Last updated on .From the section Man Utd

Manchester United applied in March to have a professional women's team

Manchester United are set to appoint Collette Roche as the club's first female chief operating officer.

Roche will become the highest-placed female working at Old Trafford and the ninth woman in the Premier League to take a boardroom role.

Darcie Glazer is currently the only female director at Manchester United, but works in a non-executive capacity at Old Trafford.

Roche is currently the executive director for Manchester Airports Group.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Karren Brady is the vice-chairman at West Ham, while Marina Granovskaia is a director at Chelsea and Susan Whelan is the chief executive officer at Leicester City.

Denise Barrett-Baxendale, Everton's deputy chief executive, and Huddersfield Town's operations director, Ann Hough, are also on their club boards. At Tottenham, Rebecca Caplehorn is director of football operations, and represents 50% of the club's executive board alongside executive director Donna-Maria Cullen.

The FA has two female board members Kate Tinsley and Rupinder Bains.

Manchester United applied in March to have a full-time professional women's team from the 2018-19 season.