Men's game not ready for female manager - Hayes

Emma Hayes won seven Women's Super League titles with Chelsea

United States boss Emma Hayes says the men's game is not ready to appoint female managers.

Hannah Dingley was appointed Forest Green Rovers caretaker manager in 2023 but a woman has never been permanently appointed manager of a men's team in the top five tiers of English football.

Hayes, 47, won seven Women's Super League titles as Chelsea's head coach - including a fifth in succession in 2024 - before departing for the USA job at the end of last season.

Asked what needs to be done for female coaches to be appointed head coach of a men's team, Hayes told the Today programme: "I think you need to get more owners in to ask them that question, because they're the people you have to ask that question to. I'm not the one in charge of that."

Asked whether club owners are "ready for that", Hayes said: "Yeah, of course they're not, otherwise it would have happened by now.

"I've said this a million times over – you can find a female pilot, a female doctor, a female lawyer, a female banker, but you can't find a female coach working in the men's game, leading men. It just shows you how much work there is to be done."

Hayes and England women's boss Sarina Wiegman were both nominated for the 2024 Ballon d'Or women's coach of the year award this week, alongside Filipa Patao and Hayes' Chelsea successor Sonia Bompastor and male colleagues Arthur Elias and Jonatan Giraldez.

The men's coach of the year award nominee list, which included the likes of Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso and Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, did not include any female coaches.

Hayes said she does not think male players would have a problem with having a female manager in charge, as long as the coach is the best person available.

Hayes added she manages about "25 men every day" but they're "just the staff I work with".

Speaking in 2023, Wiegman said it was a "matter of time" before a men's team was managed by a woman.

"I think it will happen, I'm not sure how long it will take but I think it would be good," Wiegman said.