Sports Consultant. Director of Women in Football. Ex FA Women's Pro Game Director
Joined October 2010
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Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
You didn’t just break the glass ceiling, you shattered it.
Your impact goes beyond the matches you officiated. You opened doors, broke barriers and created opportunities for those who will follow.
Thank you for leaving the game in a better place than you found it❤️👏
"To the young girl who simply loved refereeing, we did it. Thank you, football."
Assistant referee Sian Massey-Ellis MBE has announced her retirement from officiating after a remarkable career, to take up the role of Senior Manager - Women Referees with The FA.
Since reaching the Premier League in 2010, at the time only the second female to ever do so, Massey-Ellis has officiated on over 150 top-flight matches. Alongside a plethora of domestic milestones, including five Women's FA Cup finals and becoming the first female appointed to both the FA Community Shield and Men’s FA Cup final, she also has an impressive international resume. She has been involved in three UEFA Women’s Champions League finals, four UEFA Women's EUROs, two FIFA Women’s World Cups and she was also the first English woman appointed to a men's European fixture.
🔗 Read more here: the-fa.com/rfeu4r
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Mexico 🇲🇽
Liga MX Femenil has become the world's most-watched women's football league with 22 million TV viewers, surpassing the US, German and English leagues in global reach.
buff.ly/QteArjg
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
What kind of world are we becoming when children can be harmed in the most devastating way, and the response still feels like it protects the perpetrators more than the victims?
This news should make every decent person stop, think, and feel angry, especially parents.
Girls and boys are becoming more vulnerable, and yet too often the message sent is weak, confused, and unforgivable. Victims are left carrying life-changing trauma while those responsible avoid the full weight of consequence. That is not justice. That is failure.
We cannot keep looking away, staying quiet and accepting a system that appears more concerned with avoiding consequences for offenders than protecting children from harm.
Have your say. Raise your voice. Challenge this. Because silence changes nothing, and our children deserve far better than this.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c332…
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
I’m still thinking about this. It’s great that this unduly lenient sentence is being reviewed BUT:
1. It should not take public outrage for this to happen in 2026;
2. The sentencing guidelines must be urgently reviewed;
3. Judge Nicholas Rowland must be removed. He chose to protect and praise serial rapists. No excuses. He must go.
“None of you need go to prison today” Excuse me? 11 counts of rape against two different girls and Judge Nicholas Rowland said this and “I should avoid criminalizing these children unnecessarily.”Unnecessarily? So targeting different girls, using a knife, gang rape and filming and posting it are not serious crimes? WTF? 🤬
They criminalized themselves. They are serial rapists who knew what they were doing and they filmed it.
Two girls now have to live with trauma forever. They deserve prison time and the Judge must be removed. He’s a misogynist and there’s no place on the bench for men like him at a time of increasing male violence to girls and women. Get him out 🤬
#CrimeAnalyst #Pattern #serialperpetrator #MaleViolence @laurarichards99
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
FT: Club América 5, Washington Spirit 3
Club América is the 2025-26 Concacaf W Champions Cup winner, clinching a spot in January's FIFA Champions Cup + 2028 Club World Cup as Barcelona did earlier today.
That was one of the most ridiculous, entertaining games you'll ever see.
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Horrific. Appalling. Unacceptable.
Women and girls left to wonder when the justice system will actually deliver for them.
Inexplicable the choice that these rapists get puny rehabilitation orders.
The 2 girls affected - will be affected for ever.
If you rape at knife point - apparently you can still avoid jail.
In no way can this ever be acceptable.
Justice for them both and their families must prevail
@aliciakearns
Teenage gang who lured schoolgirl, 15, to underpass and laughed as they filmed themselves raping her handed youth rehabilitation orders trib.al/RkAJsUQ
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
This will be special. Women in Football will be marking their 20th anniversary. So much has changed since then, much due to the incredible support network and growth model that Women in Football have created.
The football industry event like no other is back! The Women in Football Be Inspired Conference 2026 takes place at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday 16 September, and tickets are on sale now 🏟️🎟️
Secure your place at tickettailor.com/events/wome….
#WIFevents | #WomeninFootball
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Join us this Wednesday for the first session in our Careers in Football series!
Our first guest Kelly Simmons OBE joins us at midday on Wednesday to offer 60 minutes of open talk, practical advice, and networking. Register for a free place at events.teams.microsoft.com/e….
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
A great season for England Women’s U23s as they won their European cup trophy yesterday. I spoke to Izzy Goodwin about it and you can listen to the interview at HT of Iceland v England on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra today 🏴
bbc.com/sport/football/artic…
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
From today, the two child limit is lifted. That means 450,000 children will no longer grow up in poverty.
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
We're thrilled to launch our new Careers in Football series, designed to help you navigate the professional football landscape 🚀
Our first guest Kelly Simmons OBE joins us on 22 April for open talk, practical advice, and networking. Register for free: events.teams.microsoft.com/e….
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Such a shame. I was hoping to meet with Travelodge because I’ve had a number of members of the public who have experienced unauthorised entries into their rooms contact me and I really wanted to raise these cases with the CEO. Hopefully they will reconsider.
NEW: Travelodge CEO turns down open meeting with MPs, which was booked for tomorrow afternoon
@MattBishopMP says he’s ‘extremely disappointed’ and accuses the Hotel of evading open & transparent engagement
‘Refusing to do so sends entirely the wrong message to victims & undermines confidence in their commitment to safeguarding’ 🧵
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Women are at serious risk when staying at @TravelodgeUK. The hotel staff who gave a man a key to a woman's room at 3am were apparently following security procedures 'correctly' which beggars belief since:
❌She was checked in as a single woman.
❌They didn't phone her to check if he really was her boyfriend and welcome in her room.
❌They didn't accompany him to the room and knock.
❌They gave him a key card because he knew her name.
After he let himself in and sexually assaulted her, Travelodge offered her a £30 refund.
This is even more horrifying since it is not the first time this has happened. James Cox was convicted in 2025 of raping a woman in a Travelodge in Liverpool. You might think Travelodge would have instigated better security after such an incident, instead it seems to be aiding and abetting sex offenders. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3v7…
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Hillary Clinton: You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, despite espousing the need for transparency. You have made little effort to call the people who show up most prominently in the Epstein files. And when you did, not a single Republican member showed up for Les Wexner's deposition. This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors.
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Lots of connections. Lots of smiles. 😀
The TransferRoom Leaders: Women's Football Forum at Stamford Bridge was all about building key relationships and new networks. 🤝✍️
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
This girl was 12 years old.
You can't "groom" a child for sex because a) sex is voluntary and b) a child can't consent to sex.
Stop framing child sexual abuse as sex, even if it's a quote - that agrees with the framing of the abusers.
bbc.com/news/articles/clyxrp…
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
On Epstein files:
1. Why is the press referring to girls as women?
2. Why is the press inventing a term, 'underage women', there is no such thing.
3. There is no such thing as 'sex with a child', it is called child rape or child sexual abuse.
Stop minimising the criminality.
Kelly Simmons OBE retweeted
Millions of files of evidence collected but not a single man prosecuted. Not a single one. #EpsteinFiles
