Femi Dada

Femi is a Chartered Accountant with deep expertise in Audit and Risk. He is a confident and commercial Finance and Risk expert with extensive experience in both public and private organisations in the UK as well as overseas. He comes with a track record spanning over three-decades of successful consulting engagements with an emphasis on: Strategy, Risk, and Governance.

At the heart of Femi’s success is his ability to quickly understand the strategic and commercial imperatives that drive his client’s needs, in the context of the prevailing regulatory and legislative framework that govern their industries. Femi is a fellow member of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountant, in addition to the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. He prides himself with maintaining his cutting edge by rigorous continuous professional development, keeping him up to date with the trends impacting his profession.

Femi has held different roles in charitable organisations including: the Chair of Finance and Staff Committee for St. John Fishers’ Catholic School, he is also the Independent Adviser to Career Nuggets (a prominent business/ Career coaching service on SKY TV).

Femi joined the OFA in April 2018 as an Independent Director of Finance, and has since contributed to the long-term strategic direction of the organisation.

Jonathan Duckworth

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development with a Masters’ Degree in Human Resources Management, Jonathan was Head of HR at Twickenham Stadium for the Rugby Football Union and England Rugby teams from 1997 to 2001 when he was then headhunted by Harley-Davidson to be their European HR Director.

In 2005 he became Group HR Director for the Jockey Club’s 15 racecourse venues before moving to a similar role with an international Ferrari-backed motor racing series based at Silverstone.

He has been a special advisor to Sporting Equals since 2008. He became more involved in local grassroots football in Oxfordshire in 2010 when helping to coach youth teams at Wychwood FC.

In 2015 he was recruited by Swim England as their People and Development Director where he ensured successful Sport England Advanced Equality Standard accreditation, and in 2016 was appointed as a member of the Leicester City Football Club Equality Working Group. He joined our Board of Directors as the Senior Independent Non-Executive Director in 2018 before taking on the role of Chief Executive.

In 2020 he also joined the Leicestershire County Cricket Club Board of Directors before being appointed as their Chairman in 2021.

Christine Kane

Christine is the Director of Safeguarding at Marlborough College and a qualified and registered Social Worker. Additionally, Christine serves as a Trustee of Everyone’s Invited.

She was previously Head of Safeguarding at Aston Villa Football Club, where she successfully developed and implemented a safeguarding strategy to meet the standards set by The FA and Premier League following the club’s promotion back to the top flight of English football in 2019.

Prior to this, Christine worked in Germany for the Ministry of Defence providing safeguarding support to MOD schools overseas and led on developing a robust global safeguarding training needs analysis for the MOD worldwide.

Christine has served as a Non-Executive Director of the Oxfordshire FA since October 2022 with a remit which focuses on general health, wellbeing safety as our Board Safeguarding Champion and she is also our FA Council representative. 

Eddie Odhiambo

Eddie locally represented Oxford United, Oxford City, Banbury United and Brackley Town as a player during his football career, as well as later coaching at Kidlington, and both playing for and managing the team at North Leigh. 

In addition to management and safeguarding qualifications he is a UEFA A Licence coach who has also worked in successful community football programme delivery for Brackley Town and Northampton Town. 

He then spent four years as the Head of Year at a school in Didcot before becoming the Academy Head of Player Care for Oxford United. In 2023 he became the Head of Football at Velocity - Oxford City, responsible for ensuring that young people have an inclusive football-based progression pathway with relevant educational qualifications and career opportunities. 

He is a member of the Oxfordshire Football Association steering group promoting best practice engagement and development for young volunteers at our local football clubs as well as creating innovative sports-based apprenticeship opportunities. Safeguarding, Wellbeing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are at the heart of everything Eddie does. He always aims to be constructive to challenges, and approach matters with an open mind to help ensure positive and sustainable football development throughout the county. 

Lucy Roberts Hartley

Lucy is the Marketing Director for the NFL (National Football League) and has worked in sports marketing and communications for the past 15 years.  

Prior to the NFL, Lucy was the Head of Marketing and Communications for UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, Head of Marketing for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 and before that spent 6 years leading the marketing for FA Competitions at the FA, most notably The FA Cup and Women’s FA Cup.

Lucy is a lifelong football supporter, played from a young age and is passionate about providing sporting opportunities for young people - unlocking the power of sport to create positive change and to make a difference to people’s lives.  

Lucy is originally from Yorkshire, before relocating to London and now lives with her family in Thame, Oxfordshire. 

Joanne Harper

Joanne is a registered social worker and has enjoyed a career spanning 25 years, the majority of which she’s spent working with the Armed Forces community, both in the UK and overseas.

Raising a family within a very diverse and transient community inclusion is very important to Joanne, which she’s strived to promote in all aspects of her life. In 2012, Joanne became a volunteer with British Guiding Overseas.

Growing up in a family where everyone was involved in football, many a Saturday was spent pitchside. It was somewhat inevitable that Joanne would put on her own boots…in her 40s!

Married with two children, the connection to football has continued for Joanne as a football mum, ‘taxi’, and supporter for her own daughter, as she pursues her football career.

Alan Spence

Alan originates from Aylesbury and moved to Oxford in 1974. He played the majority of football in Aylesbury before moving to Oxford. He is a retired Police Officer. He has been involved with football all his life, either playing, coaching or administration.

He became involved with Summertown Stars Football Club in 1990, when his son started playing. In 1993 he started coaching and managing his team, and did that up until they were 18 years old, when they moved to Oxford University Press and started playing in open age football. During that period, he had become the Club Secretary and had joined the Oxford Boys League, initially as a Committee Member and in the latter stages he was the Fixture Secretary.

In the mid 1990s, he was elected to the old OFA Council for the Oxford City.  As a consequence of his involvement, he became Competition Secretary for several of the County Cup Competitions, including the Junior Shield, the Intermediate Cup, the Ladies Cup and also various of the youth competitions, including the under 18’s, under 15’s and under 14’s cups, plus the girl’s competitions, which he did with the late Steve Simmonds. During this same period, he also sat on disciplinary commissions, and administered the County Youth representative side, both boys and girls.