The feminine touch-line
FOOTBALL boss Carolyn Radford has branded the beautiful game “full of dinosaurs” and an “old boys’ club”.
And now the sassy Mansfield Town FC chief executive is lifting the lid on life as one of the game’s only top-level women.
“Attitudes need to change for football to move forward,” she says. “It has become an old boys’ club, most of them are dinosaurs with outdated views and the whole game needs a massive shake-up.”
With her long blonde hair, designer outfits and killer heels, Carolyn admits she suffered horrendous abuse from fans when she first took the role of club boss in 2011.
But it was being branded a “bimbo” by other club executives that shocked her the most.
“I’ve had enough,” she says. “My points are equally valid, I’ve more than proved I am capable and qualified for the job.
“If I go into a boardroom, a lot of the time I’ll be talking to other chairmen of other football clubs or other executives at a high level and they’ll choose to just smile if I say anything and talk to my husband.
Abuse
“Why are they judging me because I wear make-up and have long blonde hair? It is so trivial. I tackle that by speaking out, calling them out and making sure I know more than any man in that room. It’s tiresome and frustrating constantly having to prove yourself but I refuse to give in. I love football too much to let it become this caricature of outdated angry old blokes.”
The businesswoman, 36, who has a background in business and sport, is one of only seven female chief executives across the Premier League and EFL.
“I had horrendous abuse at first,” she says. “I am either too pretty or too ugly. I’m either full of Botox or not had enough Botox. If we lose, it’s that I don’t know what I am doing. All sorts of horrible things.
“When I was first appointed the home fans were a little bit wary and I totally underestimated what it would be like. But now I think they can see how hard I’ve worked and what I’ve achieved. But I don’t get it from them.
“It’s away fans mainly. I sat there one game with my husband and was repeatedly called a ‘f***ing slag’. No man would ever have to endure that. Why should I? Just because I dress like a female it doesn’t make me a bimbo.
“It’s about time it moved with the times and reflected what’s happening in society.
“Real life isn’t all old white men. Why should football be?” Carolyn was appointed to the role by club-owner John Radford, her 52-yearold husband, but she refuses to believe her appointment didn’t come on merit.
She managed to turn the League Two club around and it began to make a profit, overturn its debts and chase promotion.
“Mansfield was run down and forgotten about,” she says. “I made it my mission to put it back on the map. We have a new training ground, a 3G pitch, a sports bar and gigs showing tribute pop acts. I’ve done a deal to get a new Hilton Hotel built in the stadium. All that has come from me.
“My husband is a businessman at the end of the day. He’s not stupid enough to put someone in a high-profile position who can’t do the job. I am more than qualified and capable and every day I love proving people wrong.”
But being a CEO regardless of gender is challenging in the current climate. Not to mention having three small children. Carolyn admits her life is one long juggling act to be the best in both roles.
“I live on three hours’ sleep a night,” she says. “I have three-year-old twins Hugo and Rupert, and four-year-old Albert, so life is full on. A lot of the time at work I feel on my own. It’s hard to balance the books, make sure the club is sustainable, follow the financial fair play rules, get good-value players to start the season and deal with all the variables behind the scenes.
“There’s a lot that keeps me awake at night. I don’t deal directly with the players on the touchline but I do deal with the contracts and wages. I also have to keep the manager happy and things can get heated, as they do with
John, when we disagree. Players always want more money and John is from
Mansfield so he naturally wants his team to do well. I feel like I’m playing bad-cop a lot of the time.
“At first the players think I will be a softer touch. But when they work for me they like how fair and respectful I am. I tried to be forceful at first and then I thought, why should I be this 1980s boardroom act of a woman trying to emulate a man?
“Now I am softer, but always informed and professional.”
Carolyn believes women can achieve top jobs in professional football in the future.
“I want more women coming to games, getting involved in football at all levels,” she says. “There are so many roles women can do.”
She’d like to see more diversity across the game as a whole.
“I truly hope we see the first gay footballer soon,” she says. “That sentence in itself is so sad. I find it heartbreaking that people don’t feel they can be who they want to be. We have gay fans – why can’t a player come out?
“We’ve worked so hard in the fight to kick out racism. Why can’t sexism and homophobia follow?”
But Carolyn believes it will take time for the game to get its first female manager.
“Women need to come forward in coaching, become assistant coaches and learn the trade, but that will take time,” she says. “But yes, I would hire a female manager straight away.”
Success
But this summer’s success at the World Cup in Russia has shown a different side to the game which gives her hope.
“Look at the England football team now,” she says. “They appointed a manager in Gareth Southgate who got a fresh young team in, had new ideas and it worked! It felt like a completely different experience. We need to sweep away old attitudes and greed. “I hope the success of watching England brings more people and women to watch games this season, more female reporters to get involved and for the game in this country to evolve.”
And Carolyn says she will continue banging the drum for equality no matter what.
“I will keep flying the flag – I’m not a quitter,” she says. “I live and breathe football more than anyone. But I refuse to take off my high heels in the process.”