Wayne Allison

With a career spanning over 20 years, Dr Wayne Allison is an English former footballer who scoredover 200 goals. The striker nicknamed ‘The Chief’ wore the colours of teams including Watford, Bristol City, Halifax Town, Huddersfield Town, Tranmere Rovers and Sheffield United.After retiring, Allison stepped in to various management roles for clubs including Bury and Tranmere Rovers.

Allison joined The FA as coaching research manager in 2012, and has set up his own company, “Science of Soccer” specialising in sports science consultancy.Born in Huddersfield, Allison’s career began at Halifax Town, moving to the first team from their apprenticeship scheme in 1987.

His brave and powerful style of play earned him an average of a goal in every three matches, and he was soon noticed by Watford who bought the young player for£250,000. It was Allison’s third club, Bristol City, where he would begin to make a name for himself knocking 49 goals into the back of the net in 149 starts for the Robins. In the following years, Allison played for Swindon Town, Tranmere, Sheffield United and Chesterfield, maintaining his impressive scoring ability throughout his career.

After hanging up his boots as a player, Allison’s enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge of the game led to coaching roles at Tranmere Rovers and Bradford City. Alongside his coaching roles, he studied his sports science PhD at Sheffield Hallam University on the effects of high-intensity exercise on decision-making in football, and was appointed as The FA’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic project manager in 2015.He is also the co-author of the book ‘Advances in Coach Education andDevelopment: From research to practice’.