The meeting rooms at law firm Gilbert + Tobin, high in the Barangaroo complex with expansive views across Sydney, are named after historically-significant locations. Basra, Melos, Worms – cities that have witnessed turning points in history.

It is an apt place to interview Moya Dodd, now a partner at the firm, who has been a firsthand observer of countless significant moments in football. From playing in the precursor to the first Women’s World Cup to becoming a trailblazing administrator, Dodd has made a vital contribution to the development of the female game.

“I never had a plan,” says Dodd as she sips her morning coffee. “If I did have a plan and had written it down it would have been laughable – implausibly ridiculous. You might call it serendipitous, but I think the correct word is obliquity. You don’t always go directly to your destination, but if you follow your interests you find yourself around like-minded people and opportunities arise.”

But how different it might have been. Dodd was born in Adelaide in the 1960s. She admits to having an “unconventional” upbringing – her Chinese mother was a Seventh-day Adventist, her Australian father was a fireman. They lived together in a fire station, and were vegetarians – long before it was trendy. “I didn’t feel we were different, but special,” says Dodd. “I was enormously fortunate to have the parents I did.”

Despite developing an early love for sport, multiple obstacles stood between Dodd and football. “I was in South Australia – the land of AFL and cricket,” she says. “And girls and boys weren’t allowed to play together on the oval at lunch-time.” The arrival of a new classmate from football-loving Sydney sparked Dodd’s interest. “We found a deflated basketball in the school shed and kicked that around.”

The introduction of a television into the family home when Dodd was 10 would prove pivotal. “I saw football on TV and just thought it was marvellous.” At night a young Dodd would lie awake listening to short wave radio. “You could pick up the BBC and hear live calls from Anfield or Wembley,” she says. Dodd was soon competing, first in the local league and eventually for the national team. “It turns out when you start playing, it is hard to stop.”

But the Matildas team Dodd entered in the mid-1980s – and would later vice-captain – was a world apart from the professional outfit she recently watched compete at the 2019 World Cup in France. “We weren’t paid,” she says. “We had to pay to meet the costs of a tour. The association would fund as much as they could, and then the rest came down to contributions from players.”

At the time, without a centralised platform for women’s football provided by Fifa or the Olympics, the playing schedule was haphazard. “If we were lucky we would tour once or twice a year; if we were unlucky, we wouldn’t tour at all,” she says. Fixtures were organised bilaterally between football associations. “It took a lot of letter writing and expensive international phone calls!”

A highlight of Dodd’s playing career was the 1988 Fifa Women’s Invitation Tournament in China. “We knew it was massive,” she says. “We all felt the responsibility that we had to do a good job – not just for our country, but for the whole sport. We were all conscious that if we put on a good show, Fifa might bless us with a regular World Cup.” Two weeks after the tournament concluded, Fifa approved the first official Women’s World Cup.

Dodd retired from the national team at 29 after suffering a knee injury, and focused on her career as a lawyer. She would spend more than a decade working in law, consulting and media, before an opportunity to join the Football Federation Australia board arose. “I did not think twice,” Dodd says. “I was still playing recreationally, I was still a fan, and I had gained enough business experience to be useful.”

It was an exciting time, coming just after FFA’s rebirth. “There had never been an opportunity like that before. When I joined the annual revenues were around $30m per year – when I left they were $100m. The women’s game needed a voice in that room.”

Dodd soon took up a position on the Asian Football Confederation executive committee, and in 2013 became only the third Australian in history to join Fifa’s powerful council. It was a time of major upheaval, as “Fifa-gate” struck, long-time president Sepp Blatter was forced out and major governance reforms were implemented.

“It was a whole new level of complexity and opportunity,” she says. “I was glad to be at Fifa when it happened, so I could contribute to that debate.” As a “co-opted” council member, Dodd did not have a vote. “But I had a voice, and access to people and information. I was in the rooms, at the breakfasts, in the transport. Not having a vote put me in a weaker position from colleagues, but it didn’t stop me from making an impact.”

That impact included pushing wide-ranging internal reforms on human rights and gender equality and introducing 10 guiding principles for the development of women’s football. “There were a lot of highs,” she says. “Being in a quota position, I always felt that I was representing the unrepresented voice – my role was to represent women’s football at the top table.”

In hindsight, some of the people who beat me up are now in custody, so I’d rather be me than them

There were also lows. Dodd received considerable internal pushback when she refused to accept an expensive watch as a gift, unlike the majority of the council. “I thought my goose was cooked at that point,” she says. “But in hindsight, some of the people who beat me up are now in custody, so I’d rather be me than them.”

Dodd was also unsuccessful in seeking election to the council in 2017, beaten by a candidate who struggled to name the reigning women’s world champions. Dodd insists she isn’t bitter. “That’s not a helpful emotion,” she says. “It was disappointing of course, but it showed the system for what it was – and that it needs changing.”

The election loss at least meant Dodd could spend more time with her partner and two children in Sydney, and at her law firm (where she is a highly-regarded telecommunications lawyer), and less time on flights to Zurich. But she firmly believes that those endless long-haul flights were worthwhile.

“Women’s football went from being neglected without consequence to a gold star issue, in that you got a gold star for doing something for the women’s game,” says Dodd. “Now it needs to move towards a consistent and equal program of involvement and investment. The return on investment on a marginal dollar in women’s football is far higher than on a dollar in men’s football, where the progress has already been made.”

Dodd is no longer formally involved with FFA, AFC or Fifa, although she still sits on a number of related committees and chairs the charity Common Goal. What next for this trailblazer? Fifa presidency?

“I’m not sure that is going to happen,” Dodd says. “But we have the semi-final coming up in our over 35s league, so I’m looking forward to that. I am getting materially worse every week, but I enjoying running around with old mates.”