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Dame Sue Campbell, Director Women's Football at the FA

Dame Sue Campbell, Director of Women's Football at the FA, shares the eight tracks she would want to take with her if cast away on a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.

Dame Sue Campbell is the Director of Women’s Football at the Football Association. The women’s game has become increasingly popular recently and last year the England team - the Lionesses - made it to the World Cup semi-finals.

Born in 1948, just outside Nottingham, Sue was sporty from an early age, even changing schools to allow her to play football. She became a PE teacher in Manchester and realised how transformative sport could be, increasing self-esteem, motivation and self-belief.

In the mid-1980s, after learning about excellence in sport at Loughborough University and playing netball for England as well as dabbling in the pentathlon, Sue became deputy chief executive (and a year later chief executive) of the National Coaching Foundation, which provided education for coaches at both ends of the spectrum, from parent volunteers to elite coaches.

Ten years later, in 1995, she co-founded the Youth Sport Trust to set up a sports activity programme for every primary school in the country. It was hugely successful: in 2003 only 23% of school children were getting two hours of PE a week. By 2008, this figure had risen to 95%. In 2010, the coalition government cut their funding.

By this time, back at the elite end of the sporting spectrum, Sue was also in charge of UK Sport, where she presided over Team GB's biggest Olympic medal haul in living memory, at the London 2012 games. In 2016, she took her current job as head of Women’s Football at the FA. She has also been a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords since 2008.

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Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Fri 24 Jan 2020 09:00

Music Played

  • John Farnham & Olivia Newtonâ€John

    Dare to Dream

    • Two Strong Hearts Live.
    • Sony Music.
    • 10.
  • Gloria Estefan And *N SYNC

    Music Of My Heart

    • Diane Warren: A Hitstory So Far: Real Hits.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.
    • 15.
  • Edward Elgar

    Land Of Hope And Glory

    Singer: Benjamin Luxon. Conductor: James Loughran. Orchestra: ±«Óãtv Symphony Orchestra. Choir: ±«Óãtv Symphony Chorus.
    • Highlights From The Last Night Of The Proms.
    • K-TEL.
    • 4.
  • Susan Boyle

    I Dreamed A Dream

    • I Dreamed A Dream.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.
    • 2.
  • Bette Midler

    The Wind Beneath My Wings

    • From A Distance.
    • Warner Music UK Limited.
    • 3.
  • Heather Small

    Proud

    • Proud.
    • Arista.
    • 1.
  • Whitney Houston

    One Moment In Time

    • The Greatest Hits.
    • Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd.
    • 3.
  • Diana Ross

    Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)

    • One Woman: The Very Best Of Diana Ross: The Ultimate Collection.
    • EMI.
    • 5.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 19 Jan 2020 11:15
  • Fri 24 Jan 2020 09:00

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