Rachel Yankey hopes that more female coaches will be hired in the men’s game, calling on Premier League and Football League executives to be bold enough to appoint them.

Currently men completely dominate coaching and management at the top level. When asked about seeing more female coaches, Yankey admitted she hopes to see a growing number in the coming years.

“I hope we will see that in the future. Football is changing. Arsene Wenger spoke about it saying he didn’t think it was that far away that there will be a female manager in the Premier League and working at a men’s club,” reports the Daily Mail.

“Different people have so many different jobs — the main manager, an analyst, one of the coaching staff — at a football team. It doesn’t mean just because you’re a female you can’t coach and can’t work with people. 

“The coaches wont be playing, it won’t be there’s any physical reason. It’s about your knowledge and the way you get your point across and teach, there’s no reason females can’t do that as well as men.

“You need bold chairmen. People high up on the board of clubs to be able to see the bigger picture and to see the qualities of the person rather than the gender of the person. I think there would be a benefit and that we need to see change.

Yankey’s right that there’s no reason why women can’t do the same job as men when it comes to management. In both cases, they have to become qualified and undertake UEFA coaching courses.

At this stage, the problem is that so many of the male professionals and higher-ups in football will have reservations because they’ve never seen a female do it before.

The same was the case when Sian Massey-Ellis started officiating in the Premier League or Bibiana Steinhaus became the first female referee in the Bundesliga.

Those two have shown themselves to be capable officials and that starts to break down the barrier. The next female assistant referee won’t be the first, it won’t be such a noteworthy event, we’ll all have seen it before and know for certain that female assistants can do the job.

Hopefully, the same thing will happen in coaching and management soon, because cutting off half the population seems pointless and unfair. Being a coach is based on knowledge of the game, something you can have regardless of gender.