The recent announcement that Susanna Dinnage will be the next Chief Executive of the Premier League is a huge move forward for women in sport. She’s not the first and definitely not the last to be assigned a senior position within sport - here are 7 women who have made their name in football.
Women are becoming more prominent in football / Photo Credit: thisfangirl.com
Susanna Dinnage
Fulham season-ticket holder, Susanna Dinnage, has been named as the new chief executive of the Premier League. She will be the third person to lead the Premier League when she takes up her role in the new year.
She will be replacing Richard Scudamore in her new position, and become the most senior female leader in the world’s major professional sports leagues, and one of the most powerful figures in British sport.
With no previous experience in the football industry, the appointment is big news, and huge step forward for women in sport.
Jacqui Oatley
Jacqui Oatley MBE is an English broadcaster. She is a presenter, hosting football for ITV sport and BBC sport. In March 2015 she became the first female commentator on Match of the Day, and has since gone on the anchor the Euro 2016 football tournament and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
She has also fronted Final Score for the BBC and The Football League Show. She was appointed an MBE in 2016 for her services to broadcasting and diversity in sport, as recognition of her work championing women’s football and the role of females working in football.
Karren Brady
Karren Brady is known for her part on BBC One’s The Apprentice, but she has a string of other successes. Not only is she a TV personality, but also a politician, columnist, author and English sporting executive.
She is known as the First Lady of Football. At the age of just 23, she was appointed as managing director of Birmingham City, and 9 years later was the first woman to hold such position in the top flight of English football when the team was promoted.
She left in 2009, and a year later was appointed vice-chairman of West Ham United.
Sian Massey-Ellis
Sian Massey-Ellis was appointed MBE in 2017 for her services to football. These services to football involve her position as an English football match official. She is generally an assistant referee in the Premier League and the Football League.
Having become professional in 2010, she has been appointed to matches in the UEFA Women’s Champion League and the FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification rounds.
Hope Powell
Hope Powell’s career involves being an English former international footballer, women’s first-team manager of Brighton and Hove Albion, coaching the England women’s national football team and the Great Britain women’s Olympic football team.
Powell made her England debut at the age of just 16 and went on to win 66 caps, and play in the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The FA appointed her as England’s first-ever full-time national coach in 1998.
Gabby Logan
Newcastle United fan Gabby Logan is best known for presenting sport for ITV and BBC. She hosted Final Score in 2009 for four years. She has co-hosted Sports Personality of the Year since 2013.
Logan is one of the first people that most will think of when they think about women in football. She has also hosted many other sporting events, not just football, including several London Marathons, the Aquatics World Champions in 2013 and Let’s Play Darts for Comic Relief.
Heather Rabbatts
She has been the Executive Deputy Chair of Millwall F.C and served an FA director from 2011 to 2017. Dame Heather Rabbatts was born in Jamaica and raised in Britain, she was the first ethnic minority person to do take up this position. Not only this, but she was also the only woman on its board.
She has also pushed the movement for more diversity in the make up of the Football Association's commission.
Alex Scott
Alex Scott is an English former footballer who played for Arsenal in the FA Women’s Championship. In 2012, she represented Great Britain in the London Olympics, and has made 140 appearances for the English National team.
In 2017, she received an MBE for her services to football.
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