Christian Smith

Chief Executive Officer (interim) - Northamptonshire FA

Christian has a long and varied career in football, the highlights of which were successful spells with Leicester City FC as General Manager and the Professional Footballers’ Association where he spent 13 years as Commercial Director.

Now in his third year with the County FA, Christian leads the NFA Team in delivering against FA targets and the needs of Leagues, Clubs and Players in the County.

With a particular passion for disability football, he also sits on the Board of the Great Britain Disability Football Association.

Mel Blackmore 

Board of Directors - Northamptonshire FA

Mel has played many different roles over a 35year career within football where she played in the ladies’ National League and at College in Georgia, USA. She is a qualified PE teacher of 20 years, a Level 2 FA coach, and a Level 5 Referee.

Mel retired from playing at 40 and is now heavily involved in league administration where she has been the Secretary of the Beds and Herts Women’s League for 7 years, and now

in her 2nd year for the NWGMFL. 

She believes in the growth and development across all communities in football and has now ventured into walking football!

Alex Brooks

Independent Non-Executive Director (HR) - Northamptonshire FA

Alex is a sports and employment lawyer, with several years’ experience advising on employment and HR issues in particular. 

Alex has been a solicitor at specialist sports law firm Onside Law since 2018, having previously trained and qualified into the Employment department at Penningtons Manches before joining Thomas Cooper in their Employment and Sports team. 

Alex is passionate about grassroots sport and plays in weekly 5 and 7 a side football leagues, as well as being involved with a number of charities that use sport to help children and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, Alex is a member of the Employment Lawyers’ Association and Women in Football.

Lawrence Kay BA (Hons), MCIMSPA

Non-Executive Director – Northamptonshire FA

Lawrence has over 25years experience in the sport and leisure industry. Lawrence is currently a senior leader within a successful social enterprise, involved in strategic leisure facility management, business development in additional to establishing and developing a range of partnerships.

Lawrence has a wealth of experience of managing both sports and health development services and facility operations teams, leading numerous teams and programmes to achieve national recognition.

A father of two young girls, Lawrence’s spare time is split between family time, keeping fit and volunteering with Northamptonshire based sports and leisure organisations.

Salim Bhaiji

Independent Non-Executive Director (Finance) – Northamptonshire FA

Salim is a management consultant at KPMG specialising in Finance Transformation. In a 13-year career he has worked across a number of large Financial Institutions including Allianz, Aviva, AIG and Barclays. He is also a qualified accountant.

In his current role he leads Finance Change projects across teams including FP&A, Business Partnering and Financial Reporting. This involves work covering Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting, Cost Reduction, Org Design, Business Process Review and Regulatory Driven Change. 

Salim is a life-long Newcastle United fan and is also starting his FA coaching path for which he is Level 1 qualified.

Tony Major

Non-Executive Director – Northamptonshire FA

With over 58 years’ service to football in the County, Tony remains a key figure on the NFA Board, bringing knowledge, passion and continuity to the role he has now held for 18 years.  During his illustrious career in local football, Tony has collected a host of official acknowledgements and awards including the FA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Community Football and the Northamptonshire Lifetime Contribution to Sport Award.  One of his proudest moments was being invited to the Queens Garden Party at Buckingham Palace for his lifetime contribution to grass roots football in May 2016.