Forest Green appoint the first female manager in English men’s football history as Hannah Dingley comes in to replace Duncan Ferguson.
The League Two side waved goodbye to Duncan Ferguson on Tuesday after just six months in charge.
With a friendly coming up on Wednesday night, Forest Green named Dingley, the club’s academy head, in caretaker charge of the first team.
We can confirm that Hannah Dingley has been named our Caretaker Head Coach.
Dingley will take charge of the team for tomorrow night’s friendly at Melksham Town.#WeAreFGR💚
— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) July 4, 2023
CLUB STATEMENT:
Forest Green Rovers – recognised by FIFA and the United Nations as the world’s greenest football club – has today confirmed the appointment of Hannah Dingley as Caretaker Head Coach.
Dingley joined the club as a coach four years ago and remains the only woman in charge of a men’s English Football League Academy.
During her tenure at the club, she has also initiated the launch of the FGR Girls Academy in 2021, which develops female players – mirroring the men’s setup. She takes the reins with immediate effect.
Dale Vince, Chairman, Forest Green Rovers, commented: “Hannah was the natural choice to be first-team interim Head 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.”
Caretaker Head Coach, Dingley, said: “I’m really excited for this next step of my career. Pre-season has just begun and the full season kicks off very soon. It’s an exciting time in football. I am grateful for the opportunity to step up and to lead such a progressive and forward-thinking club.”
Dingley spoke back in March 2023 about breaking down barriers in the sport.
“It will come in sooner than you think,” Dingley told BBC Points West.
“The success that the Lionesses are having, that Emma Hayes is having at Chelsea. There are others, really good female coaches out there who I have more than faith in would be more than capable of coaching at a men’s level.
“They’re players at the end of the day. It’s football at the end of the day, that doesn’t change. I don’t think it’ll be long before you see a female on the touchline.
“You’ve got a responsibility as the first to open the doors for others and to encourage others,” she said.
“You always say if you don’t see it, you’re probably not going to be it. The fact that I do this I hope it encourages more females to come into coaching, into football, into different roles. I feel a great responsibility to talk about that.”
Dingley wanted to go into football coaching at an early age, finding options for women players more limited as she grew up and began coaching in men’s non league teams before finding a path into youth development.
It was at Forest Green, where she worked with players as young as eight up in to their young adult years and hopefully see them break into the League One squad.
“They come in as children and go out as young men, regardless of what happens to them on the football field,” Dingley added.
“Something I’m really proud of is the young men they turn into when they leave the programme.”
She has faced being almost been refused entry to games, seen her fellow male colleagues talked to as though they were the individuals in charge with many time she has been mistaken for being a medic or physio.
“When I started that was the only real role that a female could possibly do in football. It is changing,” she said.
“Did I get turned down for jobs? Yes I did. Did I think I deserved the opportunity or an interview? Yes I did. But I’m not going to be arrogant enough to say that there’s not men who are doing exactly the same and getting the same.”
Championship sides Norwich City and Birmingham City also have had both have women at the top of their academies, with Jennifer Rice and Danetta Powell in operational roles.
“It is fantastic how that is changing. That experience is making the football clubs better,” Dingley said.
“It’s making the experience for the players better because we’ve got a more diverse workforce. Looking at problems differently, making clubs more successful, I just don’t know why we haven’t done it sooner.”
Forest Green, who like to do things differently, brought in Dingley and thanks everyone at the club for giving her a chance.
“You can innovate, you’re not hamstrung. You don’t have to do things a certain way,” she said.
The club have previously expressed their intention to potentially appoint a female manager for the men’s team.
In May 2021, Vince said a female coach working in the Women’s Super League had been a standout candidate to become the club’s new manager until it emerged her CV had been put forward without her knowledge.
The Guardian’s Sean Ingle spoke to Sky Sports News about the appointment of Dingley:
“It’s absolutely massive. We’ve seen in other sports such as the NFL having several female coaches – albeit not head coaches – and other sports have also gone down that line. But for football, it could potentially be a game-changer.
“Dingley has done the hard yards. She’s got a masters degree in sports coaching from the prestigious Loughborough University, she was an academy coach at Notts County and has also been at Burton Albion. Now she’s spent several years at Forest Green. It’s an impressive CV and good luck to her.”
The Independent’s Miguel Delaney said also via Sky Sports News:
“If there was any club that was going to make a move like this, it would be Forest Green. Dingley has been given the job on merit but this is also part of a wider revolution in football.
“It’s a landmark moment, but it was only 20 years ago when we had a conversation about managers who hadn’t been players. Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez changed that and now it’s completely normal.
“Now, this is the latest development in the game. She’s put the work in and has now been given a fair chance at a big job. I can see this happening more and more.”
Meanwhile, Sky Sports’ Adam Bate says:
In 2019, this reporter made the trip to Nailsworth in Gloucestershire to meet Hannah Dingley, the newly-appointed academy manager of Forest Green Rovers, and to speak to owner-chairman Dale Vince about the decision to employ her in that role.
Both were keen to downplay its wider significance.
“It was not an issue for us in the recruitment so we did not see it as something to celebrate,” Vince told Sky Sports. “It was a complete non-issue. We certainly did not set out to make a statement, we just looked at the candidates. Hannah was the outstanding candidate.
“It was only after we had chosen her, someone said that she was the first appointed to that role. It tells you something about football doesn’t it?”
Four years on and there can be no denying the significance as Dingley becomes the first woman to take charge of a men’s senior side in the English professional game. The appointment is on an interim basis but the impact of it will be lasting.
The noises coming out of Forest Green remain the same. Dingley is the natural choice, according to Vince. Her values are aligned with the club. The obvious candidate. And yet, the appointment of a woman is apparently not obvious enough for any other club to have done it.
“I applied for other jobs and did not even get past the door,” Dingley told Sky Sports in 2019. “With a Pro Licence, having been a head of coaching, with all the academic background, I could not get an interview. You do wonder why that is.”
It is why there is the potential here for first-mover advantage. Logically, any organisation willing to turn its attention to an overlooked group is able to access a higher calibre of candidate than they otherwise would. It will spark intrigue and debate.
There will be those willing her on. There will be others willing her to fail, no doubt, such is this toxic world. But Dingley’s subsequent success or otherwise need not become a referendum on the capabilities of a woman coach in the men’s senior game.
That is because while the media will be drawn to that first friendly against Melksham Town, whatever happens next the game has changed with this appointment. Dingley does not need to be the next Pep Guardiola to achieve that. She need only do the job.
In doing that, in showing that the world will not collapse because a woman is stood by the side of the pitch rather than a man, the Forest Green players will surely do the rest. They will play the game. They will make decisions good and bad. And it might just shift the dial.
As Dingley said back then, “it is just about doing things equitably, the way they should be done”.
That is a legacy to be proud of.
Here’s what fans are saying as Forest Green appoint the first female manager in English men’s football history…
@JackWFC1234: This is fucking quality. Fair play. Hope she gets the gig full time. If men can manage in the women’s game, I see no reason why women can’t manage in men’s 👏
@DanKnight10: Purely a publicity stunt….. if she’s as decent as you say she is (which she may well be) then offer her the job permanently. But no you give her a few meaningless pre season games to say we were the 1st to do it and then likely bring a bloke in before the season starts.
@AyrshireAdamski: This is a huge move for football hope she has every success
@Ben_Pitman: Caretaker manager in July, my club
@TobyWoody: Well done Forest Green – please give Hannah a chance to see how good she is in the impending season. Stick with it, and you’ll be my second favourite team – best wishes from a Posh supporter #pufc
@Wozz77: Was always going to be Vince Dale to make the first move, the biggest attention seeker in football.. He will do anything to get his mush infront of that sky camera..
@oafcnipo: Sky Sports will love this
@Maxdarcy09:
Female manager ✅
Caretaker manager ❌
The new season’s a month away.
We need stability especially after the shit show of last season, hopefully Hannah has a good pre season and can roll that into League 2 🤷🏽♂️
@achrislatham: Thoroughly deserved. Behind the scenes she’s embedded improvements to our academy that brought through Bunker, Bell etc. she’s also introduced the girls ETC. She’s a prober club-person. Makes sense for the next game or two and it’s something Hannah has earned.
@harveyo01: Well done @FGRFC_Official and congratulations to Hannah. This is excellent news. Really hope she smashes it.
@AndrewCaldecot8: Wow give her it permanent love see a women in charge in English football ⚽️ for change
@Allthe77s: Give her the job. This is great.
@Adam_PVFC: Only time will tell if it’s the correct appointment, can only see it going one way and people will say it’s a box ticking exercise if it goes tits up
@AnonHummusFGR: Nice one Hannah! #WeAreFGR
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