Following the announcement of Flo Allen as Norwich City Women's general manager, the former Bristol City Women's player sat down to talk to canaries.co.uk about her new role.
Here is the full transcript of her interview.
canaries.co.uk: Flo, you’ve recently been appointed as Norwich City Women’s general manager. Can you start by telling us what that role will involve?
FA: I’m really excited to have been appointed as the women’s general manager. The role is a new role that’s been created by the football club, so the women’s team has recently been brought in-house by the main club, which is really exciting for the girls and also the club going forward. We’ve got to place on record our thanks to everybody who has got the club to this point where we are now. All their hard work hasn’t gone un-noticed and the club is going in a really exciting direction with new strategies and all these exciting things that are my job to put in place to drive revenue off the pitch and to put a team together so that the manager can hopefully win games on the pitch.
Tell us about how the club has been restructured to accommodate for the women’s team.
FA: The club has had a really refreshing restructure. We had a player pathway review, looking at it from the ages of six to 46, how we get girls into football, how we keep them there and develop them but also how when they get to the first team, how they are ready made players for it. We’ve been on a great journey and that train has reached a station. It’s just changing lines and hopefully moving onto bigger and better things. How that shapes us going forward is exciting. The restructure has seen a lot of change but it’s for the better going forward
How important is it to bring the women’s team in-house, which hadn’t been the case for a long time?
FA: It’s absolutely huge for the women’s team to be in-house. It’s been a long time coming. It’s really refreshing to know that a club of our stature supports the women’s side and Norfolk as a whole is such a vast area and geographically unique. Norwich is the pinnacle of that and we have an abundance of talent that seems to do really well in the youth sides and then get to us at the senior side and we can’t offer them the level of football we want to at the moment. My job is to strive to make sure that the women’s football team is at the highest level it can be.
Tell us a bit about the conversations you had with Zoe Ward in relation to this.
FA: Zoe has been amazing. I see her almost as sort of a mentor figure for myself, being another women in football and in a really senior position at the football club. She’s driven this idea of the women’s team coming in-house and now we’ve got to this point. All the conversations I’ve had with Zoe have been so positive. The strides the club wants to do to bring the women’s team in and make them feel more valued… we’re a city that’s built on a community and a family and we want to make this club one whole team and one club strong. The women’s team is just another facet of that. We add that to the boys and girls youth systems and line it up with the men’s team as well. The women’s team is another exciting part of that.
Tell us about your journey in football so far and some of the qualifications that you have.
FA: My background is in professional football. I was a professional footballer at Bristol City Women for seven years. Before that, I was born and bred in Norfolk and grew up here in Norwich. I played in what was at the time the Norwich City Girls Centre of Excellence until the age of 15 when I had to move away in order to pursue a dream of becoming a pro. I had to obtain a higher level of football and at the time Norwich couldn’t offer me that, so I went away and studied whilst playing and signed pro when I turned 18. Alongside of my football commitments, I did my college course and then went to the University of Gloucestershire to study a degree in sports business management, alongside my full time playing commitments in the Women’s Super League, which was a balancing act. To get relegated in our last season and to be doing a dissertation at the same time had its issues, but I loved it and that’s the type of person I am. I enjoy the challenge and I enjoy the pressure of having to get things done and working towards deadlines. I think I really thrive in an environment that strives to achieve high performance in whatever area that might be.
Having a dual career is a challenge that a lot of female footballers have to cope with. What can you say about that?
FA: Dual careers are massive and I’m a really big advocate for that. I believe that we should be developing people first and footballers second, whatever that looks like. That’s going to be a big part of our ethos going forward. My background around dual careers is that I studied while I played and I was always consciously aware that, unless you make it to the very top, you can’t earn a decent living out of it or longevity in it. You might make it to the top and earn a decent wage and have a decent career, but it’s not going to set you up, you’re always going to need not necessarily a backup but an alternative, I like to view it as, which is where it’s led me to. I loved the off-pitch side of football and had so much fun playing, but the time was right to pursue other opportunities, which was to become the general manager here at such a brilliant football club in Norwich City. That challenge is something I couldn’t say no to. I’m so passionate about making sure that there are opportunities for young girls to come through and a pathway, but also to develop a first team that’s competing at the highest level possible, really putting in some infrastructure that has credibility. We want to attract, retain and grow the talent both as people and footballers.
So you’re saying that it’s been beneficial to you to have other things to do outside of football and develop yourself as a person and that’s something that you’d encourage girls to do, rather than just focusing on one thing.
FA: I would one hundred per cent encourage that. I think it should be something that is thought about in equal measure whenever making any footballing decisions. You’ve got to think about education as well. I was lucky enough to always have that mindset and there are cases where there isn’t that mindset in professional players, especially in the women’s game. Professional football is a volatile environment and sometimes you might not make it to the top, so you’ve always got to have that alternative, but also it’s really important to make sure that you’re ready to walk into something that you’re passionate around. I was always acutely aware of that when I was a professional footballer. I was the PFA rep for our team for a number of years and ran as a candidate in the PFA’s most recent board elections because I’ve always been really passionate about making sure that players are looked after and that they’re set for life outside of football. Football’s brilliant but there is more to life than just football and I’m really passionate about making sure there is infrastructure and things in place to grow that.
You grew up in Norfolk and played for Norwich at a young age. How much difference do you hope to see in the future between what it was like back then and what it is hopefully going to be like in terms of caring for players, media coverage and everything around women’s football?
FA: Women’s football in Norfolk has an exceptional potential right now. The talent that’s come through, even in the last five to ten years, is frightening. You’ve got the likes of Lauren Hemp playing in the England senior team at the moment as arguably one of their best players. She left Norwich at 16 and was arguably a ready made player for the Super League. The talent in the area is unquestionable and the pathway is great. We just really need to hammer home a solid infrastructure around the first team and there are some really exciting changes being made that will be put in place to grow this club organically, because it’s got to start from the bottom up, which is exciting. We’ve also got to make sure we do it correctly and that we’re self-sustainable. We’ve got to be built on that model which is aligned to the first team and the whole club.
You mention that the talent is there in Norfolk and in Norwich the facilities are there as well. What are your impressions of the women’s team from what you’ve seen so far and the setup that they have at The Nest?
FA: The Nest is unbelievable. It’s a top-class facility, the pitches are exquisite and you walk in there and immediately feel like it’s a proper place to learn and to hone in on football skills. There are changing rooms, a cafe, a meeting room, analysis suites if need be, space to do strength and conditioning work and all these amazing things that are in place up there already. It really gives you a sense of direction of where this club is going in terms of making sure that the women’s team is looked after. That is their home and you immediately get a sense of belonging and pride when you drive into The Nest and stand at the side of the pitch and hopefully watch Norwich City Women win a game.
What are the objectives for Norwich City Women next season and in seasons to come?
FA: To grow the club organically. We have lots of areas that we need to focus on. On pitch will hopefully take care of itself. Off the pitch, there’s a really exciting opportunity to grow the club in terms of exposure and bring in some exciting sponsors. There’s an opportunity to grow it in any direction we want. It’s almost like it’s a brand new start-up, which is really exciting for me because I’m kind of at the wheel of that, but there are also some really key people who are having input on that. It’s a whole collaborative effort. Last year, the girls did brilliantly. They managed to avoid relegation and finish comfortably in the end with one game left to go. They had secured their fate in retaining their league status. Next year, our objective it to make sure that we’re achieving that a little bit more comfortably. Anything can happen in football. We don’t want to run before we can walk. There are a lot of things that we’ve got to put in place off the pitch before we can be making strides, but there are endless possibilities. We want to grow steadily and having the main club behind us provides us that opportunity to set some key objectives and goals to strive towards.
The goal is to develop, nurture and retain talent to play for Norwich City Women’s first-team. We strive off of developing talent so we and they can reap the rewards of that. Hopefully, as time goes on, the women’s team progresses and every year we have a chat and the club is in a much better place than it was 12 months ago.
What can you say about the growth in interest around women’s football as a whole? How much did you see it grow during your seven years in Bristol?
FA: My time as a professional is very interesting because I came into it when there wasn’t the exposure that there is now. Where the game has come in the last five years… it’s grown so, so much, which has been amazing to see. We’re now at the stage where teams are being broadcast on Sky Sports at prime time hours and being scrutinised at half-time, but that’s what we want. Women’s football is a very different game, played in a different way with a different target audience but that makes it unique. There’s such an opportunity to explore that here in Norfolk. We have an amazing men’s team who do really well and we have an opportunity now to align to those values and have our own USP in terms of what we do, but it will look very similar whether you’re looking at the women’s team, the Under-23s, or the first-team. You can identify that as a Norwich City team and a club as its own.
The men’s and women’s FA Cup finals were recently held at Wembley Stadium on the same weekend for the first time, demonstrating the kind of equality we want to show here at Norwich City between the men’s and women’s teams.
FA: Ever since having very early on discussions with Zoe, she was really keen to get the women’s team in-house and then to employ a general manager, which luckily was myself. The equality that the club have shown by doing that has been amazing. We still have to make lots more steps in terms of growing the women’s side, but it’s really exciting and it’s been great to see and really refreshing to see the amount of clubs that have had attendances in the twenty thousands when they come to watch the women’s team play at the men’s stadium. We’ve seen over the last few months Premier League teams hosting their women’s sides in their stadiums and there have been really good attendances with great atmospheres. It’s been a great day out and that’s what we want to strive towards - putting on quality football in our unique area, where fans can come along and watch, enjoy themselves and for it to be a little bit different to what a typical Norwich game might look like. We can’t wait to see how many fans we get down at The Nest. It’s going to be really exciting this season to see more faces down there.
What’s your message to someone who has maybe held off going to The Nest before to watch Norwich City Women?
FA: I’m amazed at how many loyal fans this football club has and it’s so unique. I would urge anyone who is thinking about coming to watch the women’s team just to do it. You’ll be so pleasantly surprised at how different the game is and how rewarding it is to see a different team do well and hopefully win.