Norfolk’s Football Association has appointed its first female board member, who has revealed her hopes of continuing to expand the horizons of the beautiful game.

Di Cunningham, founder of Norwich City supporters group Proud Canaries, has been appointed a permanent director of Norfolk County FA, having spent a year as an advisor to the board on inclusion matters.

Miss Cunningham was appointed as a director at the association’s recent annual general meeting, joining a board eight who oversee local football across all amateur levels across the county.

And she hopes that in her new post that she can continue to champion diversity and inclusivity within the game - with ambitions of encouraging more women into refereeing and promoting the sport among the LGBT+ community.

She said: “During my year as an advisor to the board I learned that in Norfolk we have an incredibly progressive and forward-thinking local football association. For that reason it is really surprising that it has taken so long for it to have a female board member, as it has been a huge advocate for the women’s game for a long, long time.

“I’m therefore incredibly proud to be that person and hope that I will be able to help continue to help make the game reach people in as many different walks of life as possible.”

Miss Cunningham, 58, joins with ambitions of promoting the sport within as many communities as possible and increase its diversity in the county.

She added: “In Norfolk we have a very fit community and I want to promote football as widely as I can through it. I want to look at ways we can get refugee communities involved more, as well as encouraging more woman to get into refereeing and promoting walking football more.

“Walking football is looked at as a way of keeping people into the game, but it can also be a great way to get people into it who may perhaps be intimidated by the full speed version.

“Members of the LGBT+ community for example perhaps traditionally don’t engage with football quite so well and I think walking football would be a great way of interesting these people too.”