‘This is a different type of election, but it’ll be every bit as political’
Laura McAllister, a professor at Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre and former captain of the Wales women’s international football team, explains why she is standing for election to one of the most powerful bodies in world sport
I’M ABOUT to fight an election for the first time in more than 25 years.
I guess it’s about time I was a candidate – I’m constantly commentating on elections after all, so it’s probably the moment to put my money where my mouth is.
I’m not standing for the Senedd or to become an MP or local councillor. This is a different type of election, but it’ll be every bit as political.
Earlier this week, the Football Association of Wales nominated me as a candidate for a place on the FIFA Council. For those not immersed in football and its governance, FIFA is the international governing body for football and its council is the main strategic body that sets the vision for FIFA and global football.
It has 37 members – the president, eight vice-presidents and 28 other members elected by the member associations – each for a term of four years. A minimum of one female representative must be elected per confederation.
So this election is no usual election, the electorate is comprised of 55 nations, from San Marino to Spain, from Gibraltar to Germany, from the Faroes to France, all with a single vote. It’ll be my job to convince each of them – big and small – that I can be their voice and their advocate on one of the most powerful bodies in world sport.
The sports anoraks among you might recall that I was nominated for this same position back in 2016, shortly after Chris Coleman gave us the most wonderful summer of our lives in France. Regulations governing the implementation of UEFA statutes prevented me from standing then, so my opponent – Italy’s Evelina Christillin – was elected to FIFA unopposed.
Chief executive of the FAW, Jonathan Ford, successfully lobbied for the regulations to be changed, arguing that it was “drafted at a time based on an unrelated matter – the British vice-presidency – and before changes introducing female representation on the FIFA Council”.
Ah, yes, the famous British vice-presidency, a historic privilege afforded to the football associations of Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland since the 1940s.
Following the recent Greg Clarke omnishambles, our own FAW president, Kieran O’Connor, will contest the election for the vacant vice-president position. Based on the privilege of the British VP, there’d been an agreement that the British associations would not put forward another candidate for FIFA. But, as Jonathan Ford successfully argued, this was before there was a designated female representative elected to FIFA Council from each confederation (like UEFA).
Interestingly, this has been acknowledged by FIFA as a small dose of positive action to address a fundamental lack of natural diversity in football (and sports) governance. So, we’ve reached the starting blocks.
Whoever our opponents, our campaign will be positioning me as the football candidate. Whatever criticisms might be levelled at me, I am immersed in the game of football. I’ve got experience and knowledge, but also passion and energy. My life is a life shaped by football, from the toddler who loved kicking a ball in the garden, to the young girl who went to every Cardiff City and Wales game with my grampa, to the teenager playing mostly with boys, and then to having the greatest privilege of all – representing her country 24 times, as well as wearing the armband for Wales.
I’m fortunate to have the support of a wonderful campaign team but, make no mistake, I’m the underdog here and this’ll be no shoo-in election. I am up against one of the most powerful European football nations and a candidate already in situ.
But, having said that, Wales is no minnow in world football. We are currently 18th in the FIFA rankings, ahead of Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic. We are a wellrespected player in European football and there’s plenty of admiration and goodwill towards us too. Our men’s team’s success at the Euros 2016, qualifying again for Euro 2020, as well as topping our Nations League group and securing promotion to the top tier, with all the benefits that brings, has not gone unnoticed.
Then there’s the huge growth in women’s football here. Our female footballers narrowly missed out on World Cup and European qualification, heartbreakingly falling out at the final hurdle in each case.
But there has been a hefty 50% growth in girls playing the game in the past four years. Plus graduates from our world-class coach education programme include World
Cup winners Thierry Henry and Marcel Desailly, current Premier League managers Mikel Arteta and Chris Wilder, Swansea City manager Steve Cooper and Newport County manager Michael Flynn. Current students include international stars of the game like Tim Cahill and Michael Ballack. Moreover, we are one of a very select number of nations to hold the UEFA grassroots charter gold standard.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said his ambition is to “modernise the football world and make it more inclusive and truly global”.
I’d love to be in a position to contribute to his vision. Because, ultimately, this is all about voice and agency.
The necessity for refresh is underlined by the fact that I’d be the first woman from the British Isles and the first female from Europe who has played international football to sit on FIFA Council.
I’d hope this would provide a unique insight from the players’ perspective – and even more so as a female international.
Women’s football is a huge growth market for FIFA and the Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia/New Zealand has the potential to propel the game further. As well as my work in Welsh football, I have been deputy chairperson of the UEFA Women’s Football Committee for the past four years, and assisted with UEFA’s new women’s football strategy. I’ve seen the difference that Aleksander Ceferin has made as UEFA president with his energy and commitment to grow the game for all.
We’re thrilled too to have the support of the other UK associations, including our mighty neighbours England. Evidently, it will be a very different campaign set against the Covid-19 pandemic and worldwide lockdowns. The usual campaign “grinning and gripping” can’t happen, of course – other than virtually. But, to be honest, that’s not necessarily my strong point anyway. Give me proper conversations about football to small talk and networking any day. But I know what’s required at this level and, what I don’t know, I’ll learn quickly.
So that, in a nutshell, is why I’m standing. As I said in my foreword to a recent British Council report on sports diplomacy: “Sport is a powerful but underused tool that can not only make people’s lives better but contributes to a more inclusive playing field for all. Significantly, it can also be a platform for promoting Wales’ profile across the world.”
The same report argued that “seats on major sporting bodies and influence sporting regulations and rulings... could also reinforce the nation’s credibility... offering as an international sporting host of choice when bidding for major events”.
Wales can play its part in influencing reform in the governance of international sport and building collaborative partnerships.
The UK has a fine track record of supporting highcalibre individuals who have attained leadership positions in international sporting organisations, including Lord Sebastian Coe, who was elected president of World Athletics in 2015 and this year became a member of the International Olympic Committee; Dame Louise Martin, who became the president of the Commonwealth Games Federation in 2015; Kate Caithness CBE, who was elected president of the World Curling Federation in 2010; Sir Bill Beaumont, who has been president of World Rugby since 2016 and was elected for a second term earlier this year; Tim Reddish CBE, the former chair of the British Paralympic Committee, who is now a governing board member of the International Paralympic Committee; and Liz Nicholl CBE, the former chief executive of UK Sport, who was elected the president of the International Netball Federation in 2019.
I’d love to be the next name in that list (and the first from Wales). But – and I know this is a cliche – for me, this is really not about status, ego, glamour or bucks.
I already have a great job that I love at Cardiff University (with a hugely supportive vice-chancellor to boot).
But I’ve always been an academic with one foot outside the seminar room, and this election is all about what I can contribute – for Wales’ benefit, sure, but also for the other nations in Europe and for football more widely. And I’m not afraid of rolling my sleeves up and getting stuck in. As Thomas Edison said: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
But we’re not getting carried away and I’m under no illusions that my role, if elected to the FIFA Council, would be small, but this is all about steps on a journey to change. I hope that I’m someone who can take people with me on that journey.
Mine has always been a constructive and positive voice, because I recognise that, while changes in sports governance won’t happen at a fast enough pace for some, even softly, softly progress will bring real dividends for everyone in football.
Readers, I feel a bit like I should end with a valedictory appeal for your votes! But there’s not much point in that really, as it’s the 55 UEFA nations that will decide this election.
Elections can be brutal, especially if it starts to look like we could win. I’m getting my hard hat on, but you have to be in it to win it, as they say, and I’m itching to make a contribution.
Two hundred and forty million girls and boys, men and women play our beautiful game worldwide. Football is simply unrivalled in terms of power and influence in global sport. It is the world’s biggest game in every sense, and FIFA is its ambassador and guardian.
I may be a girl from Bridgend, but I know my football. That’s why I am sticking my head above the parapet.