We also look at UEFA’s two club tournaments—the Women’s Champions League and new Women’s Europa Cup—as they prepare with knockout stages next month, with a particular focus on Paris St. Germain’s difficulties in the Champions League and French league, where Nantes is a surprising second in only their second season in the top flight.
Hera United of the Netherlands—thoughts from the independent team’s co-founder Marieke Visser
This column has covered Hera United of Netherlands since last summer, when they became the first independent professional women’s side in the country, waiting until just days before the beginning of the 2025-26 season to receive authorization from their Football Association, as FIFA has ruled that professional men’s teams must have women’s teams under their organizational umbrellas (see: The Week in Women's Football: Speaking with Samya Hassani; A-League preview - TribalFootball.com).
This week, team co-founder Marieke Visser provided her insights into the long-term goals of the team, presented in a Question and Answer format with TribalFootball.com.
Q. “You have been trailblazers in the Netherlands and a model for other countries with a women’s only club. What drove you to this decision?”
A. “The decision came from two things. First, there is a huge potential in women’s football, since it’s the fastest growing team sports for girls and a fast growing fanbase worldwide. Secondly, the decision came) from a deep conviction that within traditional men’s club structures, women’s football rarely receives the full attention or resources it deserves (Amen to that statement). In that setup, women’s teams often have to compete for essentials like pitch time, medical expertise, or marketing budgets. By launching an independent club, we ensure that every euro, every staff member, and every strategic choice serves one purpose only: the success of women in football. That independence allows us to raise the bar in facilities, training, and business, entirely tailored to the needs of elite female athletes.”
Q.”How will an independent women’s team help improve the women’s game in terms of respect, attendance, etc.?”
A. “True respect in sport comes from professionalism. By investing in the same top-level environment men’s teams have, HERA shows that women’s football is taken seriously. This raises both the standing of the players and the credibility of the league. We don’t rely on a men’s club fanbase; instead, we’re building a community that follows us because of the women, our HERA’s. That independence also creates unique commercial value, attracting brands that actively want to stand for equality and women’s empowerment in sport.”
Q. “I have seen investments in other women’s clubs—in America and Europe—with minor stakes (3%-5%) being taken with the idea that they can cash out at a multiplier of at least 3 to 5 times their investment within 3-4 years. Do you have minority investors in your club and how is your model different?”
A. “HERA’s model is built for sustained growth, not short-term profit. The structure combines two pillars: the professional club (HERA United) and the social foundation (HERA Foundation). Together, they attract partners who believe in a double return, creating both athletic and measurable social impact.”
Q. “What are your plans to build the team over the next few years to vie for a league title or cup?”
A. “Our strategy is to build patiently and with purpose. The 2025/26 season is about laying the groundwork: setting up an environment and organisation that’s needed to perform in women’s football. Success will come step-by-step through the growth of our academy talent and carefully targeted signings. The aim is to close the gap with the traditional top clubs by being smarter and more specialized, not by buying results overnight.”
Q. “Do you plan to add more imports from abroad, which is not typically done as much in Netherland’s league?”
A. “Since we are a new club starting from scratch, we are able to search for an ideal mix of players from our own academy and country and also from abroad. It’s not a goal itself, but we consider it interesting to look further than our own country to attract talent and raise the bar on the pitch.”
Thus far this season in the Eredivisie Women, Hera United is currently tied for eight in the twelve team league (with Heerenveen) on 7 points from a 1-4-5 (W-D-L) record. The club is still in the relegation mix, only two points above tenth place Excelsior, with NAC Breda in eleventh with 4 points and ADO Den Haag at the bottom of the table with 2 points—with teams finishing in the last three spots being relegated to the Vrouwen Eerste Divisie (second tier).
Hera United has more ties (4) than any other side in the league and if they can gain a few more wins in the second half of the season, they should retain their division 1 status for 2026-27. Ajax currently tops the table with an 8-1-1 record on 25 points, two points ahead of Twente. PSV is one point behind Twente in third with 22 points, tied with Feyenoord. The top two sides advance to the Champions League second qualifying round for 2026-27, with the third place side gaining a Europa Cup first qualifying round spot next season.
On January 10, the club signed veteran Dutch midfielder Dominique Bruinenberg (32) on a free transfer through the end of the 2025-26 season. She started her professional career in the 2011/12 season with Telstar—the club that was stepping away from women’s football and whose license Hera United took over. She then played for ADO Den Haag (where she won the KNVB Cup), Hellas Verona in Italy, Sunderland and Everton in England, before returning to the Netherlands in 2019, where she became captain of PEC Zwolle. Two years later, she continued her career in the German Bundesliga at SC Sand. In 2022, she returned to Telstar, bore joining Austria Wien in Vienna a year later, finishing at the club last summer. Bruinenberg played 26 times for various Dutch youth teams.
2025-26 Women’s Europa Cup
The UEFA Women’s Europa Cup round of 16 games were held on November 11-12 and November 19-20, with the results and highlights below. (See the previous rounds qualifying results in our columns from last year: The Week in Women's Football: Lily Nabet exclusive; Champions League qualifying review - TribalFootball.com and The Week in Women's Football: Focusing on Bangladesh ahead of Asian Cup; Europa Cup review - TribalFootball.com).
First named team is at home in the first leg
AFC Ajax (NED) vs Hammarby IF (SWE)—(1-3, 1-3—2-6 on aggregate)
Glasgow City FC (SCO) vs Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)—(1-1, 1-3 (aet)—2-4 on aggregate)
RSC Anderlecht (BEL) vs FK Austria Wien (AUT)—(0-1, 1-2—1-3 on aggregate)
AC Sparta Praha (CZE) vs BSC Young Boys (SUI) (0-3, 4-0—4-3 on aggregate)
Sparta Prague hosted the first leg at the Stadion Letna in front of 1,083 on November 12, falling 3-0 to Young Boys Bern. Seven days later in Bern in front of 1,661, Sparta Prague pulled off a magnificent comeback with a 4-0 win to take the tie 4-3 on aggregate. Czech Republic international midfielder Franny Czerna (28) scored the first goal in the 15th minute and has 3 goals from 48 internationals since 2020.
She grew up in the States and played at DePaul University before joining Slavia Prague in 2019, where her parents grew up, and then joined Sparta for the 2024-25 season. Fellow Czech Republic international Michaela Khyrova (25)—with 10 goals in 43 matches since 2019—took over the match and scored a hat-trick with goals in the 18th, 36th and 93rd minute for the aggregate win (4-3).
Young Boys Bern of Switzerland had five imports from neighboring Germany, and one each from Denmark, Finland, Spain and Croatia, the latter being Maja Jecic (21) who has four goals in 21 caps with Bosnia and Herzegovina and is on loan from Inter Milan with YBB until June 30, 2026. This season she has 3 goals in 10 regular season matches in the Swiss Super League and spent the 2024-25 season on loan with Napoli in Italy, scoring twice in 24 matches. In 2023-24 she played with Inter and scored once in 15 games.
BK Häcken FF (SWE) vs FC Internazionale Milano (ITA)—(1-0, 0-0—1-0 on aggregate). The difference between these two teams across 180 minutes came down to a first leg fourth minute own goal by Inter Milan and Iceland international goalkeeper Cecilia Ran Runarsdottir (22), who played with Inter last season on loan from Bayern Munich and signed permanently for the 2025-26 season. She has also been with Everton in the WSL, KIF Orebro in Sweden and Fram and Fylkir in Reykjavik.
Ajax of Netherlands and RSC Anderlecht of Belgium were the last two remaining sides who started this season in the Europa Cup, with all of the other sides having moved into the tournament after elimination from the 2025-26 Women’s Champions League.
Inter Milan has always been a liberal importer and had 14 imports on their 2025-26 Europa Cup roster, with two each from Iceland and Belgium and one each from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden.
Midfielder Marija Milinković (21) of Bosnia and Herzegovina is in her second season with Inter Milan and is a full international with B&H. Inter Milan midfielder Henrietta Csiszár (31) of Hungary; as of July 2025, she was captain of Hungary’s WNT and had scored 21 goals in 121 internationals. She joined Inter Milan in 2021-22 from Bayer Leverkusen of Germany.
Breidablik (ISL) vs Fortuna Hjørring (DEN) (0-1, 4-2 aet—4-3 on aggregate). Joy Ogochukwu, a Nigerian youth international forward (23) scored a goal in each leg for Fortuna, but Breidablik fought back to take the tie (4-3), with Danish international midfielder Sarah Hansen (29), formerly of Rosenborg in Norway. tying the aggregate with a 97th own goal and then Edith Kristjandottir (17) winning it in 107th minute. Kristjandottir is a U-19 international for Iceland and scored one goal in 18 league matches during the 2025 summer campaign. She played six league matches in 2024.
Fortuna Hjorring is always a liberal importer of talent with three this season from the U.S., two from Japan, two from Romania and one each from Finland, Ireland, Nigeria, Sweden and Uganda. Goalkeeper Daphine Nyayenga (21) of Uganda joined Fortuna in July of 2024 on a two-year contact.
She is a senior international for the Crested Cranes. She first came to Denmark in 2023 to play with Second Division side Boldklubben from Ugandan Women’s Premier League side, She Corporate, who she helped win the 2021/22 FUFA Women’s Super League championship. There were a quartet of Ugandan women playing in Denmark at the time that Nyayenga joined Fortuna, including Aisha Nantongo and Vanessa Edith Karungi with FC Nordsjaelland and Phiona Nabbumba at B93 FC.
Fortuna’s manager is Lena Terp (52), a former Denmark WNT captain who finished with 105 caps and 4 goals. She played for one season at Fulham in England and played collegiately at Lynn University in the States. She was an assistant coach at the University of Michigan. She also coached the Faroe Islands WNT from 2023 to 2025.
FC Nordsjælland (DEN) vs ŽNK Mura (SVN) (1-0, 4-0—5-0 on aggregate). Mura had four imports on their roster; two from Ukraine and one each from North Macedonia and Poland.
PSV Eindhoven Vrouwen (NED) vs Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) (1-2, 1-3—2-5 on aggregate)
Women’s Europa Cup knockout matches continue in February
Note: First named team is at home in the first leg
Quarter-finals (February 11/12 & 18/19)
1: Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR) vs Hammarby IF (SWE)
2: AC Sparta Praha (CZE) vs FK Austria Wien (AUT)
3: BK Häcken FF (SWE) vs Breidablik (ISL)
4: Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) vs FC Nordsjælland (DEN)
Semi-finals (March 24/25 & April 1/2)
1: Winner quarter-final 2 vs Winner quarter-final 1
2: Winner quarter-final 4 vs Winner quarter-final 3
Final (April 25 or 26 & May 2 or 3)
Winner semi-final 1 vs Winner semi-final 2
UEFA Women’s Champions League
In the first season of the new league format (with 18 teams playing six matches), designed to be fairer and provide more competitive matches at this stage, the six league matches were completed in mid-December and now enters the knockout stage, with teams five-twelve from the league table entering playoffs, with the winners meeting the top four teams at the top of the table in December, who advanced directly to the quarterfinal stage.
Teams who finished the league phase in 5th through 12th place will compete in a new knockout phase round (over two-legs) in February:
Arsenal
Manchester United
Juventus
Real Madrid
Wolfsburg
Paris FC
Atletico de Madrid
OH Leuven
The first legs will be played on 11 and 12 February, and the second legs on 18 and 19 February 2026, with the first team listed hosting the first leg:
Atletico Madrid vs. Manchester United
Paris FC vs. Real Madrid
OH Leuven vs. Arsenal
VfL Wolfsburg vs. Juventus
The winners will advance to the quarterfinals in March and April, joining the top four sides in the league:
FC Barcelona
OL Lyonnes
Chelsea
Bayern Munich
Looking at the six sides that were eliminated after the league stage, there were a few surprises including AS Roma of Italy, who over the last three seasons made the UEFA WCL group stage in their first three European campaigns and even advanced to the quarterfinals in their first season in 2022-23.
Roma’s imports included three from Denmark, two from Nigeria and one each from Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. Goalkeeper Olivie Lukášová (24) of the Czech Republic is in her second season with Roma after moving from Slavia Prague; she has 21 caps for her country and was also a youth international.
She played in all six Champions League games but surrendered ten goals. Australian international midfielder Winonah Heatley (24), with 10 Matilda caps since 2021, joined Roma this season on a three year contract after three seasons in Denmark with Nordsjælland, where she won one league title and two Danish Cups.
Another surprise was that Paris St. Germain only gained two points from six games and were eliminated; in their last 13 seasons since 2010-11, they made the Champions League on 11 occasions, finishing as runners-up in 2014-15 and 2016-17, and made the semifinals on four other occasions. They have a strong team with French international midfielder superstar Sakina Karchaoui (29) and fellow French international defender Elisa De Almeida (28)—she has 5 goals in 50 senior caps for France—playing well, along with imports goalkeeper Mary Earps of England and Spain’s left back Olga Carmona, who scored the winning goal in the 2023 WWC semifinal and final.
Their head coach is former Brazilian international full-back Paolo Cesar (47), who played five years at PSG and is in his first season coaching the PSG Women; he may not make it through the season though as they are streets behind table topping Lyon (33 points after 11 games), followed by Paris FC (23), surprising Nantes in third with 21 points and Fleury 91 fourth with 20 at the winter break. For the third straight year. the top four teams then meet in playoffs for the league title via semifinals and finals. PSG was still in the playoff mix at the halfway point of the season with 17 points with a 5-2-4 record.
However just before Christmas, they were dealt a heavy penalty by the France Football Federation, who deducted nine points from three of their wins because of a licensing issue in registering Canadian international Florianne Jourde (21), who we featured last fall: The Week in Women's Football: Ovalle explains joining Orlando Pride; WPSL, W-League and UWS review - TribalFootball.com. Fleury filed a complaint after their 4-0 defeat to PSG on November 8. They claimed that PSG did not have an International Transfer Certificate (ITC) when they registered Jourde. PSG responded by saying that they did, in fact, request the ITC from the US Soccer Federation, as Jourde had been playing for the University of Southern California in the NCAA, which is not considered a professional league and is not part of the U.S. Soccer pyramid, with U.S. Soccer telling PSG that she did not require the international clearance.
However, prior to moving to the U.S., she played in Canada’s Quebec League1 with AS Lavel. The difficulty comes because, though an amateur (semi-professional league), it is considered “organised” by FIFA and thus treated as professional for registration purposes, meaning an ITC was required. Fleury uncovered this loophole in the Canadian international’s registration and even informed Le Havre (2-0) and Strasbourg (1-0), who PSG had previously defeated, of their right to appeal. French clubs have 30 days after the end of a match to finalize the match report and identify any potential irregularities. Once the appeal was announced, PSG acquired an ITC from FIFA within 24 hours, even though it was past the summer transfer window, as the world body considered it an administrative error.
The deduction in points leaves PSG with 11 points after 11 games, tied with Marseille for ninth place and just above the relegation line, currently occupied by St. Etienne (12 points) and Montpellier (11 points) in 11th and 12th place respectively. I am not worried about PSG being relegated—the question now is, can they make up the 10 point gap on fourth place and overcome Fleury, who PSG fans have said some very negative things about as a result? I wouldn’t bet against PSG making the playoffs—they started the second half of the season with a 4-0 win over seventh place Dijon (on 15 points) on February 14, with Sakina Karchaoui scoring the winner in the 25th minute with an assist from Olga Carmona, who scored in the 87th minute as PSG scored three times in a five minute spell starting in the 83rd minute.
Mary Earps gained the shutout. Interestingly, Australian international forward Kyah Simon (34), who has 111 senior caps with 29 goals but played very little over the past two A-League Women seasons with Sydney FC and Central Coast Mariners due to injuries, joined Dijon in October but has played only three minutes and did not appear in the PSG game. Goal differential could be crucial at the end of the season for Paris, seeing a –9 GD swing as a result of the three games turning to 0-3 losses, taking a 21 goals for-12 goals against (+9 GD ) to 0 prior to the Round 12 win over Dijon.
Fleury tied 1-1 at LeHavre on February 14 and the race for the playoffs is truly on and it will be interesting to watch as PSG could use their aggrievement at the FFF’s decision to their advantage as they take out their frustration on the other Ligue 1 sides in the second half of the season. Fleury 91 poked a hibernating bear and it is now “hangry” for points and roaring mad—in Round 12, PSG has warned the rest of the league that they are “on the hunt” and don’t ignore them.
PSG ‘s imports this season include two each from Brazil (2), Netherlands (2), Nigeria (2), and the U.S., with one each from Canada, DR Congo, England, Norway, Poland and Spain. At the winter break, Dutch international Romee Leuchter led the team with 9 goals in 9 games (along with 4 assists), the same number she scored in 2024-25 with PSG. Forward Kanjinga Merveille of DR Congo has 5 goals (with four assists) for second place on the team.
Note: Third place Nantes has been a huge revelation this season in Ligue 1. The club started female youth teams in 2012 and then a senior team in 2014, starting in the sixth tier at the district level—the District de Football de Loire-Atlantique. They moved up quickly after finishing first in the third, second, and first district divisions, making the national regional setup in 2017-18, again finishing first in their Régional 2 group.
They finished second in Regional 1 in 2018-19 but qualified for the Division 2 promotion playoffs and won through over CA Paris and Le Mans (who finished first ahead of Nantes in the league) to win promotion to the second division. They finished second in 2020-21 but, because of COVID, the FFF only promoted one team. They finally won promotion to Ligue 1 after the 2023-24 season and finished seventh last season in their first go-round in the first division and have stunned the league’s follower thus far this season. They have ten imports from as many countries, with four from CONCACAF nations: Canada, Haiti, Puerto Rico and the U.S., with other imports coming from Algeria, Belgium, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
On January 14, they defeated Paris FC 2-1 at home to leapfrog the WCL knockout round participant into second place (24 points vs 23 for Paris FC). Nantes’ top scorers this season are forward Lucie Calba (20) with six goals—she is a youth international with France and finished third at the 2022 UEFA U17 Women's European Championship—and France full international forward (with four caps since her debut in 2021) Lea Khelifi (26), who has five goals and one assist. Khelifi is in her first season with Nantes after three seasons with Montpellier, scoring 11 goals with 9 assists in 47 matches.
Benfica of Portugal also has a strong WCL history, as in five previous campaigns they made the group stage three consecutive seasons (2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24), advancing to the quarterfinals in the latter campaign. Benfica had two imports each from Brazil, Germany, Norway and Spain along with one each from Canada, Denmark, France, Nigeria and the U.S. Chandra Davidson (27) is from Hamilton, Ontario, near Niagara Falls and about 90 minutes southwest of Toronto.
She played at Indiana University and has played exclusively in Portugal since the 2020-21 season, first with Torreense, then Sporting and with Benfica, except for a 11 game stint (with two goals) at Fortuna Sittard in Netherlands in 2023-24 before joining Benfica, where she is in her third campaign. She has never been capped by Canada at any level.
Valerenga had imports from Sweden (5), Iceland (2) and U.S. (1).
Twente of the Netherlands had two imports on their 2025-26 WCL roster: one from Iceland and one from neighbors Belgium.
St. Polten of Austria had 16 imports from nine countries: Germany (5), Croatia (3), France (2), and one each from England, Finland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland. Forward Kess Elmore (27) of Ireland played last season in the USL Super League with Brooklyn FC. She made 11 appearances for BFC in 2024-25. She grew up in Liverpool, England.
Elmore played six seasons of college soccer (gaining a year because of COVID) and played four seasons at the University of Connecticut and finished her final two seasons at the University of Oregon. She played for England at the U-20 level and was a top youth player for Liverpool Ladies, being the club’s Player of the Year in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 and won the FA Youth Challenge Cup in 2014.
Advancing to the playoffs was UEFA WCL debutants OH Leuven of Belgium; they were a surprise packet but started the league phase with a great start after a 2-2 tie at FC Paris and a 2-1 win in Belgium over Twente in their first two matchdays. Their 1-1 tie against PSG on matchday 6 clinched their place in the knockout stage playoffs.
Paris FC has done well in their last three WCL campaigns, making the Group Stage two years ago (in 2023-24) after dispatching Arsenal of London in the first qualifying round and then Wolfsburg of Germany in the second qualifying round. They could make things very difficult for Real Madrid in the knockout playoff round.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey