Big Interview: Angela Platt on football, family and the future

Angela Platt has clocked up quite a few air miles over recent months, travelling internationally with the U17s and U19s and also with the senior squad to fixtures in some far-flung places.

“I was in North Macedonia last November (for the Women’s World Cup qualifier), more recently we were in Marbella, Spain, with the senior team, then Israel with the under 17s for the UEFA qualifier. I’ve been to Switzerland with UEFA itself for a Women in Leadership programme and recently was in Austria (for the FIFA Women’s World Cup UEFA qualifiers). I am due to travel to Serbia in May and then it’ll be the UEFA Women’s Euros in July in Southampton.”

The trips, she said, are a good opportunity to build relationships with the countries the teams play against, but don’t really allow much time for seeing the local sights.

“There’s not much downtime when you are on international trips like that because there’s a lot of schedules in place around training regimes and then obviously you have press conferences and so on.”

As well as travelling, the Coleraine woman, who has over 20 years experience as a sports administrator having worked in local government, sporting governing bodies and the voluntary sector, has spent the last few months “understanding the landscape and seeing all the programmes and activities the Irish FA has in place.”

“I’ve been out and about with our clubs, our communities and the staff and volunteers who work within the game, just to try and support them and understand what’s been happening.”

A footballing family

The 42-year-old comes from a family with serious footballing pedigree. Her father David played for Larne and Glenavon, while her brother David represented Northern Ireland at youth international level.

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