HANNAH DINGLEY-THE FIRST

Hannah Dingley (born 19 July 1983) is a Welsh football coach who is the caretaker manager of EFL Division Two club, Forest Green Rovers. As of July 2023, she is the first and only woman in charge of a professional men's team in English football. Dingley holds a UEFA Professional Badge.

Her early life and education was in Carmarthenshire, in the south-west of Wales. As a youth, football was her passion and a "strong part of her family culture". As her school did not have a girls' team, she was good enough to play for the local boys' club. She attended Loughbrough University and coached teams there, including the university teams and men’s local non-league football.

Dingley graduated in a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Sport and also an Exercise Science and Masters of Science (MSc) in Coaching from Loughborough. In a work "experience position" with Swansea City, Dingley would observe manager Jan Molby, the club's "leader". This experience strengthened Dingley's desire to work in a managerial role in football.

"It frustrates me that female coaches might think the female game is their only opportunity in the game. There are lots of opportunities in the men’s game; academy football is massive. I was told I got the job because I was the best person for it."— Hannah Dingley.

Dingley worked as a course leader at Loughborough University in Sport & Exercise Science  and a senior lecturer at Wolverhampton Univ in Sports' Coaching Practice.

Dingley began her professional coaching career in 2011, with the Notts County under-9 boys' team and Lincoln Ladies, though eventually she was told she could only work for one of them, so chose to work exclusively with the ladies' team, as they had international players playing for them.

In 2013 while working as a coach for Gresley FC, Dingley was subjected to verbal abuse by Northwich Victoria manager, Lee Ashcroft, resulting in Ashcroft receiving a 10 match ban for using abusive and/or insulting words.

In 2013, she joined Burton Albion as an academy coach. From 2016–19, she was a coach for their senior men's team.

In 2019, Dingley was hired as an academy manager at Forest Green Rovers, making her the first woman to coach a men's academy team in England. In 2021, she launched a girls' academy for Forest Green.

On 4 July 2023, she was appointed caretaker manager of Forest Green following the sacking of Duncan Ferguson. This move makes Dingley the first woman to take charge of a men's senior English professional football team. Of the new role, Dingley said, "I've coached men for 20-odd years, so this isn't different to me and I've never had a problem coping with players. They just want good coaching and a good programme." Forest Green owner Dale Vince noted, "It was a very simple decision. Hannah was the most qualified person at the club for the job. Nothing else came into our frame."

The Stadium's history? Eco Park, A possibility? On 3 November 2016, the club announced the winning design for a proposed 5,000 seat new stadium to be built within the Eco Park complex beside Junction 13 of the M5 in Gloucestershire, 1.5 miles west of the town of Stonehouse (and 8.5 miles northwest of their spiritual home of Nailsworth). The design is for a stadium made almost entirely of wood, including the roof cantilevers. It will be able to be increased in size to 10,000 capacity depending on the club's success. Eco Park will be built in Eastington, near Junction 13 of the M5, about six miles from the centre of Stroud, Gloucestershire.             https://www.fgr.co.uk/eco-park

https://www.fgr.co.uk/news/eco-park-next-stage-plans-revealed

In 2018 Forest Green Rovers became the first football club in the world to be certified carbon neutral under the UN Gamework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) initiative Climate Neutral Now.

The United Nations has recognised Forest Green Rovers as the world's first carbon-neutral football club and it was described by FIFA as the "greenest team in the world".

The plans were initially rejected by the planning authorities in June 2019 but revised plans were approved later that year. In September 2020, full back Hentor Bellerin became the second-largest shareholder in the club.

The English Football League gave their consent to the stadium in February 2021. It is intended that the new stadium will have the lowest carbon footprint of any stadium in the world. Vince hoped that the club would be able to play games at the stadium within "three or four years". 

On 2 August 2021, Forest Green Rovers announced a new partnership with clean energy and electric vehicle YouTube channel, Fully Charged and named their pitch accordingly to "The Fully Charged New Lawn".