Professor Laura McAllister CBE FLSW (born 10 December 1964) is a Welsh academic, former international footballer and senior sports administrator.

[6] She is Chair of the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame and a Non-executive Director of Goodson Thomas boutique executive search agency.

[3] McAllister was nominated by the Football Association of Wales for election as UEFA's female member of the FIFA Council but was controversially prevented from standing.

McAllister contested the election for the female representative from UEFA on FIFA Council, but was narrowly beaten by Evelina Christillin.

In April 2023 McAllister was finally elected unopposed as vice-president of UEFA, the first person from Wales to be on the executive committee.

[17] McAllister writes a regular column on current affairs, sport and politics in the Western Mail newspaper and for Wales Online.

[18] McAllister was the only Welsh woman to be included in the BBC's 100 Women List 2022, alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Geraldina Guerra Garcés, Selma Blair and 96 others.

[19] While following Wales to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, McAllister was prevented from entering the stadium ahead of the opening game with a bucket hat which had a rainbow on it.

[20] The attempts to separate McAllister from her bucket hat seemed to relate to a crackdown in Qatar on items that had a rainbow on them and affected numerous other fans, including U.S. former Sports Illustrated journalist Grant Wahl, who was arrested over a t-shirt, as well as a reporter for The New York Times who attempted to report on that incident only to become caught up in the crackdown himself.