Tracey Neville, the former England netball coach who led the team to a historic Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2018, has taken on a new challenge: building the women's football program at Stockport County from the ground up. As managing director of the women's team, Neville aims to transform the volunteer-run community club into a "superpower for women's sport."
Starting from Scratch
Neville, 49, is no stranger to building projects. "Every job I've done has been about building something from scratch, starting a new franchise, turning something professional or trying to get someone up the table," she says. Her latest role, however, is in a different sport. Hired by Stockport in February, she is tasked with leading the club into a new era, starting with a summer rebrand and the first steps toward professionalism.
Stockport County Women currently play in the FA Women's National League Division One North, the fourth tier. They are seventh in the league ahead of their final home game against Leeds. The club has invited former players, coaches, and volunteers to attend for free to honor their contributions since the team's founding in 1989. After this season, the club will be renamed Stockport County Women.
Ambitions for the Future
Neville's ambition is clear: "The aspiration for us is to get to WSL2 in three years' time." She acknowledges the difficulty of climbing from tier four to tier three but is committed to building the academy structure for girls' sport in Stockport. "My job here is also to make Stockport the place where people want to play football and women want to play football," she says.
Since returning from Australia, where she coached the Melbourne Mavericks netball team, Neville felt a void. "There was nothing in my sporting world at that moment, in netball, that really drove that challenge," she says. At Stockport, she is embracing the logistics, administration, and governance required to build a professional setup. She has visited clubs down to tier five to learn best practices and hopes Stockport will transition from training once or twice a week to full professionalism in a few years.
Creating a Future in Sport
Neville emphasizes that her role is not to coach but to create the best performance environment. "I don't need to know how to coach football, but I need to have a good understanding of the conversations that are going to happen around that," she explains. Her goal is to give young women opportunities and a future in sport, regardless of the discipline. "To create careers, and a future for women's sport, I have a part to play in that," she says.
With her famous footballing brothers Gary and Phil, and Phil's experience managing the Lionesses, Neville has deep ties to the sport. She jokes that she still uses netball terminology but is learning fast. The journey is just beginning, but Neville is determined: "You can't build a mountain in one day."
