'We haven’t got enough': Gareth Southgate looks to add more women after challenge from daughter

Gareth Southgate admitted he needs more women in his England backroom staff, as he became the latest sporting leader to hail the "absolutely remarkable" Emma Raducanu.

The national team manager, appearing as a guest at the Royal Television Society in Cambridge, said his daughter, Mia, had taken him to task over a perceived lack of female recruitment at the Football Association. Southgate acknowledged just three of his staff of 40 with direct involvement in the England team were women.

"We haven’t got enough," he added. His daughter went on to challenge him on the FA's overall rate of around 40 per cent women across the body. Southgate added: "Within the FA we are actually very diverse, gender-wise with 38 per cent female - my daughter said to me, ‘Oh, that’s good is it, dad?’ Good point. And for me again it’s a great reminder of what world do I want for my daughter, what opportunities do I want for my daughter? Because that very quickly changes your outlook on the way that you view women’s sport and opportunities for women within our sport."

There is scant involvement of women in coaching positions across the elite men's professional game, and the FA - which recently recruited a female chair - is among a host of sporting bodies working to improve gender diversity, particularly at board level.

Telegraph Sport disclosed last year how the Rugby Football Union, England Hockey, GB Boxing and England Boxing, British Judo, the British Karate Federation and the British Mountaineering Council were not meeting a Government target for the number of women on their boards. Speaking at the event in Cambridge, Southgate also said the "sky is the limit" for Raducanu after her US Open triumph in only her second Grand Slam - but he warned of the risks of expectations in the months ahead.

He said: "Why would we think that an 18-year-old would qualify for Wimbledon, play on Centre Court in front of tens of thousands of people, be the total centre of every media story for weeks, and be able to breeze it? I mean it’s only taken her two months more to breeze it, which is a quite remarkable thing really. Absolutely remarkable. But maybe the harder part for her will be the next bit when the expectation is a bit different.

"But to do what she’s done is phenomenal, the way she played, the way she dealt with it all. From a marketing point of view she’s giving an interview in Mandarin…so when we are talking about what that could look like, I would think sky’s the limit."

The England manager, who has guided the nation to a World Cup semi-final and this summer's European Championship final, added that he had personally benefited from working with a life coach who was introduced to him by UK Sport.

"I had no idea that so many top CEOs and managers in other businesses work with [these] people," he said. "To me that was eye-opening and I assumed a weakness if I was going to do that and yet it's given me a different perspective, someone to bounce ideas off, who’s not bothered about the football."

Southgate and his players are currently waiting to find out what sanctions Fifa brings against Hungary after racist abuse from the terraces against Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham. However, as he reflected on social media abuse also sent to the likes of Bukayo Saka after England's penalty defeat against Italy, Southgate said he had been heartened by the "counter-reaction" of fans rallying behind the players.

"That wave of support was also really heartening because I think that was genuine," he added.