English men’s soccer has its first female head coach as Hannah Dingley takes over at Forest Green

By JAMES ROBSON
AP Soccer Writer

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — While women’s soccer is growing in popularity in the U.K., the opportunities for women in the men’s game remain few and far between. That changed this week when Forest Green Rovers became the first professional soccer team in England to appoint a female head coach. Hannah Dingley was already in charge of the fourth division club’s academy. Now she has been made caretaker head coach following the departure of Duncan Ferguson. England’s women’s national team won the European Championship last year and goes to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this month as one of the favorites to win the tournament. But there has been little in the way of women getting prominent jobs in the men’s game.