Brunel Law School graduate and football star Eniola Aluko spoke last week at the Digital, Culture, Media & Sports Committee on alleged bullying and racism at the Football Association.
Eni was invited to the House of Commons and answered questions from MPs for an hour as part of the committee’s sport governance session on 18 October.
Play video to watch coverage of Eni speaking at the committee, originally broadcast to Parliament TV
The Chelsea striker has earned 102 caps for England but has not been selected for England since her allegations against former manager Mark Sampson were made public in 2016.
She alleged that in 2015 Sampson told her to make sure that her family did not bring the Ebola virus to Wembley, and that he asked her fellow team-mate Drew Spence, who is of mixed race, how many times she had been arrested.
After Eni complained, two enquiries were held: an internal review, followed by a 3-month independent enquiry carried out by a barrister, Katharine Newton, on behalf of the FA. Both concluded in favour of Sampson.
However, Eni’s fighting spirit remained unabated, and her allegations were eventually upheld only an hour before the committee sat: Newton updated her ruling, stating that Sampson had made the remarks and that they were discriminatory.
Eni started studying for a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at Brunel University London as an 18-year-old in 2005, a year after her first call-up for England, and two years after being named Young Player of the Year by the FA – a glittering start to her sporting career which led to her being dubbed the Wayne Rooney of women’s football.
Since graduating with first class honours in 2008, Eni has supplemented her playing career with having been the first female pundit on Match of the Day in 2014, a guest editor of Women’s Hour in 2016 and a pundit for Channel 4 during the women’s Euro 2017 championships.
Eni puts her legal training into practice as a consultant for the international law firm Slaughter & May in London.
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Reported by:
Joe Buchanunn,
Media Relations
joe.buchanunn@brunel.ac.uk