Moya Dodd AO

Moya Dodd AO's Biography

Moya Dodd is a lawyer and a former international footballer who speaks regularly on issues of equality, diversity, inclusion and integrity, sharing her extensive experience in sport both on and off the field.

Moya is a former vice-captain of the Australian women's football team, the Matildas. She was one of the first few women on FIFA's Executive Committee (2013-2016), while serving on the Asian Football Confederation's Executive Committee (2007-2019). She also spent ten years on the board of Football Federation Australia (2007 – 2017), and served on its successful Bid Committee to host the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Moya is currently a Partner at Gilbert+Tobin Lawyers.

As one of the first three women on the FIFA Executive Committee - appointed 108 years after the organisation was formed - Moya chaired FIFA’s Women’s Football Task Force, becoming “one of the most credible and outspoken voices for change within the organization” (Vice Sports), and “the driving force in the recent push for women within FIFA” (New York Times) while leading the #womeninFIFA reform campaign.

Moya also promoted integrity reforms in FIFA and was one of only 3 FIFA ExCo members to return a $25,000 watch. She was a vocal advocate for greater inclusion. Together with Prince Ali of Jordan, she worked extensively on the successful campaign to allow women to play in the headscarf (hijab). After visiting Iran and meeting women who were barred from attending stadiums,  she has been active in the (not-yet-successful) campaign for open stadiums.

Moya has served on the board of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights (2020 - 21), and worked with the women-led team on the Kabul uplift of the Afghan women's national team, and with Women Onside and other Matildas Alumni on their support after arriving in Australia.

She also served on the IOC's Athlete's Entourage Commission and the ICAS (governing body of the Court of Arbitration for Sport) from 2014 - 2022,

A former international player for Australia (1986 – 1995), she was educated at Adelaide University where she gained an Honours degree in Law and edited the student newspaper On Dit. She worked as a Judge’s Associate at the Supreme Court , then spent her early career in private practice and in-house legal roles while completing her MBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management. She then worked in commercial and consulting roles in the media and telecommunications industries, and is now a Partner at Gilbert+Tobin Lawyers.

Moya advises the World Leagues Forum (the industry body for professional football leagues) on women's football, creating a platform for the world's top women's leagues to share information, exchange best practice and pursue progress in the professionalisation of the women's game.

She also consults to sports and government bodies (such as the Australian Institute of Sport) on governance issues and culture in high performance sport.

Moya makes frequent speaking and media appearances, and writes for leading publications such as the Sydney Morning Herald. She co-hosts Gilbert + Tobin's competition law podcast, The Competitive Edge, and has provided co-commentary on radio coverage of the Matildas during the Women's World Cup 2023.

Moya co-chairs Common Goal with Juan Mata, driving Football4Good and enabling footballers to donate 1% of their salary to football programs that enhance the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She is a founding member of Women Onside, a networking and advocacy group dedicated to the vision of 'women in football everywhere'.

Recognition and awards

Moya was listed in World Soccer magazine’s People of the Year in 2013, and named as the overall winner of the prestigious AFR 'Women of Influence' awards and Women’s Health magazine’s 'Person of Sporting Influence' in 2016. That year, she also received the IOC Women and Sport Award for Oceania, and was named in BOSS Magazine's Outstanding 50 LGBT+ Leaders.

Moya was recognised as a Distinguished Alumni of Adelaide University in 2017, and bestowed the Alumni Award (Sports and Sports Administration) by the University of NSW in 2018.  She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Adelaide in 2021.

Her story - from her childhood home in a fire station to the highest echelons of FIFA - was commissioned by the Adelaide Festival of Arts where she wrote and performed Backstories in 2017, directed by William Yang and Annette Shun Wah, with further performances at Sydney's Carriageworks in 2018.

In 2018, she was named the 7th most powerful woman in international sport (outside the US) by Forbes magazine, and in 2020 she was named in WICC's global "Best XI" for advancing women's soccer.  Moya was inducted into Football Australia's Hall of Fame in 2022. In 2023 she received SA's Excellence in Women's Leadership Award from Women & Leadership Australia and was recognised in the King's Birthday Honours List as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Speaking Topics Include

The inspirational rise of women’s football

In the early days of the Matildas, players paid their own airfares and sewed the national crest onto their own jackets. Today, they play to record audiences, and appear on the cover of the FIFA game. Former Matildas vice-captain Moya Dodd shares the journey of women’s football from decades of bans and neglect, through the battles against sexism, indifference and homophobia, to the growth of professionalism and the phenomenal success of the 2023 World Cup. With priceless stories of her experiences from grassroots football to high performance teams, and into the boardroom of FIFA, Moya brings to life the ongoing challenges for equality, and the crucial roles of athlete activists and the unique fan community.

 

FIFA and the fight for gender equality - As one of the first women to serve on the board of FIFA (after 108 years) former Matildas vice-captain Moya Dodd found herself among the most privileged and male-dominated institutions in the world. Appointed to a quota position, she became the leading advocate for women’s inclusion, including overturning the headscarf ban, campaigning for Iranian women’s right to attend stadiums, and enabling more women leaders. When the FIFAGate scandal unfolded, she became the ‘driving force’ (New York Times) for gender equality in the reform movement.

Moya shares a change-maker’s inside account of influence, cultural resistance and governance reform in challenging FIFA to overcome its history of gender exclusion to better embrace diversity, inclusion and human rights. Just as the 1920s bans on women playing football rippled around the world a century ago, football has now become a vehicle for global progress in women’s empowerment.

Ethics and integrity: A football adventure - As one of the first women to serve on the board of FIFA, former Matildas vice-captain Moya Dodd found herself among the most privileged and male-dominated institutions in the world. At the highest levels of football governance, she found integrity issues writ large. Moya was one of only three (out of 27) board members who declined a $29,000 gift watch at the 2014 World Cup. A year later, she found herself in a luxury Zurich hotel as her colleagues were arrested in a dawn raid.

As the FIFAGate scandals unfolded, she became ‘one of the most credible and outspoken voices for change’ (Vice Sports) in a reform movement that embedded gender equality and human rights into FIFA’s own statutes, setting a global precedent in sporting governance. But as the infamous Spanish kiss showed at the Women’s World Cup Final in Sydney, reform remains a work in progress. As the ultimate insider, Moya shares priceless stories and deep insights into complex issues of ethics, integrity and cultural change.