Jason Webber joined the Football Association of Wales almost five years ago, to lead on EDI and Sustainability, a brand new role at the time.
Prior to that, Jason worked in various Football Development roles, including coaching at the Cardiff City Academy.
On leaving University, Jason worked for Show Racism the Red Card, which was his introduction to the Equality World.
Jason on the emergence of EDI in football:
“We’ve seen quite a shift in recent years and certainly since the murder of George Floyd. There has been quite a gulf of EDI related roles, particularly in football, but in sport more broadly.
Sport is starting to be under the microscope a little bit more and being held accountable for progress, or lack of it, which maybe other industries have gone through.
So there’s certainly more focus in this area for Chief Executives, National Governing Bodies and in clubs across the game.”
Jason on opportunity:
“Through our BE: Football programme, we do a lot of work in schools, providing playing football opportunities.
Unfortunately, there are still many schools that don’t offer football for girls and it’s very much an exclusive offer to boys.
The Be: Football programme enables skills development and opportunities for girls to be mentors themselves in their own schools and be Ambassadors for younger girls.”
Jason on Governance:
“It is so important that EDI is an explicit and visible core element in any governance.
Many National Associations are often a little bit archaic with how they are structured and set up and that’s been the case for maybe a hundred years.
WE have had a big change ourselves in terms of our own governance models and structures, but also ensuring that EDI is a core part and embedded within those changes and processes and likewise for clubs as well.
We are currently working through to make sure that every club in Wales, from our professional clubs to grassroots, all have their own strategic plans, so that they are very clear on the direction they are going.
The changes we have made ourselves, have brought about better representation and we have made huge changes to our recruitment process.”
