By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
March 25 – Three of the four women chasing a spot on FIFA’s executive committee could end up sharing the top table of football’s world governing body.
Buried in the small print of last week’s exco meeting, dominated by FIFA’s reform process, was a recommendation that in addition to the newly elected four-year women’s football seat being put to the vote at the FIFA Congress in Mauritius, two more women should be co-opted for 12 months, extending exco membership to 27.
Having at least one woman on the exco was among the first proposals recommended by Swiss professor Mark Pieth, appointed by FIFA to draw up the anti-corruption reform proposals but appointing three would transform the composition of FIFA’s top brass overnight and give the women’s game a pivotal role in the decision making process.
Currently FIFA has one woman exco member, Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera (Africa) whose co-opted term comes to an end in Mauritius and who is vying with Australia’s Moya Dodd (Asia), New Zealand’s Helen Kearns (Oceania) and Sonia Bien-Aime from Turks and Caicos (CONCACAF) for the elected post. It is understood that two of those who lose would end up being handed a co-opted spot, music to the ears of Dodd who has welcomed FIFA’s sudden change of attitude.
“It’s a hugely positive step for FIFA to ask Congress to triple the number of women on the exco,” she said. “Historically women have had very little access (to decision making) even though women make up half the world’s population. Gender balance is very important to governance, and moving from to one to three female ExCo members would show that FIFA is serious about governance reform and about encouraging women in football.”
Dodd’s manifesto ahead of the Mauritius vote focuses on combining her career as player, her experience of decision making as an existing Asian Football Confederation vice-president and her negotiation skills honed during a legal and business background.
Speaking on the fringes of last week’s Securing Sport Conference in Doha, she understood the attention she will inevitably receive if she makes it to the top table of FIFA. “Of course there is a lot of comment about gender when women get into these positions but in Australia we have a woman prime minister and woman governor general. Look at the last 50 or so years of history and you see an irreversible trend towards women taking a greater role in decision making and authority.
“It’s really about doing a good job and working towards a day when gender is no longer important. Football has recognised that it would be a very slow path in terms of its voting and governance structures unless it creates specific positions for females. It’s time for women to have a greater role in decision making in sports governing bodies around the world.”
Not everyone in the corridors of power were comfortable last year when Nsekera was automatically co-opted on to the FIFA exco courtesy of Sepp Blatter in an especially created post. There were many who believed the move was undemocratic and designed to boost the FIFA president’s own image. “It’s important to have an elected position because FIFA needs to be seen to be a democratic body,” said Dodd. “That said, I wouldn’t criticise the decision to have a co-opted female member because it’s better than no female member at all.”
Dodd also insists she will not hide behind protocol and that, if elected, she will speak out against all areas of corruption. “I’m happy to stand by my track record in AFC in doing what I believe is the right thing.”
Ensuring women have greater access to playing is one the key elements of Dodd’s manifesto. “There are even places where women can’t even watch, let alone play,” she says. Better pay and more women coaches are two others. “There is a chasm between what men and women are paid and in fact there aren’t too many women players, even the best in the world, who are fully professional. There are a number of highly qualified Pro Licence female coaches around the world. Their problem is that they have always zero opportunity to work in the men’s game.”
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