Roche is Man U’s first female operating officer

Manchester United will appoint Collette Roche as their first ever female chief operating officer.

Roche is set to leave her position as executive director of the Manchester Airports Group and become the highest-placed female working at Old Trafford.

She will become only the seventh woman to take an executive position at the 92 clubs in the Premier and Football League.

The role will see Roche oversee everything between the football and corporate management side at the football club.

She will be in charge of facilities, ticketing, the stadium and running the day-to-day business of the club.

Darcie Glazer is currently the only female director on the United board, but in a non-executive capacity, and who rarely operates around Old Trafford.

Roche will become the fourth in the Premier League to take a boardroom role, joining Karren Brady at West Ham, Marina Granovskaia at Chelsea and Susan Whelan at Leicester

It also represents a huge step towards more female representation at United, coming after the announcement last month that they had applied to the FA to set up a women’s team.

Ms. Collette Roche has been Chief of Staff at Manchester Airports Holdings Limited since September 2017.She served as Acting Managing Director at Manchester Airports Holdings Limited and also served as Human Resources Director at Manchester Airports Holdings Limited from December 2010 to December 2015 and its Deputy Managing Director since 2016.

The FA are set to reveal at the end of next month whether United’s application has proved successful.

If so they will join the second tier, the Women’s Championship, from next season.

Should the application be approved the Old Trafford landlords will join the league of Premier league clubs with women’s team including Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton to name just a few.