Manchester City hailed as leaders in women's football
Tuesday 27 September 2016 11:43, UK
FIFA General Secretary Fatma Samoura has praised Manchester City as leaders in women's football.
In an exclusive interview with Sportswomen, to promote gender equality in the game, the most powerful female official in world football praised City's success in the Women's Super League.
Samoura highlighted City's domestic success following their win against Chelsea, in front of a record 4,000 crowd at the Academy Stadium on Sunday.
"Manchester City is an example we can roll out worldwide," Samoura told Sportswomen on Sky Sports News HQ during the annual Soccerex conference in Manchester.
"We are looking for legends, young and old, who can be our best advocates. We can only praise that kind of initiative. It's not only England where we would like women's leagues. Throughout the world we are still really suffering big inequalities in terms of female representatives at all levels. In managerial positions, there is less than 8 per cent. To me, the future is really having women's football professionalised."
Samoura was appointed FIFA General Secretary in May, after 21 years at the United Nations, and says world football's governing body continues to attract many female applicants.
"One of my biggest battles (at the UN) was female empowerment," she said. "The challenges are very similar at FIFA, in terms of the positioning of women in leadership, whether in football or administration. There is room for improvement and this is high on my agenda. FIFA, and women in FIFA, is still a big brand. You would be amazed by the number of people who apply for jobs.
"We are running different programmes. Our Live your Goals programme empowers girls and inspires them to play football and stay in the game. There's our Female Leadership Development Programme too. New FIFA reform is pushing for at least one female representative at a leadership position (elected as a Council member per confederation). Our new Council will have new faces, new women, part of the decision-making body."
Samoura presented Indian NGO Slum Soccer with the inaugural FIFA Diversity Award on Monday, to recognise the organisation for 'standing up for diversity and inspire unity, solidarity and equality among all people'.
"We can definitely improve the way FIFA fights discrimination," she added. "We can also help our member associations to keep it top of their agenda. It's definitely a fight we are leading. It's a social battle, not related to football. With my UN background, we embrace diversity and have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to discrimination."
