Laura McAllister’s football journey has taken her from modest beginnings on the playing fields of South Wales to sitting at the top table of the European game.
From being excluded by football’s law-makers and having nowhere to play her “first love” to being the only woman on UEFA’s 20-strong executive committee (ExCo) and in a position to implement real change for women in the sport.
Last month UEFA agreed a new statute to protect two places for women on ExCo, while the body’s president Aleksander Ceferin has asked McAllister to head up a new Gender Equality Committee.
It is a start in the quest for greater equality in a sport emerging from the fallout of Luis Rubiales’ three-year ban after the former Spanish football federation president kissed Spain player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the World Cup final medal ceremony in August.
“The Rubiales incident showed there’s a huge underbelly of misogyny in football – in most sports, quite frankly – and we have to think how we change that,” McAllister told the PA news agency ahead of International Women’s Day.
“An obvious way is to get more women’s voices heard, normalise women in the boardroom and the committee room, on the coaching field and in the classroom – and to accept that men don’t have a monopoly on football.
“There are still some men who think that because they’ve been in the game a long time they deserve to be in charge, but the game’s moved on.
“We’ve spoken about this at UEFA and we need more women on ExCo. Not because men are not good, but because we are missing experience and knowledge, not just of the women’s game but of women in football.
“Until we get that right, we’ll miss opportunities for our sport as well.”
McAllister’s own playing career in Bridgend and the nearby Llynfi Valley was put on hold at the age of 12 when, like scores of other girls, she was told she could not play with boys any more.
The fact there was no organised girls’ football beyond that age left a sense of “burning injustice”.
It would be a cause taken up in the 1990s after university days in London, to help organise a national women’s team recognised by the Football Association of Wales and one that she would captain.
“We were using the men’s cast-offs, extra large or large kits, and for those who were not as big it was not fit for purpose,” said McAllister, who went on to become chairperson of Sport Wales.
“At the same time, we recognised this was the first step, and we knew we had to suck up some of the disadvantages for the next generation.
“Now we’ve got equal pay (playing for Wales), similar conditions to what the men receive, and the women’s games are covered live on S4C and BBC.
“I don’t think any of us would have anticipated the growth as being as fast as it has been.”
McAllister, however, appreciates there is a long way to go for women throughout the game, especially in football’s corridors of power.
Women occupied just 74 seats (18.1 per cent) of the 409 positions available on UEFA committees in the last year. UEFA plans to raise that number to 25 per cent for the period to 2027.
“The Gender Equality Committee is a working group with a very broad remit to look at the culture of football,” said McAllister, who is deputy chairperson of UEFA women’s football committee and was appointed on a four-year term last April.
“What can be done in terms of role models and good practice, but also possibly quotas and encouragement and incentives to federations in UEFA to promote more women.
“I don’t have a problem with quotas for the very obvious reason that if there was a simple meritocracy in operation where you weighed up the respective CVs and skill sets and the best candidate won, then great.
“There would be plenty of women coming through that system, but that’s not how it works and everyone knows that.
“It’s based on status, profile, deals and bargaining, so women can’t always penetrate that world and, if they do, it’s a very slow process.”
Returning fan favourite Alonso calls Liverpool 'one of Europe's best'
Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso hailed his former club Liverpool as "one of Europe's best" as he prepares for his Anfield return.
Alonso, who spent five successful years at Anfield and helped Liverpool win the Champions League in 2005, returns to his former stomping ground when Leverkusen take on the Reds on Tuesday.
Arne Slot has won 12 of his first 14 matches in charge of Liverpool, including all three in the Champions League so far.
Leverkusen have only won one of their 11 away major European matches in England (D3 L7), and have lost their last two visits to Anfield, and Alonso is under no illusion as to the scale of the task that awaits the reigning Bundesliga champions.
"For us, it is a big challenge," he said.
"Liverpool at the moment are one of the best, if not the best, in Europe, they are showing that in the Premier League and Champions League, a good squad, great coach. We're looking forward to it. Let's see what happens.
"You can play 70 minutes great but in 20 minutes it [the game] is gone, so it is mentally and emotionally we need to be ready.
"In all areas, they are really strong, so the process works really well. [Slot] has done a fantastic job in three months."
Alonso played 210 times across all competitions for Liverpool between 2004 and 2009, scoring 18 goals and providing 20 assists.
After winning the Champions League with the Reds in 2005, he helped them reach the final in 2007, though they lost to Milan on that occasion.
However, the Spaniard does not think he will have too much time for a trip down memory lane.
"Unfortunately, there is no time for tourism – maybe a little run or walk," he said.
"I know the city very well, I love it, but tomorrow I will focus on the game and only the game.
"It feels great to be back here after a few years. It's always special. You notice the development of the club; the new stand looks amazing.
"It is a big game against Liverpool, it cannot get much better than that."
The omens are not great for Leverkusen, though.
Liverpool have lost one of their last 21 European meetings with German opponents (W14 D6), albeit that one defeat came against Leverkusen in 2002.
“We want everyone involved”- Chung hoping for massive support for Reggae Boyz in Nations League Quarterfinal against USA
General Secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation, Dennis Chung, is hoping that Jamaicans come out in their numbers to support the Reggae Boyz during both legs of their CONCACAF Nations League Quarter-final at the National Stadium in Kingston on Thursday, November 14 and Energizer Park in St. Louis, Missouri on Monday, November 18.
The Reggae Boyz will be looking for revenge over their American counterparts after suffering defeat to them at the semi-final stage of last season’s Nations League 1-3 in extra time. The USA went on to win the whole thing with a 2-0 victory over Mexico in the final while the Reggae Boyz beat Panama 1-0 to claim third place.
If the Boyz are to get over the hump this time around, Chung understands that a massive part of it will be the energy they receive from the thousands of Jamaican fans in attendance.
“We are at the quarterfinal stage. We want to ensure that we are there in our numbers supporting the Boyz because we have to make it past the mighty USA which, after we finish with them, they won’t be so mighty,” Chung said in press conference on Monday.
As such, three support groups for Jamaican football-Reggae Boyz Supporters Club, Reggae Football Fans Club and Reggae Boyz Community, are all making it possible for fans from all over the diaspora to have an opportunity to cheer on the Reggae Boyz live and in person.
“We want to welcome this partnership because this is a way for us now to reach our fanbase. We want to ensure that everyone is involved. At the last two games we had over 17,000 people in attendance and that, for us, is very important. It’s not just about playing football. It’s about getting everybody involved,” Chung said on Monday.
Errol Walters and Louis Grant, members of the Reggae Football Fans Club, were also on hand on Monday and gave an overview of this initiative.
“It’s an honor and a pleasure to be serving our country in this way. What we’re trying to do is create an opportunity for fans in the diaspora that we use our collective bargaining power to negotiate to go to the games,” Walters said.
“There are times when I’m in London and want to go to a game and I have no one to travel with so it was always my dream to create a database to say listen, who’s going to the game from where,” Walters added.
Grant explained that this idea came about because of the desire of members of the diaspora to be a driving force behind the support of the team on their journey to the World Cup in 2026.
“This was birthed out a desire to be the proverbial 12th man for our football teams and more so for the second iteration of the historic trip to the World Cup. We, as members of the diaspora here in the United States, think it’s only right that we play our part in drumming up support as far as leveraging air travel, accommodation, and support,”
“For example, we’ve been in touch with US Soccer with regards to the game in St. Louis. We’ve gotten a section that we can have all or most of our supporters concentrated to create that ‘Office’ vibe,”
“In my experience, we’ve gone to games in my area and you’d see our supporters and our flag sparsely across the various stadiums and we are of the opinion that if we were more concentrated in one section, it bodes well or it is a better look and feel for our team,” he added.
Fulham 2-1 Brentford: Wilson's late brace seals comeback win
Harry Wilson scored twice in stoppage time as Fulham came back to beat Brentford 2-1 in an enthralling West London derby.
Wilson was the hero from Fulham's bench on Monday, as Marco Silva's team – who were on the wrong end of a late comeback against Everton last time out in the Premier League – salvaged a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Fulham will feel it was a win they earned from a match they dominated from the off, with the Bees having taken the lead against the run of play through Vitaly Janelt's stunning 24th-minute strike.
But the Fulham pressure finally told when Wilson rose high to flick in his first in the 92nd minute, and – after Bernd Leno made a superb stop to thwart Brentford at the other end – the former Liverpool midfielder nodded in again to send Craven Cottage into raptures.
Fulham's win takes them up into ninth, while Brentford drop to 12th after suffering a fifth league loss of the season.
Data Debrief: Super-sub Wilson to the rescue
Fulham will feel they deserved to come away from that match with three points, having had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, in an incredibly dominant display.
They also had 46 touches in the opposition box compared to Brentford's nine, but they could not make those count, at least until Wilson's late intervention as he finally broke through Brentford's stubborn defence.
The Welshman scored with both of his shots on target, having three attempts overall, with his goals coming from a combined 0.19 expected goals.
The Bees looked sure to get a first away win, and first clean sheet, of the Premier League season until their late lapse in concentration, and they have now dropped 14 points from winning positions in the competition this season, more than any other team.
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