'It's opened my mind': inside the FA's all-female coaching course

WSL stars past and present have signed up to an A licence course that aims to boost the number of female coaches

- Tom Garry

Who is the spare player? Where's the space? Yes, yes, let's go!" is the shout, as Manchester City's under-16s girls' squad are put through their paces at the City Football Academy and the net ripples at the end of another slick move.

On this particular ice-cold December night, the future stars being developed are not only the youngsters but those in the tracksuits too. The next generation of coaches, participants on the latest Uefa A licence course run by the FA, are leading the session and are faces familiar to any Women's Super League supporter.

Overseeing drills are the former City and England captain Steph Houghton, the former City, Lyon and Everton midfielder Izzy Christiansen and three current players in Scotland's winger Lisa Evans, the Manchester United defender Aoife Mannion and the City and Scotland goalkeeper Sandy MacIver, as they reach the halfway stage in a course that has the potential to be groundbreaking.

They are part of the first all-female A licence cohort, unveiled in May as part of a collaboration between the FA and the Professional Footballers' Association, with the aim of increasing the number of women coaching. The FA's senior professional game player-to-coach lead, Steve Guinan, says: "We're trying to keep good football people in the game as long as we can and, with the knowledge of people here, we'd be foolish not to.

"We're trying to address some of the under-representation and encourage more women's coaches into either the men's or the women's game. If you look across the WSL, there are more men's coaches than there are women. Ultimately, we want English head coaches working in the WSL and the Premier League."