Radio 1 Journaal. “It has been happening in England and the United States for years. The attention is on the women, and everything is focused on them. Currently, women are still in the shadow of the men’s teams at the regular clubs.”

While Visser did not mention it specifically, the atmosphere at Ajax has been under scrutiny due to its treatment of female employees and football players ever since allegations surfaced about Marc Overmars. The club's technical director resigned two years ago amid a string of sexual harassment allegations, including pressuring women for sexual relations, and sending unsolicited photos of his genitalia to female colleagues.

Later, three former players from the Ajax Vrouwen squad said he sent them sexually explicit messages over an extended period. One of the three women alleged he engaged in unwanted physical contact with her while she was on a massage table in an area that was supposed to be off-limits to men. Ajax later tried to bring Overmars back anyway.

Visser is aiming to have Hera play their inaugural campaign in the 2025-26 Eredivisie season. The goal is to have a team made up of experienced women who are currently professionals, with some young talent to fill up the side.

Investors have already been found for the project. “We have found individual investors from the Netherlands who support this cause. On the one hand, it is a cause, but it is also a commercial story as women’s football is a growing market,” Visser said. European football association UEFA calculated that the commercial value of women’s football will rise six-fold in the next ten years.

The one stumbling block could be getting permission from the Dutch football federation, the KNVB. Hera FC would have to receive a license from the federation. “It is not yet sure whether that will come. They are still investigating whether it is possible. In the current system, the option of starting a women’s team is only available to existing clubs.”