Lydia Nsekera Becomes First Woman Elected to FIFA ExCo

 

Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera made history on Friday when she became the first woman to be elected to the Executive Committee of football’s world governing body FIFA for a full term.

Nsekera was voted on for a full four-year term at the FIFA Congress in Mauritius, while two other women, Moya Dodd of Australia and Sonia Bien-Aime of the Turks and Caicos Islands, were coopted on for one year.

Nsekera was the first woman to be co-opted on for one year at last year’s Congress in Budapest. Now there will be three women on the ExCo, compared to none two years ago. It is another step towards gender equality within FIFA, although there is still work to be done, with the ExCo comprising a total of 24 members.

“One woman was coopted on to the Executive Committee last year for one year, and now a woman has been officially elected on to the executive committee, with two others co-opted. It has taken us 109 years to get this far,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter.