In an ideal footballing world where everything is equal and indistinguishable, a female coach might have taken up the role of managing a team in England.
English football culture can be chaotic at the best of times. The drama, rage, anguish, and unrelenting highs and lows make the beautiful game seem like one big giant soap opera.
Football to its credit is one of the most diverse sports in the world. People from all backgrounds, races, religions, and genders worldwide add to football’s spectacle.
The problem with football culture especially English football is it’s trapped in a sequence where its progressive advances haven’t transcended to all walks of life from a professional footballing career point of view.
The Premier League has taken a tough stance against racism by partaking in a gesture of taking the knees. Before every game, players, white and black will take the knee to show solidarity.
The gesture now feels diluted. The slogan no racism seems to have fallen on deaf ears to some people.
Poor performances from Antony Martial and Tuanzebe against Sheffield United promoted a wave of racial abuse online toward both players’ social media accounts.
Alex Jankewitz was sent off after 70 seconds against Manchester United and is now said to be receiving similar abuse online from trolls alike. The fact that this happens in a game that celebrates diversity and inclusion is disgraceful.
Football culture can be horrible at times, the abuse toward black players left me with food for thought at the hypothetical reality of what it would be like if a woman took a coaching job in the man’s game.
Is English Football Ready For A Female Coach?
This week, Emma Hayes, the WSL club Chelsea female coach, was asked about managing at men’s League One side AFC Wimbledon.
When asked about taking the role, Hayes hit back with:
“The football world needs to recognize, while the game is played by a different gender, it’s the same sport,” she said.
“The qualities involved with having to manage are exactly the same as it would be for a men’s team. We are talking about human beings”.
“There are so many quality candidates that can do the job across the men’s game. We spend too much time talking about gender and ethnicity instead of the quality of candidates.”
Hayes is right. The qualities needed to manage a man’s team are the same qualities required for the women’s game.
Men’s management doesn’t require prime speed or athleticism like the playing side does, but a coaching role puts you front and centre of the footballing world and gives more reason for trolls to pile on when things turn sour.
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Emma Hayes is more than likely a more talented female coach than you’ll ever be unless Pep Guardiola or, say, Jurgen Klopp is reading this. It’s cool to say that’s a fair statement to make.
Emma Hayes won 3 FA Women’s Super Leagues in 2015-2016, 2017–18, and 2019–20 two Women’s FA Cups with and has not seen her international-laden squad lose a league game in more than two years with Chelsea.
Suppose Hayes did take the job at Wimbledon and hit a dip in form like her potential predecessors.
You can already see the abuse from online trolls. In 2019, Hayes said that she was confident a woman would eventually manage the men’s game.
“It’s going to happen and it’s important I say that,” she said.
“Managing people has no gender bias, but unfortunately, football is still stuck in the Victorian era where it thinks the only way to get the most out of professional athletes is with traditional management techniques.”
“It will take a brave owner to take that decision, but all it takes is one successful situation for it to happen again and again.
“The chances of going to manage in the Premier League as a woman are low, but going in and managing at a level below, or as an assistant, makes sense”.
“There is going to be pressure on that person. You’ll have to put up with a fair amount of abuse. So it had better be worth it.”
A few weeks back, Karen Carney deleted her social media accounts after making comments about Leeds’s play style.
The official Leeds Twitter account referred to Carney’s remarks, which cited sexist abuse from some Twitter users.
Carney suggested the coronavirus pandemic helped Leeds secure promotion to the top flight. A rebuttal by the Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani initially defended the tweet, saying Carney’s remarks were:
“completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our club”.
The wave of abuse from online trolls toward minorities and women is a vile stain on the game and needs to be eradicated.
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Could you imagine a scenario if a female coach hits a poor run of form with a team in the men’s game? I don’t need to paint a picture of what social media abuse would look spiral into at the end of the day.
It’s a problem with the men’s game, but there isn’t a stick to beat men with, Sure some managers are overweight, sound weird, etc., but nobody cares enough to hurl abuse.
To its credit, football has opened the door to offering more jobs to people in different demographics that wouldn’t have had the opportunity ten years ago.
For example, Sky sports have included Alex Scott, Micah Richards, and other pundits in recent years. Sian Massey-Ellis has been a lineswoman in the men’s game for over ten years.
Even in France, Helena Costa was replaced by another woman Catherine Diacreto to manage the French club Clermont Foot.
Football coaching needs to hit a point where female participation becomes the norm.
It may require someone like Emma Hayes to break the proverbial glass ceiling for football fans across England to accept a progressive move like a female football coach.
It has to move away from the macho, testosterone-filled lads culture that presents itself across the divisions.
If football is a beautiful game, it’s time for the sport to step up and pardon the pun and leave the traditional conservatism in the kitchen where it belongs.
