Rebel and Amart Sports managing director Erica Berchtold doesn't think she will cop too much grief about joining the board of A-League football club Sydney FC, even though she was, until five months ago, a director of cross-town rival Western Sydney Wanderers.
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Berchtold had a two-year stint on the WSW board before Football Federation Australia sold the club to a consortium led by BRW Rich List member Paul Lederer in May and will, on Monday, be confirmed as Sydney FC's newest director.
"In a sense, I am coming home," Berchtold says. "I was a foundation member of Sydney FC back in 2005-06 and it was the Wanderers who originally had to get used to having a Sydney FC fan on their board. So I don't see this being a problem."
Berchtold hopes to fulfil two important roles at Sydney FC, firstly as one of the few female board members involved in football at the elite level and also use her retail expertise to help drive an increase in the range and quality of merchandise at the club.
She says there should be more women on A-League club boards and sport in general.
"I really think women should put themselves up for these sorts of board roles. I mean we represent half of the population so, of course, we would have valuable input from a different perspective.
"Women have just as much talent as men but sometimes men are better at putting themselves forward for roles than women are. But you listen to people like [Westpac chief executive] Gail Kelly talking about how women have to be more involved, and its true."
Berchtold says she was convinced to join the Sydney FC board by chairman Scott Barlow and director Mark Arbib.
She will, in November, have been managing director of Rebel and Amart Sports for three years, a time in which she has noted an increase in replica shirt and merchandise sales for the 10 A-League club, nine of which are based in Australia.
However, Berchtold believes, in particular, the clubs have to do a better job in appealing to female fans.
"I really think clubs need to do a better job in terms of having a range for women. Too often now women have to basically buy merchandise in children's sizes. But it's the wrong fit. One of things we want to do at Sydney FC is to really look at widening the range and the quality of the merchandise.
"It is not just good enough to have something with a club badge on it now. You have to have something that is really good quality and that people want to wear at all times, not just at matches."
