By Andrew Warshaw
October 12 – With precision timing just as FIFA president Gianni Infantino prepares to preside over the first full meeting of his expanded ruling Council, FIFA has announced the appointment of Sarai Bareman as its first ever Chief Women’s Football Officer.
Born in New Zealand, she was the only woman on Francois Carrard’s reform commission which called for greater female representation and will lead the newly created Women’s Football Division as part of FIFA’s management board.
“As the only female member of FIFA’s 2016 Reform Committee, Sarai was a strong advocate for change within the organization, in particular calling for concrete requirements on women in leadership positions at FIFA,” FIFA said in a statement.
Bareman, who will take up the role on November 14, served as deputy general secretary for the Oceania Football Confederation and before that was CEO for Football Federation Samoa from 2011 to 2014, at one point describing in a blog the prejudice she faced in a male-dominated administration.
Bareman, who worked with FIFA’s highly regarded executive committee member Moya Dodd to push for more female decision making, will report to FIFA deputy secretary general Zvonimir Boban.
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