Former Lincoln Ladies captain Casey Stoney has become the first woman on the Professional Footballer’s Association management committee this week, joining new members Kolo Toure, Grant Holt and Matt Jarvis.
The appointment will be well-received, reflecting the growing interest in women’s football across the country.
Casey, 31, has played for Arsenal, Chelsea, and Charlton, captaining Lincoln in 2013. The London-born defender has 116 caps for England, who she also captained.
Stoney then clearly has an abundance of knowledge, experience and understanding of the game, and seems like the perfect candidate to take the women’s game forward.
The announcement comes after the recent controversy surrounding FA Chairman Greg Dyke’s FA commission announcement, with figures such as sports minister Helen Grant and FA director Heather Rabbatts drawing attention to an initial lack of diversity.
The concern regarding this appointment may be, why only Casey? The women’s game has come far in the last few years, with the Women’s Super League set up and the popularity of women’s football at the Olympic Games in 2012. Surely the game needs more representatives from different levels of women’s football.
Hopefully in time they will come, and Stoney’s appointment will be looked upon as a landmark moment.