Danielle Skett:Danielle is a physiotherapist who has been working for the club for the past 18 months and has previous experience working with Shrewsbury Town and British Gymnastics
Every day at the club is different. It’s hard work, but also very rewarding as well. It was quite difficult when I first came into the club because I was the only female, but the lads are brilliant and very respectful of me as a therapist and as a woman as well. Now it’s good to have more women working at the club as it shows a bit of solidarity.
The main positive about Brighton is the number of staff. At Shrewsbury it was just myself and the head physio. It’s better to have more staff because you can bounce more ideas off one another, and learn more.
There is also a large budget to spend on scans, so we can look after the players a bit more. The lads are very respectful here and the working environment is really good.
Millie Lanz:Millie has been at the club since December 2012, starting off as a finance assistant before recently moving to a new a role as the fundraising and events manager for Albion in the Community (AITC)
The remit in my new role is to increase the awareness of the charity, tell everyone of the work we provide across the region, and to bring in some much needed funds. I also run the charity’s events.
I would say it’s an exciting and very fast-paced job, as the club and charity are progressing very quickly. It’s quite a demanding role, but it’s rewarding and enjoyable as well. I was initially the finance assistant at the football club and my background has always been in financial services. the club's financial director here recommended me for a new position at the AITC and I am loving it at the moment!
I would say that the football industry has traditionally been a male-dominated world, but I feel that Brighton & Hove Albion and AITC are the exceptions. I have friends at other football clubs and being a female in the football business workplace is increasing. I can’t speak on behalf of other football clubs, but I think ours is definitely different and breaks from tradition.
Rachel Ely: Rachel is assistant club secretary and has a wealth of experience from 13 years in the football industry, having ran the Olympic football tournament for the London organising committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), and previously worked for the FA and Premier League.
I work closely with our club secretary Derek Allan, and together the two of us work on everything relating to the first-team, under-21s and academy; whether that’s player contracts, transfers or other day-to-day jobs: such as liaising with the Football Association, the Football League or other clubs on football matters or arranging travel and accommodation for away matches.
I am also club secretary for our women’s team; this is similar to the work Derek and I undertake for the first-team, under-21s and academy teams. I look after player registrations, transfers and match arrangements for the women’s first-team, reserve team and the club’s centre of excellence.*
On first-team matchdays at the Amex, I coordinate operations in and around the tunnel area and at pitchside, including accreditation, requests from the opposition and even the pre-match and half-time entertainment. It’s fair to say that it’s an extremely varied role!
It’s been great learning the role of club secretary. I feel like I’ve had a really good education from Derek, who's got great experience of the role, to add to the work I’ve already done with the Olympics, FA and Premier League.
I must say there have been surprisingly few barriers for me working in football. It’s not something I am not conscious of in the slightest. I found that after previously working at The FA and in the Premier League, there were just as many women as men working on the ground. So it was a never an issue for me earlier on in my career and I’ve never noticed it going forward.
Kim Stenning: Kim has worked as a football development officer for Albion in the Community for the past two years and her work on female football development, alongside Luke Tyler, has been praised by the Football League Trust. She also spent six years playing for Albion’s women’s team before joining Women’s Super League 2 side Millwall Lionesses
We deliver coaching to loads of girls across Sussex; including after-school clubs and development centres. The best thing about the job is being able to come to the stadium everyday to work and everyone is so friendly. Being a woman working in football, you would think about that your opinion doesn’t count, but it’s different here as everyone listens to what you have to say.
Playing here was also great. It’s a great club to play for with lots of support available and a wonderful environment. It has definitely helped me in my day job as I am seen to be a role model whenever I coach the girls.
I’ve been involved in the game since the age of five and developed an interest in coaching at school in Year 11. I then played for Southampton and did some coaching there, before continuing my development by doing my Level 2 badge and will be undertaking my UEFA B licence in April.
Sue Parris: Sue is education, welfare and player services manager at the Albion and is part of the football operations senior management team. She has previously spent 11 years working at Varndean College before joining the club.
My role spans from the first team down to the under-9s in ensuring players’ needs are met off the pitch so they can concentrate on their technical development. Part of the role is selling the club to prospective players and ensuring that their experience of the academy is a positive and inspiring one. Even if a trialist is not successful, we want them to speak highly of their experience of the club and their time here.
I am also involved in the formal and informal education of the players, accommodation, transport, safeguarding, trips tours and tournaments as well as player appearances.
I absolutely love working here; I’m a Brighton girl born and bred. It’s an incredibly forward-thinking club and it is very exciting to be part of the club with the new training ground on the horizon. It will put us alongside the very best clubs in football. To be a part of that is very exciting. I also find the management here to be very innovative and happy to listen to ideas. They allow you to be completely autonomous in your role.
Sue Burchett: Sue is the internal communications and data protection officer at the club. She has had an extremely varied career, working for a variety of organisations, in internal communications and events management.
My job is a combination of different roles. A large part involves all the internal communications here the club including a quarterly staff newsletter called Seagulls Flyer, but alongside that I am the data protection officer for the club and AITC and ensure there is compliance with legislation for all the personal data we hold including staff training.
Another part of my role is to help the club achieve the ISO 20121 in Sustainable Event Management System which enables businesses to take into account the social, environmental and economic effects that events may have and reduce any negative impacts. I also help protect the club brand by ensuring there is no illegal use of our trademarks and issuing licence agreements.
My role is probably a combination of three or four different part-time jobs, but the club has combined it into one and I have gained a really diverse knowledge! I love working here, it’s one of the most challenging and yet enjoyable jobs I’ve ever had. It’s great that the environment constantly changes, depending on the results, and that I am so involved in many different strands of the business.
Nikki Richardson: Nikki has spent 12 years in her role as disability development manager for Albion in the Community and has previous experience working in retail and coaching.
What I do at the club is to ensure disabled people have the chance to take part in activities and to focus on the ability rather than disability, and we have a number of different disability teams. It's a huge part of what AITC does, and our disability scheme has won awards and is widely regarded as one of the best in English football.
The name of the club allows us to get into so many schools and we can use their promotional tools for the various programmes we run. Within my area I feel being a woman does not really hinder my progress as my main passion is to help people who want to go out and play different sports, I don’t think it’s made any difference to my career.
Original article