Girl power pitches into English football

Football is traditionally a man's game but the sport in England does have some powerful females in top positions in the Premier League.

TV cook Delia Smith is a majority shareholder in the recently promoted EPL team Norwich City. David Klein / Sportimage / Cal Sport Media via AP Images

English professional football - and football club ownership - is still a male-dominated arena.
From Manchester City's Sheikh Mansour to Chelsea's bullish Russian Abramovic, and Arsenal's combative American Stan Kroenke to West Ham's outspoken Brit David Sullivan, men are usually the loudest voices heard in the English Premier League (EPL).
But these ultra-powerful alpha males are not alone; the ladies have a growing presence and not just in the professional womens' leagues.
Among those females on the boards at top clubs are the TV cook Delia Smith, who is a majority shareholder in the recently promoted EPL team Norwich City. Smith gained football fame, and notoriety on the terraces, in February 2005 during the half-time break of a home match against Manchester City. At the time Norwich were fighting an ultimately unsuccessful battle against relegation from the EPL, and to rally the crowd, Smith grabbed the microphone from the club announcer on the pitch and said: "A message for the best football supporters in the world: we need a 12th man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be 'avin' you! Come on!" Obviously, the 12th man (or woman) was not present - Norwich lost the match 3-2.
An altogether less shouty female is Katharina Liebherr, the owner of the south coast EPL side Southampton. She inherited the outfit from her father, the Germany-born Swiss manufacturing mogul Markus Liebherr, after he died suddenly in August 2010. She took charge when the chairman Nicola Cortese departed after a January 2014 power struggle.
But at the time, her arrival sparked palpable derision among the - male dominated - UK tabloid press. "Liebherr the Dream Wrecker!" lambasted The Daily Mail, while The Sun screamed: "EXCLUSIVE. REVEALED: Woman at centre of Southampton nightmare."
But the publicity-shy Liebherr worked behind the scenes. When Cortese left, she named herself the non-executive chairman and promised fans "stability and calm". By March 2014, she had created a new board. She loaned the team £20 million (Dh97.1m) to clear a debt, added 14 players, and hired the Dutch football superstar Ronald Koeman as the coach. Although the team finished a mid-table 13th in the EPL this season, the previous campaign saw the Saints finish seventh, having won 18, drawn six and lost 14 matches.The club also made it to the fourth round of the FA Cup and the fifth round of the League Cup.
Elsewhere, the UK entrepreneur and hotelier Martin Morgan and his wife Louisa are major shareholders at Swansea City. He is a director, and he and his wife were said by The Times to own the principal stake in the club, a fifth of which belongs to the club's supporters' trust.
With football becoming ever-more gender irrelevant, it is surely only a matter of time before more of the fairer sex grace the upper echelons of the beautiful game.
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