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Hope Patricia Powell (born 8 December 1966) is an English football coach and former player who is the Women's Technical Director at Birmingham City.
As a player, Powell won 72 caps for England, mainly as an attacking midfielder, scoring 17 goals. She made her England debut at the age of 16, and went on to play in the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, England's first World Cup appearance. She was also vice-captain of her country. At club level, Powell played in four FA Women's Cup finals and captained Croydon to a League and Cup double in 1996.
The Football Association (FA) appointed Powell as England's first-ever full-time national coach in 1998. She led the team at the 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2013 editions of the UEFA Women's Championship. After failing to qualify in 2003, she guided England to the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2007 and 2011. England's best results, reaching the final of the UEFA Women's Championship in 1984 and 2009, both featured Powell. She was a player at the former and coach at the latter.
As well as managing the England senior team, Powell oversaw the whole structure from Under-15s to the Under-23s, a coach mentoring scheme and The FA's National Player Development Centre at Loughborough University. In May 2009, Powell's administration implemented central contracts, to help players focus on full-time training and playing, without having to fit it around full-time employment. Initially, 17 players signed contracts. In 2003, Powell became the first woman to achieve the UEFA Pro Licence, the highest coaching qualification available. She also managed the Great Britain women's Olympic football team during the 2012 Summer Olympics and Brighton & Hove Albion from 2017 to 2022.
At Millwall Lionesses, Powell came under the influence of coach Alan May. A senior manager with BT Group, May taught Powell Management skills and remained a major inspiration throughout her career, including when she moved into coaching herself. May was employed as Powell's head scout when she became England manager.
In the 1993–94 season, Bromley Borough won the National League Division One South by ten points, securing promotion into the top flight of English women's football. Despite this, they were handed a chastening 10–1 defeat by Doncaster Belles in the fifth round of the Women's FA Women's Cup. For the 1994–95 season, the club entered a partnership with Croydon and enlisted Powell's England teammate Debbie Bampton as manager. Powell was one of six Croydon players who represented England at the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup.
With Powell as captain and Bampton as Player-coach, Croydon won a domestic double in 1995–96. In the FA Women's Cup final against Liverpool at The Den, Powell equalised Karen Burke's opening goal then scored from the spot as Croydon won a penalty shootout. A farcical end of season fixture backlog saw Croydon play five games in ten days, winning four and drawing one to erode Doncaster Belles' 13-point lead, and win the National Premier Division on goal difference.
In the 1997–98 season, Croydon lost both domestic Cup finals to Arsenal. The 1998 FA Women's Cup final was lost 3–2 and, despite scoring Croydon's second goal, Powell missed out on her third winners' medal. She had agreed to take over as England coach and retired from playing.
She was allotted 61 when the FA announced their legacy numbers scheme to honour the 50th anniversary of England's inaugural international.
| 1987 European Competition for Women's Football qualifying |
| 8–1 |
| 6–0 |
| ?–0 |
| 6–0 |
| 10–0 |
| 10–0 |
| 3–1 |
| Exhibition match |
| UEFA Women's Euro 1991 qualifying |
| 2–0 |
| UEFA Women's Euro 1995 qualifying |
At 31, Powell became the youngest ever coach of any England national football team, as well as the first woman and the first non-white person to hold the office.
On 26 July 1998, Powell managed England for the first time in a Exhibition match against Sweden at Victoria Road, Dagenham. After entering the game as a substitute, Swedish debutant Malin Moström scored the only goal on 84 minutes. Powell's first competitive fixture in charge was the 2–0 defeat to Norway in Lillestrøm the following month, which consigned England to last place in the group and meant they faced a relegation play-off against Romania. Had England lost they faced being demoted to B level and therefore unable to qualify for major tournaments. Powell described the situation as "very much do-or-die" since a substantial reduction in funding was at stake. A 6–2 aggregate victory kept England's place among the elite.
In 2003, Powell became the first woman to be awarded the UEFA Pro Licence, studying alongside Stuart Pearce. She had become England coach in 1998, and led the national team to the final of Euro 2009 where they lost to Germany. It was speculated that Powell would become the first female manager in English men's football when she was linked with the vacant managerial role at Grimsby Town in October 2009, however caretaker manager Neil Woods was appointed on a permanent basis.
At the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, England suffered a quarter-final penalty shootout defeat to France following a 1–1 draw. Powell controversially attributed "cowardice" to the players who had failed to volunteer to take a penalty. After England's disastrous showing at UEFA Women's Euro 2013, there was a clamour for Powell to be sacked. However, despite the first round exit, she retained the support of the FA.
In July 2013, rival coach Keith Boanas made an outspoken attack on Powell's record as England manager and publicly called on her to resign. Boanas who had also applied for the job in 1998 but was not granted an interview said he suspected that the selection of the relatively unqualified Powell was "a political appointment to cover all bases". He criticised Powell's role in the international retirement of his wife Pauline Cope and suggested that anyone could match or surpass Powell's achievements, given a similar level of support.
On 20 August 2013, Powell was sacked as manager of the England women's team.
In 2009, she was awarded an Honorary degree by Loughborough University. Powell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of East London in 2011. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sport by the University of Chichester in 2018.
In August 2010, she was named in 68th place on The Independent newspaper's annual Pink List of influential LGBT people in the UK. Her entry was subsequently redacted from the online version of the article and her name was absent from the 2011 and 2012 lists. Powell was included in a rival World Pride Power List compiled by Square Peg Media in association with The Guardian; reaching fifth place in 2011 and 48th place in 2012. Commenting about her relationships with men, she said they were "intrigued" to discover that she was a footballer.
In an October 2005 interview with Diva magazine, Powell commented about lesbians in football: "There's always been that stereotyping of female footballers as butch, dykey and unattractive, so maybe it's just best left alone."
Powell's autobiography, Hope: My Life in Football, was published in 2016.
Brighton & Hove Albion
On 19 July 2017, Brighton & Hove Albion announced that Powell had been appointed as first-team manager of the club's women's team. On 31 October 2022, Powell stepped down from the role with an 8–0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur being her final match in charge.
England men's U20s
On 19 May 2023, it was announced that Powell would join the England men's U20s as a technical advisor at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Birmingham City
On 20 July 2023, Powell was announced as the new Women's Technical Director at Birmingham City.
Managerial statistics
+Managerial record by team and tenure Brighton 19 July 2017 31 October 2022
Honours
Powell was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 Birthday Honours for services to association football, and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to sport. Zeta-Jones joins cricket buffs Duckworth and Lewis on honours list In 2003, she was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of her talents.
Player
Manager
Personal life
Powell was born and raised in London to a family of Jamaican descent. In 1990, Powell graduated from Brunel University in London with a degree in Sports science and History.
External links
Categories: Living People, 1966 Births, 1995 Fifa Women's World Cup Players, 2007 Fifa Women's World Cup Managers, 2011 Fifa Women's World Cup Managers, Alumni Of Brunel University London, Black British Lgbtq People, Black British Sportswomen, Brighton & Hove Albion W.f.c. Managers, Charlton Athletic W.f.c. Players, Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, English Autobiographers, English Football Hall Of Fame Inductees, English People Of Jamaican Descent, Sportspeople Of Jamaican Descent, English Women's Footballers, English Women's Football Managers, England Women's International Footballers, England Women's National Football Team Managers, Fa Women's National League Players, Female Association Football Managers, Footballers From The London Borough Of Lewisham, People From Lewisham, Fulham F.c. Women Players, Great Britain Women's Olympic Football Team Managers, English Lesbian Sportswomen, English Lgbtq Footballers, Lgbtq People From London, Millwall Lionesses L.f.c. Players, People Associated With The University Of East London, English Women Autobiographers, Women's Association Football Midfielders, Women's Super League Managers, 20th-century English Sportswomen
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