Lumen Summer 2016 - Flipbook - Page 19
M
oya is the Chair of the
Women’s Football Committee
in the Asian Football
Confederation (AFC) and has become
Australia’s first female representative on
football’s world governing body, FIFA.
The lawyer and former mid-fielder for
the Matildas also sits on AFC’s Executive
Committee where the competitions and
development resources are decided.
“Some days it’s tough being a
pioneer,” says Moya. “You are exposed
to more scrutiny and judgement, and
sometimes not taken seriously as
it’s assumed you are only there for
decorative or tick-a-box purposes.
You have to earn your credibility.
“The most rewarding times are when
you can overcome those issues, make
the game grow, and make it easier for
those who come next.”
Thanks to Moya the AFC is developing
a vision and strategy to develop the
game in Asia. Her successes include
lobbying to get the headscarf rule
changed so that half-a-billion Muslim
women in the world can play. She also
visited Iran where she spoke out against
the ban on women being allowed to
attend men’s matches in stadiums.
Moya says the recent FIFA Women’s
World Cup in Canada was another huge
milestone where ratings were at record
levels, making TV advertisers and
sponsors very happy. Fox in the US more
than doubled its expected revenues.
She is also working tirelessly to get
more women into decision-making roles
as board members or head coaches.
“Three women were added to the
FIFA executive committee in 2013,
after 108 years!” says Moya.
“Women coaches still meet great
hurdles, although when backed, they
are enormously successful. Most of
the major football world tournaments
this century have been won by
female coaches.”
Her next big challenge
is to build gender
equity into a meaningful
reform framework in
football at all levels and
to commercialise the
women’s game so that
athletes and coaches
can have proper
football careers.
Moya says that these
challenges are fun and
that’s also how she
refers to the diversity
of her jam-packed
schedule of work
and life and spending
up to a third of her
year travelling.
And she’s always
been a good juggler.
While studying law at
the University of Adelaide in the 1980s
she threw herself into extracurricular
activities, not all of them revolving
around football. Moya says she loved
every moment of writing for student
paper On Dit which she says had its
own bizarre extracurricular life – such as
a band (Too Sick To Sing) and various
renegade projects.
“I remember one former editor
meticulously making a very convincing
‘On Dit Lane’ sign which we secretly
mounted on the building, and the
authorities failed to notice or remove it.
When it eventually fell off, the University
replaced it with an official sign!” she says.
“We were totally absorbed in creating
the best paper possible every week.
Aside from playing football, I spent
pretty much every waking moment
there in 1986, and learned all kinds
of things that I would never have
learned in a lecture theatre.”
Moya says that her experiences
at university were formative.
“It not only gave me a recognised
honours degree in law, but a priceless
second education at the student
newspaper – learning how to question
and probe, the experience of writing
in the public sphere, and a fabulous
network of smart, engaged peers who
went on to do interesting things in their
professional and public lives,” she says.
“On top of that, the sporting facilities
meant I could pursue my football career
within a stone’s throw of my student life.”
Moya continued to play for the
Adelaide University Soccer Club
when she was a judge’s associate
at the SA Supreme Court and was
recently made a life member of the club.
She went on to be vice-captain
of the Matildas, Australia’s national
women’s team, and participated in
the first ever women’s international
tournament in 1988 in China.
Moya urges those seeking to follow in
her footsteps to be prepared to work hard.
“It’s a lot like playing football. If you
put in the work in training, you will be
ready and able to take your opportunities
in a game. And you never know where
those opportunities will come from.”
In her campaign speech while running
for the FIFA Executive Committee, Moya
told the FIFA Congress: “I love working
for football”.
It’s this passion that is driving her
goal to commercialise women’s football
“so that every little girl in the world can
dream of being a footballer”.
Above: Moya playing for the Matildas, 1991
Left: Moya Dodd
Find out about the Adelaide
University Soccer Club (AUSC) at
www.adelaideunisoccerclub.com
The University of Adelaide | Alumni Magazine 17
