Mercury13 signs multi-year Catapult deal to roll out women-specific performance model

Women’s football multi-club ownership group Mercury13 has agreed a multi-year partnership with Catapult that will make the sports technology company its exclusive elite performance analytics and GPS partner across its portfolio.The agreement is designed to standardise athlete monitoring and sports science delivery across Mercury13 clubs, with Catapult providing wearable devices, analytics platforms, centralised data management and on-site practitioner support.Mario Malavé, co-founder and co-chief executive of Mercury13, said: “From day one, our ambition has been to build clubs designed specifically around the needs of women athletes. "Partnering with the team at Catapult allows us to embed world-class performance technology and research across our ecosystem, tailored to the realities of the women’s game.“By implementing an integrated model spanning athlete monitoring, coaching education and long-term player development, we are strengthening professional standards and laying more durable foundations for elite women’s football.”Mercury13 said the deal builds on Catapult’s existing work with Bristol City Women and extends the model to FC Badalona Women’s first team and academy set-up, plus the FC Como Women academy.Catapult will also take on a non-exclusive “thought leadership” role, with the partners planning embedded research programmes within clubs to generate applied insight and accelerate the development of women-specific training methodologies.Molly Sadler, sports scientist at Bristol City Women, said: “At Bristol City Women, Catapult plays an important role in how we support players day to day. It gives us a clear view of their physical load so we can adjust training, manage recovery and make informed decisions around performance.“Having data that reflects the women’s game is really important, as it helps us better understand our players, and using the technology every day means we can really get to grips with it and apply those insights in a practical way.”The partnership places a stated emphasis on female athlete health and performance, with Mercury13 and Catapult aiming to expand the data set in elite women’s football and integrate female physiology more directly into training and load management.Will Lopes, chief executive of Catapult, said: “Performance data is only as powerful as the context behind it. By implementing women-specific models across Mercury13’s clubs, we are moving toward a high-performance environment built specifically for female athletes. "This is a unique opportunity to use data that reflects their reality, allowing them to train smarter, stay healthier, and push the boundaries of what’s possible on the pitch.”The deal underlines the growing role of centralised performance infrastructure in women’s football ownership strategies, with multi-club groups seeking scale benefits in recruitment, coaching, medical and sports science while building a stronger commercial narrative around professional standards and player welfare.