Janie Frampton OBE DL

Why organisations work with Janie Frampton

• She has lived the problem leaders are trying to solve. As the second woman to referee in men’s professional football in England, she knows exactly how institutions react to someone who does not fit their template, and what it takes to stay.
• FIFA chose her as one of eight Women Referee Instructors worldwide, a credential that signals international standing in a governance body that rarely hands that status to outsiders.
• She moves credibly between elite sport, government counter-extremism work, and community programmes for under-represented young people. Few speakers in the inclusion space carry that range of institutional experience.
• She founded two organisations that deliver, not advocate: Ref Support UK for officials under pressure, and Team You for young people in socially deprived communities.
• The OBE and Deputy Lieutenancy of Dorset are not decorative. Both were awarded for the same body of work she speaks about, which gives audiences an uncommon alignment between platform and proof.

Biography highlights

• OBE for services to equality in football, awarded in the 2024 New Year’s Honours.
• Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset.
• Second woman to referee in men’s professional football in England; qualified as a referee in December 1991.
• FIFA Referee Instructor from 2005 to 2015, working as Technical Instructor, Observer and Match Delegate across multiple World Cup cycles.
• Former FA Regional Referee Manager and National Manager for Education and Training of Referees.
• Vice President of the International Federation for Sports Officials; Patron of Muslim Women’s Network UK; Ambassador for Women in Football; co-founder of Ref Support UK and Team You.

Biography

Football was not built for women when Janie Frampton qualified as a referee in December 1991. The Football Association did not formally recognise the women’s game until 1994. She became the second woman to officiate in men’s professional football in England by working inside a system that had not designed a place for her, and then refused to leave it.

From that starting point she moved into the infrastructure of the game. Between 2001 and 2012 she worked as an FA Regional Referee Manager and later as National Manager for Education and Training of Referees. FIFA appointed her as a Referee Instructor in 2005, and for the next decade she travelled as Technical Instructor, Observer and Match Delegate across World Cup cycles. She is one of only eight women globally to hold FIFA instructor status.

The work outside the whistle is the part organisations buy. She co-founded Ref Support UK, the first charity in England focused on the welfare and development of football officials, and Team You, a social enterprise running leadership and life-skills programmes for young people in under-represented communities. She is Vice President of the International Federation for Sports Officials, Patron of Muslim Women’s Network UK, and an Ambassador for Women in Football.

The 2024 OBE was awarded specifically for long-standing service to equality in football, locally and nationally. She was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset the same year. Audiences get someone whose inclusion work has been recognised by the institutions she was once excluded from, told in the voice of a referee: direct, unhedged, and used to making decisions people will argue with.

Key speaking topics

• Gender equality in male-dominated institutions
• Inclusive leadership and culture change
• Resilience and decision-making under pressure
• Supporting under-represented talent in sport and business
• Governance and integrity in elite performance environments
• Mental health and the welfare of officials
• Values-based leadership

Ideal for

• CHROs and DEI leads confronting the gap between inclusion policy and day-to-day culture.
• Boards and executive teams in sport, governing bodies and federations.
• Leadership programmes for women moving into senior roles in male-dominated sectors.
• Organisations working with young people, education bodies, and community outreach functions.

Audience outcomes

• A clearer view of what structural inclusion looks like inside institutions that were not designed for it.
• Specific tactics for staying, deciding and leading when you are the first or only one in the room.
• A frank account of how elite sport handles pressure, welfare and accountability, translatable to corporate performance cultures.
• Direct examples of building organisations, Ref Support UK and Team You, that deliver measurable outcomes for the people they serve.