As investment pours into women’s soccer, Crux Sports is doubling down on bringing the game’s most influential stakeholders who have been left out of the boardroom back to the table.The women-focused multi-club ownership group announced Tuesday the launch of its Player Investor Collective, an initiative designed to give former women’s footballers and athletes across sports the opportunity to become investors and owners in European women’s soccer clubs. Among the first athlete investors are former U.S. women’s national team stars Julie Foudy, Abby Wambach and Leslie Osborne, all of whom have previously been involved in ownership or investment initiatives across women’s sports.The collective will provide athletes with long-term investment opportunities and ownership stakes across Crux’s growing portfolio of clubs, which currently includes French side Montpellier HSC Féminines and Swedish club FC Rosengård. The company is also actively pursuing additional acquisitions in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.For Crux founder and CEO Bex Smith, the initiative is as much about changing the power structure of women’s soccer as it is about raising capital. “I see that the people who built the sport seem to be fairly excluded from sitting on cap tables, being in ownership rooms and making decisions in the sport they helped create,” Smith told The Athletic.Crux Football co-founder Bex Smith (left) with Abby Wambach. (Crux Football)Rather than targeting Europe’s biggest clubs, Crux has focused its investments on teams outside the continent’s elite tier.“We don’t necessarily need more investment in Lyon, Arsenal or Barcelona,” Smith explained. “What we need are better teams throughout the leagues. We need more competitive environments, more stories for broadcasters to tell and more opportunities for players to develop.”