'Just too big': Chelsea women's manager calls for goal changes

Women’s sport should not mirror the male equivalent, Chelsea’s women’s manager Emma Hayes says.

Rather than seek to copy the men’s game, Hayes believes women’s sport would be better off tweaking certain rules to suit their game.

Her case in point?

The size of the goals.

In an interview for BT Sport film State of Play, Hayes said women’s sport had been damaged by constant comparisons to their male counterparts.

“If the same male player and female player were to be in standing positions and both jump, the range for a male is going to be greater than that of a woman. So you think where’s its relevance?

“Well, first it would be in goal keeping for example.

“There is often a criticism about goal keeping in the women’s game, I would argue that the goal is just a little bit too big.

“If it was built around our physical differences then we would be talking about great goal keepers as opposed to exposing them.

“Rather than mirror everything we take from the men’s game, we have to adapt it to our own sport and our own physical expectations as well as the tactical implications.

“It’s the mind-set that has to change, and once it starts to change, there is a realisation that the sport has its own differences because, more often than not, everyone coming into our game is coming from the men’s game or other sports.”

Hayes, widely regarded as one of the premier managers in women’s football, was also asked of her opinion on whether female coaches would ever be accepted in male sport.

Asked if she would take a job with a men’s team if offered, Hayes replied that it would be her “responsibility” to accept.

“I have a sort of responsibility to say yes,” she said.

“At some point someone has to break that barrier to do it.

“The reality is that I have a fantastic job that I love doing and I’m busy being a parent, but if my responsibility is to push a door down and open it, whether I walk through it or somebody else does that for me, that I push the conversation.

“With time as we have seen with women working in football in the media, hopefully we can desensitise the conversation to where at some point, some owner will eventually say at least I want to interview a female for this position.”

State of Play will premiere in the UK on May 29.