UCFB Future Sport 2018

WOMEN IN SPORT
The roar of the lioness
History will show that Hope Powell changed the face of women’s football
in the UK for good when she took over as England manager in 1998. The
game is now at a higher level than ever, but that doesn’t mean her work
is done. Powell met with us to discuss how to stay ahead in today’s game
and advise students on being the best they can be...
There is no bigger champion and no bigger name
in women’s football in England than Hope Powell.
As national manager for 15 years, Powell is credited
with almost single-handedly transforming the game
from small crowds and Sunday league facilities into the
professional multi-million-pound industry it is today.
At a time when there was relatively little professional
interest in women’s football within the UK, Powell
demanded investment, opportunities and structures to
allow the game to develop.
“BY CONTINUAL LEARNING
YOU BECOME BETTER AT
YOUR TRADE”
“It’s a tough industry no matter whether you’re
male or female,” she says. “But it’s harder for women
because the industry is clogged by the male game.
The assumption is that men are more knowledgeable
on the game than women, and the lead roles
unfortunately fall to men.”
The 50-year-old added: “The decision makers are
quite often male and therefore a lot of people generally
employ people like themselves – it’s a fact.”
It’s comments like this which has seen Powell never
rest on her laurels. In recent years participation in the
women’s game has gone through the roof, as have
the number of coaches, the amount of TV coverage,
attendance at games, the wages on offer to players and
the success of the national team. But still she carries on.
Stubborn or determined? Powell doesn’t mind what
you think but she knows what it takes to succeed
and what women need to do to make themselves
impossible to ignore.
Advising female students, she said: “If you’re trying to
break into this industry as I did, I think the important thing
is to get qualified, get experience and don’t be deterred.”
She adds: “You’re competing all the time and you have to
stay ahead of the game and be better than the person next
to you – that means more experience, more qualifications,
keep upskilling yourself, volunteer and get a mentor. It all
puts you further forward than the person next to you.”
Powell’s record speaks for itself. A playing career spent
largely with Millwall Lionesses and Croydon, she also
represented her country 66 times, including playing in a
European final as a 17-year-old.
It’s her time as England manager though where she
made her name. Appointed as the first-ever full-time
national team manager, Powell became the first woman
to obtain her UEFA pro licence, and has since been
awarded an OBE and CBE for the way she transformed
the women’s game.
As manager, she led England to two World Cup
quarter finals and a European final in 2009 – a record
noticeably far superior to the men’s team during the
same period. It’s obvious to most though that Powell
wasn’t just the manager. Wearing the job as a badge of
honour, she grabbed the women’s game by the scruff of
the neck and dragged it into the professional era.
The FA couldn’t ignore her, but how did she convince
them to believe in her vision? She doesn’t deny it was tough.
“Something I learnt was that a win for me is a win for
them. It’s about how you sell it, how you negotiate and
how you work with your senior management to get what
you want, because first and foremost it’s a business and
it’s got to be a win-win situation.”
She added: “Managing upwards is about convincing
those people that if they agree to your idea then they’re
going to benefit from it – that’s really important.”
Now a female coach educator at the Professional
Footballers’ Association, Powell works with both male
and female coaches to help, educate and inform them
on how to better themselves and their coaching skill
sets. It’s a different kind of coaching and a different kind
of educating, not to mention a world away from leading
out England at a World Cup, but it’s yet another area of
the game Powell is hugely passionate about.
14 | Future Sport