By Milly McEvoy

Baroness Sue Campbell is aiming to turbocharge netball just as she did with women’s football in her newly announced role.

Campbell retired from her position as the FA’s director of women’s football earlier this year having established the Lionesses as a powerhouse of British sport.

And the 76-year-old has revealed she has already put the golf clubs away having been named as the new chair of England Netball with her role to begin in January.

“When I went into football in 2016, women’s football wasn’t regarded as a particularly important part of the strategy,” she said.

“Now it is central to the strategy of the FA, so it is a very different context to be working in a governing body where the predominant force is the men's game.

“The difference now in netball is that it is a women’s game, run by women for girls and women.

“There is a massive financial and commercial difference for netball and I think they are very different sports.

“I think because netball is very much designed for girls and driven by a team of people with a massive passion for the game itself, in some way you haven’t got to fight the wider cultural environment.

“We can work to really bring the game to girls and women of all ages and all abilities in the way we think best, so I am really excited by that and it is a much cleaner landscape to drive change.”

Campbell said she feels like she is coming home as she returns to the sport she grew up playing, going on to represent England U21s.

She also served as a coach and umpire, combining that with her roles as a teacher and lecturer in physical education.

Before joining the FA, Campbell was the top dog at both the Youth Sport Trust and UK Sport and her experiences there have led her to want to tackle inactivity among girls.

She added: “We are not in competition in sport, we are in competition with sedantry lifestyles and the fact that girls aren’t physically active.

“In any set of stats you look at, you can see that girls are far less active than boys of the same age, so it is about us working together and making sure we find an opportunity whatever it is, that girls are attracted to and want to play.

“I think netball is very different from football, it is a great game, a team game, a collaborative game, there are different things to learn from both, it is not about competing with each other.

“But about trying to get girls physically active so they are healthy physically and mentally, which is needed so badly for our young people.

“I don’t think we have ever had a more important time.”