UCFB announces first guests for 2025 Future Leaders Conference

UCFB is delighted to announce the first two guests of our 2025 Future Leaders Conference.

Each year, UCFB invite undergraduate and postgraduate students to The Home of England, St George’s Park, for special insight into the domestic football industry.

Joined by experts in areas such as sports media, coaching and business, UCFB students are given the chance to network with industry professionals and learn from them via seminars and interactive sessions.

Through our partnership with The League Managers Association, we have also been able to invite keynote speakers to the conference, offering words of wisdom to the students.

Previous keynote speakers at The Future Leaders Conference include John Barnes, Dion Dublin and Chris Sutton.

This year, we’re delighted to announce that we will be joined by Lionesses legend Rachel Yankey OBE and England Men’s Senior Team assistant manager Anthony Barry.

Rachel Yankey OBE is a former professional player best known for her time with Arsenal. Throughout her playing career, Rachel amassed over 120 appearances for the Lionesses and represented England at numerous international tournaments.

Rachel is one of the most decorated players in Women’s Football, winning the FA Women’s National Premier League seven times, the FA WSL twice, The FA Women’s Cup eleven times, the FA Women’s Premier League Cup six times, and the UEFA Women’s Cup once during her two spells with Arsenal and her time at Fulham. Rachel also represented Team GB at the 2012 London Olympics. 

Rachel also received recognition for her services to football with an MBE in 2006 and an OBE in 2014.

Anthony Barry is Assistant Manager for the England Men’s Senior Team as part of Thomas Tuchel’s staff. Following a professional playing career, Anthony has been coaching since 2017 at the professional level, working with high profile clubs and managers helping to produce success wherever he has coached. 

Starting out at Wigan Athletic under Paul Cook, Anthony moved to join Frank Lampard at Chelsea in 2020 as part of his coaching team after meeting Frank on their UEFA pro-licence at St. George’s Park. Anthony would go on to coach at Chelsea for three years under Lampard, Tuchel, and Graham Potter before re-joining Tuchel in April 2023 at Bayern Munich as Assistant Manager. 

Anthony’s period at Chelsea also saw him spend time with the Republic of Ireland National Team as an assistant under Stephen Kenny, as well as the Belgium National Team and Portugal National Team under Roberto Martinez.

To find out more about the incredible opportunities and experiences offered to UCFB students during their time studying, click here.

You can also click here and view a UCFB prospectus to kick off your own career in football.