Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura, a 54 year old woman from Senegal and current U.N. Development Programme Resident Representative in Nigeriahas been appointed as Fifa’s first female secretary general.
She succeeds former secretary general Jerome Valcke, who was banned from soccer related activity for 12 years. He was also fined over $100,000 for misconduct related to the sale of tickets for world cup games,the abuse of the FIFA travel expenses policies and regulations, cases involving related-parties issues and the sale of TV and other media rights, and the destruction of evidence, among other forms of misconduct.
Samoura spent 21 years working for the United Nations and will start at football’s governing body in June.
Samoura’s appointment, announced at FIFA’s congress in Mexico City, completes a new look board to an organization which has been associated with corruption allegations under Valcke and previous president Sepp Blatter, who stepped down last year after being president since 1998 and was later suspended for breaching ethics guidelines.
“She has a proven ability to build and lead teams, and improve the way organizations perform. Importantly for Fifa, she also understands that transparency and accountability are at the heart of any well-run and responsible organisation,” said current FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
After saying she was honored to take on this role, Samoura said that This role is a perfect fit for my skills and experience – strategic, high-impact team building in international settings – which I will use to help grow the game of football all over the world.”
Samoura will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the organization as it attempts to recover from the corruption crisis it had been connected with in the past. Appointing a woman to one of the most powerful positions in all of FIFA is a step forward for an organization that has been judged as sexist by many.
