Welsh academic, former international footballer and senior sports administrator
Laura McAllister
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McAllister in 2013
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Assumed office
29 May 2019
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President
| Aleksander ?eferin
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Vice President
| Karl-Erik Nilsson
(as first vice-president)
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Born
| (
1964-12-10
)
10 December 1964
(age 59)
[2]
Bridgend
, Wales
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Height
| 5 ft 6 in (168 cm)
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Occupation
| Footballer
Football administrator
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Professor Laura McAllister
CBE
FLSW
(born 10 December 1964) is a Welsh academic, former
international footballer
and senior sports administrator. As a
Wales women's national football team
player, McAllister won 24
caps
and served as team
captain
. She is currently Professor of Public Policy and the Governance of Wales at the
Wales Governance Centre
at Cardiff University.
[3]
She was formerly Professor of Governance at Liverpool University. She was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in the
2016 Birthday Honours
for services to sport.
[4]
She was a board member of
Stonewall
[5]
from 2012 to 2015, and is currently a board member of the
Institute of Welsh Affairs
.
[6]
She is Chair of the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame and a Non-executive Director of Goodson Thomas boutique executive search agency. She was honoured as one of the
BBC 100 Women
in December 2022.
[7]
Since the 5 April 2023 she has also been a vice-president of
UEFA
.
[8]
Academic career
[
edit
]
McAllister is a former pupil of Ysgol Glyndwr and Bryntirion Comprehensive School in Bridgend. She is a graduate of the
London School of Economics
, where she completed a BSc. (Econ.) Honours degree in government, and at
Cardiff University
, where she completed a PhD in Politics. She was Professor of Governance at the
University of Liverpool
Management School between 1998 and October 2016.
[3]
She is now Professor of Governance and Public Policy at Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre. She was elected as a
Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
(FLSW) in 2015.
[9]
She was a member of the
National Assembly for Wales
Remuneration Board from 2014 to 2015, an advisor to the Independent Panel on Assembly Members' Pay and Support from 2008 to 2009, and a member of the
Richard Commission
between 2002 and 2004. She advised the Independent Panel on AMs' Pay and Support, 2008?10 and was Chair of the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform which published its report "A Parliament that Works for Wales" in December 2017. In October 2021, she was named co-chair of the Independent Constitutional Commission on Wales' place in the United Kingdom.
[10]
She holds honorary degrees and fellowships from
Bangor University
, Cardiff University,
Cardiff Metropolitan University
, Swansea University, and Trinity St David's University.
Club career
[
edit
]
McAllister was a club athlete (middle distance) and played netball and hockey. She did not play organised football until she joined
Millwall Lionesses
while studying at the
London School of Economics
. Upon her return to Wales, she spent 12 years with
Cardiff City
.
[11]
McAllister was Club Captain and collected two
Welsh Women's Cup
winner's medals and won
promotion
into the
FA Women's Premier League
with Cardiff City.
[12]
She is one of the club's Vice Presidents.
International career
[
edit
]
In 1992, McAllister was one of three female footballers who lobbied
Football Association of Wales
(FAW) secretary
Alun Evans
to grant recognition to women's football in Wales.
[13]
An official team was put together and entered the
1995 UEFA Women's Championship qualification
tournament. McAllister made her debut in Wales' second match, a 12?0 defeat by eventual winners
Germany
in
Bielefeld
. She won a total of 24 caps for Wales and was team captain on many occasions.
[14]
Sports governance
[
edit
]
Professor McAllister was Chair of
Sport Wales
between 2010 and March 2016. In this role, she oversaw the most successful period ever for elite sport in Wales, with Wales winning a record number of medals in the
Commonwealth Games 2014
, the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics and the
2016 Rio Olympics
and
Paralympics
. She was also a board member of
UK Sport
between 2010 and 2016, when Team GB broke its medal-winning records. She is currently a Director of the
Football Association of Wales
Trust.
[3]
McAllister was nominated by the Football Association of Wales for election as
UEFA
's female member of the
FIFA Council
but was controversially prevented from standing.
[15]
She is currently Deputy Chair of the UEFA Women's Football Committee (2017?) and Chair of the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame. McAllister contested the election for the female representative from UEFA on FIFA Council, but was narrowly beaten by Evelina Christillin. In April 2023 McAllister was finally elected unopposed as vice-president of
UEFA
, the first person from Wales to be on the executive committee.
[8]
Politics and media
[
edit
]
McAllister was a
Plaid Cymru
Parliamentary candidate in 1987 and 1992 but left the party shortly afterwards.
[16]
She is currently a political commentator for the
BBC
and other media platforms. She commentates regularly on international, network and Welsh media on Welsh politics, elections and public policy.
[17]
McAllister writes a regular column on current affairs, sport and politics in the
Western Mail
newspaper and for
Wales Online
.
On 10 February 2022, McAllister was a panellist for BBC's
Question Time
.
[18]
McAllister was the only Welsh woman to be included in the
BBC's 100 Women List 2022
, alongside
Priyanka Chopra Jonas
,
Geraldina Guerra Garces
,
Selma Blair
and 96 others.
[19]
Visit to Qatar
[
edit
]
While following Wales to the
2022 FIFA World Cup
, McAllister was prevented from entering the stadium ahead of the opening game with a
bucket hat
which had a
rainbow
on it. FIFA officials told her that the hat was a "restricted item" and attempted to confiscate it from her.
[20]
The attempts to separate McAllister from her bucket hat seemed to relate to a crackdown in Qatar on items that had a rainbow on them and affected numerous other fans, including U.S. former
Sports Illustrated
journalist
Grant Wahl
, who was arrested over a t-shirt, as well as a reporter for
The New York Times
who attempted to report on that incident only to become caught up in the crackdown himself.
[21]
[22]
Personal life
[
edit
]
McAllister and her partner Llinos Jones have two children.
[23]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Politics and education
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Culture and sport
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Activism and advocacy
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Health and science
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International
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National
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Academics
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Other
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