About

Janie has been an active football referee for 29 years and became the second woman to have operated within men’s professional football.

Janie worked at the FA for 12 years as National Referee Manager for Education and Training. She has a vast experience in referee development both domestically and internationally having delivered education to grassroots through to elite referees on every continent and within every confederation on behalf of The FA and FIFA. As one of only a handful of female FIFA Instructors in the world at the time, Janie has been privileged to be involved in many FIFA workshops and tournaments.

Janie believes passionately about the development of people, to this end, for 20 years she has been involved in many organisations such as Sports Officials UK Ltd a development partner of Sport England and The International Federation for Sports Officials where she is the Vice President. Janie was Vice Chair of Boccia and the current Executive Chair of Find my kit. In recent years Janie has undertaken a variety of high level contracts with World Athletics, designing and delivering their global gender leadership programme, the ECB implementing a new officiating structure and strategy and The Confederation of Professional Golf leading their governance review. Janie also sits on the SO15 Counter Terrorism Advisory Board where she shares the benefits of sport to inspire and motivate young people to make positive life choices.

Dame Heather Rabbatts is the founder of Women’s Sports Group.

She has wide-ranging leadership experience and expertise across sport, business, media, law and government.

Heather became The Football Association’s first female non-executive director and board member when she was appointed in 2012. Whilst at The FA, Heather served on the organisation’s Remuneration Committee and chaired The FA Inclusion Advisory Board.

She was also previously a member of FIFA’s Anti-Discrimination Taskforce.

Sue directs the Centre for Sports Business at Liverpool University. She has worked in business and football education for over 20 years. 

She designed and directs the League Managers’ Association football manager Diploma and is a Non-Exec Director of the LMA's Institute. She has taught around the world for clients including FA Wales, Qatar FA, Qatar Stars League, Portuguese Football Federation, Azerbaijan FA. 

Sue has run research projects in sport and football for the LMA, PFA, FA, Women in Football, Sport England, Department of Culture, Media & Sport. Sue is on the UEFA Research Grants and Awards Jury. She is the author of books including Football Brands, Football Management and written articles on topics including football sponsorship, women in football, football leadership and football employment.

Sue was a Women in Football board director from May 2018 until August 2023. 

Anna Kessel MBE is Sky Sports' Executive Director for Development.

An award-winning journalist, speaker and author Anna has sought to champion women and girls in sport throughout a career spanning almost 20 years in the industry. At the forefront of agenda-setting change, in 2019 Anna joined The Telegraph in a groundbreaking new venture as Editor for the first ever women's sport department at a national newspaper. Boosted by a young, diverse and ambitious team, Telegraph Women's Sport would go on to win nine major awards in its first year alone and helped to rewrite the script for women's sport coverage in the UK.

Before that Anna spent 15 years at the Guardian and Observer (2004-2019) covering three Olympic Games, as well as World Cups, Euros and World Championships, and interviewing some of the biggest stars in global sport.

In 2016 Anna was awarded an MBE for services to journalism and women in sport. She also published Eat Sweat Play: How Sport Can Change Your Life (Macmillan), a passionate polemic aimed at bringing sport to the female masses. In 2017 Anna launched the Blue Plaque Rebellion, alongside the Women's Sport Trust, to champion forgotten pioneers from women's sports history.

Co-founder of Women in Football (WIF), an organisation lobbying against sexism in the game and championing female role models, The Independent described her as a “fearless adversary of sexism” in their list of the 50 Most Influential Women in Sport.

Anna stepped down from the board in May 2020 and has taken up a new role as an Ambassador with Women in Football.

Jacqui is a hugely respected football commentator and sports broadcaster with over two decades of experience. Having changed career, retrained as a journalist, and worked her way up from hospital radio, local radio and non-league football, Jacqui made history in 2007 as the first female commentator on Match of the Day and has been racking up the “firsts” ever since. She was the first commentator on Sky Sports’ coverage of the Women’s Super League and covers Premier League matches for a worldwide audience. Jacqui is a familiar voice in the USA as CBS commentator on the NWSL, as well as broadcasting the last men’s and women's FIFA World Cups for FOX Sports. She also presents ITV’s PDC darts coverage. Jacqui was awarded an MBE in the 2016 New Year’s honours list for championing women’s football and the role of women throughout the game.

Jane is the former CEO of Women in Football. In 2001, Jane was appointed as Club Secretary and Solicitor at Sunderland AFC, one of the first in-house lawyers at any Premier League football club. She went on to join the Premier League, where she rose to become the Premier League’s first ever Director of Governance.  

Before joining Women in Football in 2018 Jane was Head of Governance and Leadership at UK Sport where, working with Sport England, she co-authored the first edition of the Code for Sports Governance. Jane oversaw its implementation and she and her team supported sports to become fully compliant, including in its ground-breaking provisions regarding diversity. In 2018, she joined Women in Football as its first ever CEO, and remains an ambassador since stepping down in 2021.

In 2023, Jane joined DCMS’s expert panel working on the government review (chaired by Karen Carney MBE) of the future of women’s football in England. Jane also chairs the Professional Game Academy Audit Company and is a member of Premiership Rugby’s Sporting Commission. Jane is an author, and her book ‘The Homecoming: the Lionesses and Beyond’ tells the story of England’s wonderful victory is the 2022 Euros. In 2024 Jane was awarded the Unsung Hero Award by the Women's Football Awards.

Reshmin is a multilingual journalist and sports presenter, broadcasting for BT Sport, BBC Sport and TalkSPORT.

She is the lead presenter for TalkSPORT’s “GameDay”, hosting their Premier League coverage every Saturday morning. She also works across the UEFA Champions League and Europa League for BT, the FA Cup and the BBC Women’s Football Show.

Reshmin has been broadcasting across the BBC since 2010. Among her credits are the London 2012 Olympics with BBC World, Wimbledon, hosting during the 2018 FIFA World Cup and presenting the U17 World Cup Final. She has also stepped into the Match of the Day 2 chair on occasion.

At Real Madrid TV, Reshmin conducted the world-exclusive interview with Cristiano Ronaldo, following his then record-breaking move to the club.

Reshmin’s early career took her all over the world and includes stints with Reuters TV, ITN, Bloomberg TV and BBC London.

In 2020, she co-hosted the UEFA Champions League Group Stage Draw for the fourth year running. Other clients include The Best FIFA Football Awards green carpet, the FA, Aspire Sport, One Family Global and the BT Sport Industry Awards.

Reshmin spent much of her youth as a vocalist and performed alongside the award-winning musician composer, Nitin Sawhney.

She is a mother to a young daughter and son, juggling a busy globe-trotting career alongside motherhood and passions for fitness, cooking, socialising and watching sport! She is a proud Bengali, which she speaks fluently, along with conversational Spanish and French.

Sarah is the Events Officer for Women in Football, having joined from IMG Media where she was Head of Production. During the 12 years at IMG/Premier League Productions, she was instrumental in the growth of PLP. They went from producing and broadcasting 10 live matches and one magazine show to the current 24 hour channel with daily live studio of up to nine hours per day, seven magazine shows and a staff of over 100 with up to 250 freelancers per week.

Sarah played a significant role in all stages of the planning, finance, commercial elements and launch of the PLTV channel that broadcasts to over 200 territories worldwide and was key to the growth of the multi-million pound budget. Sarah's previous clients include the Premier League, NBC, Channel 4, HBS, UEFA and the European Tour. Sarah's background is live outside broadcast of major sporting events, including the Premier League, World Cups, European Championships, Wimbledon and the Grand National.

Sarah has been in the television sports industry for over 20 years and previous employers include ISL, IAAF, HBS, Octagon CSI, Charter Broadcast and Fountain Studios.

Email Sarah here.

Pete joined Women in Football in July 2021 after working in communications for the University of Sheffield, where their role focused largely on student recruitment through web and print content, social media campaigns and email marketing.

Previously they worked as a freelance copy editor and writer for creative agencies and a wide range of publishers and other organisations including Scholastic and the British Film Institute.

Pete has written about football for publications which include When Saturday Comes, the Grimsby Telegraph, and the Grimsby Town web zine Cod Almighty, which they helped to set up back in 2002 and co-edited for more than 15 years.

Apart from Grimsby, Pete is a Lionesses fan and a season ticket holder at their local club Hallam FC.

Email Pete here.

Amy has spent most of her career working in sport in a variety of roles, starting in sponsorship account management with Macesport, mainly managing Vauxhall's Home Nations sponsorship with Northern Ireland and the FA Vauxhall Youth Programme.

She then worked for Global Premier Soccer in Portland, Maine, USA before returning to work for her hometown club Nottingham Forest, leading on media and communications for their charitable trust.

Her love of women’s football landed her a role at the City of Football, a Sport England-funded project aimed at increasing participation and opportunities for underrepresented groups. After funding ended, she moved on to work for William Hill, working across its sport sponsorship portfolio, activating rights across the Scottish Cup, Matchroom Boxing, World Darts Championship, and Football Writers' Association. She also managed the ambassador and influencer portfolio.

After exploring opportunities within education and running a female-only five-a-side league on the side, Amy’s passion for football and equality has brought her back into the industry and what she describes as the perfect role and organisation to bring her experience and skills to the Women in Football team. 

Email Amy here.

Sarah joined the WIF team in July 2022. She has many years of experience in football administration, including at the FA, where she had special duties during Euro 96, staffing the central information desk at the organisational headquarters. She has also worked with the Premier League and PGMOL to organise match officials for games. With the League Managers Association, Sarah organised a number of highly successful annual flagship events. Outside of work Sarah enjoys watching most sports and is a Crystal Palace supporter.

Email Sarah here.

Louise joined Women in Football as Administrative Assistant in July 2020 and was promoted to Business Support Manager in 2023. She has a wealth of experience gathered over the past 20 years working in administration, PA, sales, purchasing and procurement, mainly within the healthcare and mobility sector industries. Louise coordinates our Leadership Course in partnership with Barclays

An Aston Villa supporter, Louise is also a British Cycling volunteer cycling coach.

Email Louise here.

Dan is a recent Advertising and Marketing Communications graduate from De Montfort University, Leicester. He joined Women in Football in December 2021.

Previously Dan worked at Intersport UK, where he managed social media channels, assisted in events and supported the group’s members’. More recently Dan managed a Covid-19 testing centre, doing his bit to keep the nation safe during the pandemic.

A lover of many sports, Dan is big on football, cricket and darts but similarly enjoys American football and basketball. He even represented the ultimate frisbee society during his time at university. Dan supports Chelsea FC.

Email Dan here.