Fran Connolly has been announced as the next CEO of England Netball.

Connolly will take over the position from previous CEO Joanna Adams, who left the post after ten years to join the London Legacy Development Corporation in August.

Connolly joined England Netball in 2001 and has held numerous roles in the organisation since joining, including director of development.

Speaking after her appointment, Connolly said: “The magic moments that were created on the Gold Coast and earlier this year at the World Cup in Liverpool captured the attention of the nation and united the Netball Family – it is this movement that I want to ensure we continue to nurture and grow as we move in to an exciting next chapter.”

"We are hugely ambitious as a sport, we want to be the trailblazers across women's sport and across the sports sector and to do that we need to continue the momentum and we don't want to lose any pace.

"The competition is fierce out there from other sports and from other netballing nations and I guess this appointment signals the fact that the board want to continue as fast as possible. I fully intend to hit the ground running."

Netball has had a massive resurgence in the UK in the last few years following England’s gold medal-winning performance in the 2017 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

This summer saw the Netball World Cup come to the UK, and although the Red Roses were unable to reach the final, they finished a respectable third place.

Connolly takes over the lead role in the England Netball set-up at an exciting time for the sport. Netball has seen record-breaking participation figures this year across a wide range of audiences; players, coaches, volunteers, and fans.

Netball figures show that 130,700 women started playing netball or more netball following the 2018 Commonwealth Games and this was improved this year with 160,000 more women after the Netball World Cup.