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39-year-old Dingley is hoping her achievement can serve as an inspiration for young ladies to rise above the barriers and attain great heights.
Wales football coach Hannah Dingley made history a few days ago after she was named the manager of league two side Forest Green Rovers, replacing Ducan Ferguson.
Although her appointment is on a caretaker basis, she led her team to a 1-1 draw during a pre-season game against Melksham Town.
The BBC reported that Hannah Dingley desires to see more women heading top positions in men's football. She said,
"It's the first and it's great, but I don't want to be the first and only. It's slightly disappointing as the first female academy manager I'm still the only female academy manager. If we want change to happen we need more females in these positions throughout clubs."
In this article, Pulse Sports highlights 5 things about the first woman to manage a men’s football team.
1. Background
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Hannah Dingley was born and raised in Carmarthenshire, South-West Wales. At only 39, she has risen to become the first woman to manage a professional men’s football team.
The Welsh woman is an alumna of Loughborough College where she studied Course Leader HND Sport and Exercise Science.
Upon her graduation, she worked as a senior lecturer in sports coaching practice. She was then appointed academy coach for a men’s Under-9 team Notts County and a local non-league club Lincoln Ladies in 2011.
She told the Athletic (via the Mirror) that she had to make a choice because she couldn’t do both roles together.
“I got into a position where I was working with Notts County’s under-nine boys and then doing the women’s team at Lincoln Ladies. The County academy gave me a choice and said I couldn’t do both — I had to choose. I thought, ‘I’m working with England internationals like Casey Stoney and Rachel Daly or the under-nines at Notts County’. I went with Lincoln Ladies."
Her love for the touchline eventually made her leave the classroom to become the academy manager at Burton Albion FC between 2016-2019.
In 2019, she joined Forest Green Rovers as academy manager where she had worked in the last four years before being elevated when the club parted ways with ex-Everton man Duncan Ferguson.
2. She is licensed by UEFA
The 39-year-old coach is fit and capable of leading a team after she got her coaching badges.
Hannah Dingley who holds a UEFA Pro Licence believes that she got the Forest Green Rovers job because she was the best candidate for it.
“There were times when I was thinking ‘I have a UEFA A licence and I’m getting knocked back and knocked back – how is that happening?,”
“At Forest Green, you hear a lot about the sustainability and veganism elements, but actually it’s just a values-led organisation and here it’s not about the gender, the race or the disability. I was the best person for the job and I got it.”
Interestingly, Forest Green Rovers chairman Dale Vince shares Hannah Dingley’s thoughts. He said she was the natural choice and her appointment was solely based on merits.
"Hannah was the natural choice for us, to be first team interim coach - she's done a fantastic job leading our academy and is well aligned with the values of the club. It's perhaps telling for the men's game that in making this appointment on merit, we'll break new ground - and Hannah will be the first female head coach in English (men's) football."
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3. She doesn’t like the limelight
Despite coaching for over two decades, Hannah Dingley is not one who loves to in the spotlight.
She would rather that the attention be focused on the players and not her. According to her, it is almost her biggest concern.
"This is about those players in the changing room and them getting the preparation they need for the campaign.
"I would like nothing to take away from that because, if it does, then it's probably the wrong thing to do to put me in this position in the first place.
"The team is the priority and this isn't a gimmick. This is because we need to do the best thing for those footballers and our football club."
4. A big inspiration to the girl project
Hannah Dingley’s passion for the girl child led her to establish the girls' academy at Green Forest Rovers in 2021.
It is an initiative that mirrors the men’s system and structure and applies such lessons in developing female football players.
After the game at Melksham, many fans waited and asked Hannah for autographs and pictures, and she was pretty impressed with the number of ladies wanting a signature.
She said she hopes her achievement can spur them on to attain greater heights in their chosen career.
"We want to diversify the crowd at Forest Green, encourage more women and girls to come and watch the men's and women's team so actually seeing so many young girls there - Melksham fans or playing for Melksham in their tracksuit tops by the looks of it, fantastic.
"Hopefully then we are inspiring young girls whether it's in football or any industry that there aren't these glass ceilings and, if there are, then you have just got to break through them."
5. Challenges as a female coach
The Forest Green Rovers interim coach also shared some of the challenges she faced as a female coach in a male-dominated industry.
She said she had been called a Physio on some occasions because some people don’t believe that a woman would occupy such a senior role in men's football.
On another occasion, she was denied entry into the stadium, when she was mistaken as a spectator over an actual staff member.
“The progress of women’s football has been spectacular and it’s fantastic, but it’s a slightly different development to what we might term “women in football”, i.e. the progress of women in the men’s game.
“That has had slower progress. We have seen a big change in the media in terms of visibility, but if you look in the clubs – the makeup of boards, senior staffing roles, coaching positions – that’s the bit where progress hasn’t been as quick as we would like.
“You can’t be it if you can’t see it and someone had to be the first. I hope that me being in this position inspires more women to try and make their own journey in men’s football, whichever route that is. We are seen as different, but we shouldn’t be different! And that creates a responsibility to work and work to make it easier for those who follow us.
"It frustrates me that female coaches might think that the female game might be their only opportunities in the game. There are lots of opportunities in the men’s game, academy football is massive,” The Mirror reported.
Despite all these challenges. Hannah Dingley hopes to continue to give her best and remain an inspiration to millions of women across the globe.
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