United States women’s head coach Emma Hayes says there is much work to be done before female managers are given a chance in men’s soccer.

Hayes is one of the most successful coaches in the women’s game having won multiple titles with Chelsea and recently taken gold at the Paris Olympics with the Americans.

But asked by the BBC radio “Today” program on Thursday if the owners of men’s soccer teams were ready for a female head coach, she said: “Of course they’re not, otherwise it would have happened by now.”

Fourth-division Forest Green Rovers became the first professional soccer team in England to appoint a female head coach when Hannah Dingley was given the job on a temporary basis last year.

“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 said.

Hayes won seven Women’s Super League titles in a 12-year reign at Chelsea. During that time the men’s team had 11 different managers.

In 2021, it was reported she was in contention to take over at third-division men’s team Wimbledon. At the time, she said it was an “insult” to describe women’s soccer as a step down from the men’s game.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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