By Andrew Warshaw
May 19- Every national footballing federation should consider appointing at least one woman representative at board level, according to Australia’s Moya Dodd, vice-president of the Asian Football Confederation and one of the sport’s most influential female administrators.
Dodd, who is a co-opted member of Fifa’s executive committee, hit the headlines last week when she was bombarded with media requests to comment on English Premier League chief exectutive Richard Scudamore’s infamous emailed sexism remarks.
Never afraid to speak her mind, she said exactly what she felt but the Scudamore case partly overshadowed her role as a key panellist on the Asian Soccerex Forum in Jordan the same week when she discussed greater representation for women in the corridors of power.
Last year, Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera was handed a permanent seat on FIFA’s ExCo for a four-year term. Dodd and CONCACAF’s Sonia Bien-Aime were both co-opted for a year on FIFA’s ruling body, positions that are expected to be extended at next month’s Fifa Congress.
But Dodd says more can be done at national level to boost the profile of women executives.
“There is a lot of debate about quotas and my view is that you should have a merit-based system that genuinely rewards everyone. There is a lot to be said for quotas. Sometimes I’m asked if I’m a token or a puppet, or a second vote for some man.”
“In football, the view was formed in the AFC and FIFA that if you waited for a system to produce women, you would have to wait a very long time before that occurred.”
“Should member federations of Fifa take a lead in ensuring they have at least one woman on their executive committees? That would be a positive move, in other words adopt what Fifa has done.”