Ann
Odong

Born in Uganda and arriving in Australia as a six-year-old refugee, Ann Odong has emerged as an award-winning, globally respected storyteller, communicator and advocate for women’s sport.

Passionate about gender equality in sport for women and girls of all backgrounds, for 20 years Ann has tirelessly worked to elevate and amplify women’s voices. In 2008 she founded Australia’s groundbreaking first dedicated digital platform for women’s football, The Women’s Game, which she managed for a decade. The Women’s Game assisted in driving the growth of women’s football in Australia and its investigations instigated change in pay and conditions for athletes in the W-League. Off the pitch Ann worked to nurture and provide opportunities to up and coming female media professionals with several alumni from The Women’s Game employed in organisations including the ABC, Football Australia, The Guardian, ESPN, and Brisbane 2032 Olympics.

In 2013 Ann worked as a Communications Advisor for Moya Dodd in the highly effective #Women4FIFA campaign which prompted a transformative change in global football’s governing body, FIFA, to accept women to serve on its board for the first time in it’s then 108-year history. She again combined forces with Dodd and Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan a year later to successfully lobby for the overturn of the hijab ban in football that resulted in the inclusion of millions of girls globally.

Ann joined Football Australia in 2018 as a key member of their successful bid to co-host the historic FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. In 2019 she transitioned to the Matildas becoming their media and PR lead where she has driven the visibility of the Matildas for the past five years to become one of Australia’s most recognisable and loved sporting teams.

She has also initiated the OUR GAME Media Program which aims to open doors and provide opportunities for women and non-binary persons to ensure that the push for gender parity in football is not limited to just on the pitch.

A trusted global voice in women’s football, Ann sat on the Judging Panels for the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year from 2015 – 2019 and Guardian Sports 100 Best Women’s Footballers (2017 – 2019).

She has garnered global acclaim and in 2023 was named one of the eleven most influential people in global women’s football for the year in Relevent Sports’ Best XI, alongside Matildas captain, Sam Kerr. She was also awarded the Inaugural Grant Wahl Memorial Award for her services to women’s football. In 2024 Ann was named in the NewsCorp Power 100 Most Influential Women in Sport and named the winner of Impactful Storytellers category in The Female Athlete Project Awards.