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Image by Conor Sexton

Bonita Mersiades

ABOUT 

Bonita Mersiades

Bonita Mersiades is the founder of Fair Play Publishing and the Manly Writers' Festival. She is recognised internationally as a 'FIFA whistleblower' for exposing corruption and governance issues within world football administration. She served as the team manager of the Socceroos and was head of corporate and public affairs with Football Australia. Before her career in football, she held senior executive positions with the federal government and has led Australian delegations to the World Health Organisation and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forums across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. She has written extensively on sports governance for a variety of media and documentaries. Her published works include three books: My World is Round – the biography of Frank Farina (1998), Whatever It Takes – the Inside Story of the FIFA Way (2018), and Portraits in Football (2022); she also edited Hear Us Roar – an anthology of emerging women football writers (2023). Additionally, she is the chair of the community-based cancer care charity, NBCCC.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

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