How to Get More Women Coaching in Football with FA EDI Lead Sharon Muxworthy

This week's podcast special guest is Sharon Muxworthy, Educational Inequality, Diversity & Inclusion Lead for the Female Game at The FA and Head Coach of the University of Brighton Women's First Team.

A former PE teacher turned coach, coach developer, and national EDI lead, Sharon has spent over a decade at The FA designing and delivering programmes that open doors for more women – and more diverse voices – in coaching. From grassroots to the top of the women's game, she focuses on inclusion, confidence, and building a sustainable, diverse coaching workforce.

In this conversation, Sharon shares her journey from playing street football in 1970s Wales to leading national coach development, and breaks down what it really takes to create environments where women can thrive as coaches.

• Sharon's journey into football and coaching
  From playing in the street and being excluded from school teams, to rediscovering football at university, teaching PE, and coaching at academy and university level.

• Teaching as the foundation for great coaching
  How classroom skills—questioning, communication, and assessment for learning—shaped her approach to coaching and coach development.

• Creating inclusive environments that keep girls in sport
  Practical examples of welcoming girls into teams, making sport fun, and why belonging and joy must come before performance.

• Trust, challenge, resilience and team values
  Why challenge only works when trust is in place, how sport naturally teaches resilience, and how clear "above the line" behaviours guide team culture.

• Her current FA role and key programmes
  What Sharon does as EDI Lead for the female game: growing a more diverse coaching workforce through club placements, mentee development, and targeted support.

• Digital learning and accessibility for new coaches
  How courses like EE Playmaker and Introduction to Coaching Football lower barriers, especially for women who might not feel ready to walk into a course in person.

• Practical advice for aspiring women's football coaches
  The importance of knowing your why, volunteering to gain experience, being your authentic self, and surrounding yourself with mentors and supportive

Connect with Sharon:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-muxworthy-06b26b44/

FA Website: https://www.thefa.com/womens-girls-football

The Powerhouse Project Website: https://www.thepowerhouseproject.co.uk/

What It Takes to Lead Sports Host Broadcasting: Inside ISB with CEO Ursula Romero

This week's podcast special guest is Ursula Romero, CEO and Managing Director of International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), a global leader in host broadcasting operations for the world's biggest sporting events.

With over two decades of experience shaping modern broadcast standards, Ursula has worked on every Olympic and Paralympic Games since 1996, as well as major global events including the FIFA World Cup and the Invictus Games. An award-winning producer and director, she is also a passionate filmmaker with a Master's in Cinematography from the London Film Academy. Today, she leads ISB into a new era of technological innovation, diversifying global sports coverage and driving the future of live sports production.

In this conversation, Ursula opens up about what it really takes to build a career in sports broadcasting from the ground up, how she navigated the transition from producer to CEO, and why storytelling still sits at the heart of great sports coverage—despite all the technological change.

What You'll Discover:

• How Ursula built a 30-year career in global sports broadcasting
  From summer jobs as a liaison officer and driver at World Cups and World Championships to directing live sport and leading host broadcasting for Global Sporting Events

• What it actually takes to be a CEO in sports broadcasting
  Ursula unpacks the shift from head of production to running ISB, taking over during the pandemic, handling bids, clients, pressure, and the emotional reality of stepping into her late father's role.

• Why storytelling will always beat technology
  How Ursula thinks about live sport as storytelling, what's changed (and what hasn't) from the 1980s to the age of TikTok, and how to use new platforms without losing narrative quality.

• The future of live production, social media, and AI in sport
  Ursula shares how vertical video, second-screen experiences, fan engagement tools, and AI are reshaping coverage—and how to use these tools without diluting the human side of sport.

• Practical career advice for aspiring sports broadcasters
  Why work experience beats classroom theory, how to get your foot in the door, the importance of saying "yes" to unglamorous roles, and why exploring non-mainstream sports can be your edge—and much more.

Connect with Ursula:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ursula-romero-1b938810/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ualecrim/

SBI Website: https://isbtv.es/

SBI Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isbc_live

This week's guest is Dominic Baldwin, founder and CEO of Xentum Financial Planning, an independent, UK-based financial planning firm based in Knutsford, Cheshire — and founder of Xentum Sport, built specifically for people in sport who want control, clarity, and coaching to make decisions with their money.

Dominic launched Xentum in 2004 after seeing firsthand the shortcomings of commission-based financial advice, having watched it negatively impact his own father's wealth and wellbeing. That experience shaped his mission ever since: providing clear, accountable, long-term financial guidance — first for business owners approaching an exit and high-net-worth families protecting generational wealth, and now, through Xentum Sport, for elite footballers navigating short careers and life-changing income.

Xentum Sport is supported by Chris Smalling and Bryan Robson, and built on a simple principle: Have a Plan.

In this conversation, Dominic opens up about why trust has to be earned through genuine presence, not process — and what he's learned working with high-performing individuals about building wealth that actually lasts beyond the game.

What You'll Discover:

1. How to build authentic trust with elite athletes — Dominic explains why being genuinely present, not just professionally competent, is what separates a real advisor relationship from a transactional one.
2. Why personal values matter when creating wealth — how Dominic's own approach to financial planning is shaped by the values he holds, not just the numbers on a spreadsheet.
3. Two key values Dominic has learned from high-performing individuals — the recurring traits he's seen across successful athletes and business owners when it comes to building and protecting wealth.
4. How to make effective decisions about your personal wealth — practical thinking for cutting through noise and pressure when the stakes (and the numbers) are high.
5. Dominic's vision for Xentum Sport — how the partnership with Chris Smalling and Bryan Robson came together, and what it means to build financial support specifically for footballers, by people who understand the game — and much more.

Connect with Dominic:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-baldwin/

Website: http://www.xentum.co.uk

How to Lead a Premier League Football Club: Paul Barber OBE on Leadership, Governance, and Growing the Women's Game

This week's guest is Paul Barber OBE, Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion and non-executive director at Women in Football.

Paul has spent over 30 years in the game, working across the FA, EFL, Premier League clubs, and MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps. In this conversation, he opens up about what it actually takes to lead a modern football club – from managing pressure and making hundreds of decisions a month, to building culture across two sites and being visible to every member of staff.

This is a grounded, honest masterclass on leadership, governance, allyship, and long-term thinking in football.

1. Why football clubs are small businesses with huge impact
   Behind the Premier League spotlight, most clubs run with relatively small off-field teams, working seven days a week across stadium and training ground.
2. How corporate skills transfer to elite sport
   Paul's years at Barclays gave him rigorous training in planning, budgeting, management, and people development.

3. Composure, pressure and the 'acting skills' of a Football CEO
   Results swing, league tables change, pressure intensifies. Paul explains how he's learned to stay calm externally even when he feels exactly like the fans internally — and why consistency, perspective, and responsibility to his staff shape how he shows up on matchday and in crisis.

4. Building Europe's first purpose-built women's stadium
   Paul unpacks Brighton's bold plan to invest £75–80 million in a purpose-built stadium for their women's team — designed through a female performance lens and a different audience profile. He explains why this is both the right thing for athletes and a long-term business play, and how it can set a standard for other clubs.

5. Humour as a strategic leadership tool (with Jeff Mostyn)
   Through stories of former AFC Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn — including hiding under a boardroom table and cutting tension in Premier League meetings — Paul shows how humour can defuse conflict, build relationships, and keep people going through intense periods like COVID.

6. Paul shares three practical tips for building a career in football
   Paul closes with three simple, powerful principles for anyone who wants to work in football and much more!

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-barber-obe-164552a/

From Street Football to the Saudi Pro League: Lina Boussaha on Identity, Ubuntu, and What It Really Takes To be a Professional Footballer

This week's guest is professional footballer Lina Boussaha, currently playing for Al Ittihad in the Saudi Women's Professional League and representing the Algerian national team.

Lina opens up about a journey that began on the streets, playing alongside boys, and led to competing at the highest level of the women's game. She reflects on how those early years — unstructured, joyful, relentless — quietly built the technical ability, mental toughness, and identity that define her today.

This is a conversation about resilience, faith, curiosity, and what it really means to grow as both an athlete and a person. Lina's story is grounded, honest, and full of lessons that go well beyond football.

What You'll Discover

1. Why street football builds world-class players Playing for hours without a clock, without a coach, and without consequence gave Lina something structured training rarely can — close control, creativity, and an instinct for the game that became second nature.

2. How resilience is built before you know you're training Doing it "again and again and again" wasn't a regime. It was just football. But that repetition laid the mental foundations Lina would rely on at every level of her career.

3. Ubuntu and the Al Ittihad way I am because we are. How the spirit of Ubuntu and Al Ittihad's culture of unity shape Lina's understanding of teamwork and leadership — and why no player ever succeeds alone.

4. Keeping joy alive under pressure The shift from carefree street football to the demands of elite competition is real. Lina talks honestly about how to hold onto the love of the game when the stakes get higher.

5. Principles you can take into your own career From embracing discomfort to using your everyday environment as a training ground — practical, transferable lessons for anyone building a career in sport.

Connect with Lina:

Instagram: instagram.com/lina.boussaha

Related Podcasts:

Image Credit: @ittihadladiesclub

The Mind Behind the Game: Lili Iskandar's Journey to Professional Football

This week's podcast special guest is Lili Iskandar, professional football player, who plays as a forward for French club En Avant Guingamp and the Lebanon National Team.

1. What it takes to be a female professional football player

2.Why research matters in the development of women's football

3.Lili shares how getting out of her comfort zone was key to her football development

4. Lili explains the difference between being an amateur and professional football playe

5. You will learn Lili's passion for psychology and her latest football psychology research project

6. Lili shares the power of dreaming big with positive habits and much more

From Carli Lloyd To Rutgers: Glenn Crooks' 50 Years In Women's Football

This week's podcast special guest is with Glenn Crooks, soccer coach, broadcaster, and host of SiriusXM's The Coaching Academy.

With over 50 years in the game as a player, coach, and analyst, Glenn has seen the women's game transform from the ground up.

From calling NYCFC matches to building Rutgers University's Women's Football Programme over 14 years, and coaching the likes of Carli Lloyd and Tobin Heath, his insights are as rich as his career.

In this episode, we explore:

• What 50 years in soccer teaches you about the women's game
• Why language is the key to becoming a great soccer coach
• How Glenn built Rutgers University's women's programme over 14 years
• Glenn's passion for journalism and media in women's football
• What Tobin Heath and Carli Lloyd had in common that made them great football players
• Glenn's new book Put It On Frame — Volume 2 and much more.

• How to break into the football industry — with clarity, confidence, and a strategy that works
• The blog that started it all — how a simple online presence created real opportunities in football media
• From media to football management — the career transition that shaped her path to the boardroom
• Leadership in the spotlight — how Anush's leadership style has evolved as she steps into her role as CEO
• The growth mindset — why cultivating one isn't optional if you want to thrive at the top