Throughout her career, Ms Mallam has worked on two FIFA World Cups, the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and various other international and European summer and winter sporting events, according to a statement from Football Australia.

Some of her other notable roles include as head of legal and compliance for Breitling, managing director of Repucom, senior legal counsel with the European Broadcasting Union/Eurovision and commercial legal counsel with FIFA when she joined them in 2008.

“At FIFA, Mallam negotiated some of the world’s first digital media agreements in sport — with Facebook, Twitter, and Google, including the development of the first application for FIFA for the FIFA World Cup,” the statement from Football Australia explained.

“This led her to segue into technology, working for global technology company Parallels as their global general counsel (software and platform as a service) and then as head of legal and compliance for fast-growing unicorn track Swiss scale-up Beekeeper — SAAS product for frontline workers.”

Football Australia chief executive officer James Johnson said he is thrilled to welcome Ms Mallam to the fold.

“Mel will bring an outstanding set of skills, experience, and football acumen to Football Australia. She was the strongest candidate in an extensive recruitment process and will play a key role in Australian football,” Mr Johnson said.

“Mel is not just a lawyer who likes football or works in sport. She has formal academic sports law qualifications, experience as an athlete and administrator and an understanding of both football and sport from grassroots to elite. Mel previously sat on several sporting association boards including Capital Football.

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“Mel is well placed to help drive our strategic agenda and, our football structural reform, commercial, regulatory, governance and integrity priorities. Mel’s 20 years of experience covers leadership roles across a number of global organisations and industries including with FIFA in Zurich, and we look forward to welcoming her back to her place of birth, Australia.”

Commenting on her new role, Ms Mallam said: “Football took me to Switzerland 15 years ago to work with FIFA and now it is bringing me home to work for Football Australia in my home state of New South Wales.

“I look forward to joining Football Australia at such an exciting period for the sport and being part of the new management team, that is driving a fresh 15-year vision and clear strategic agenda for the sport.”