Moya Dodd’s submission to the FIFA Reform Committee is garnering much international interest with its call for greater female inclusion in the decision-making processes within FIFA and football globally.
Dodd, a former Matildas player and chair of the FIFA Task Force for Women’s Football and a co-opted member of the FIFA Executive Committee, has submitted a reform paper to Francois Carrard, Chair of FIFA Reform Committee.
In it, she sets out a series of reform plans to, in her words, ‘correct what is perhaps the most profound, long-standing and systemic injustice in sport – the exclusion of women and girls from the world’s most popular game, football.”
Read Moya Dodd’s paper in full HERE
Dodd, one of only three women on the 26-person FIFA Ex Co, makes the point in her paper that representation in football is overwhelmingly male and there needs to be a step-change in the gender imbalance.
So, when female footballers face social and institutional barriers to playing the game – a game loved just as much by females as males – it often leads to under-representation at decision-making and administrative levels of the sport.
‘Given that women constitute an enormous growth opportunity for football, such measures would undoubtedly serve FIFA’s objectives,’ she adds.
It’s worth noting also that women constitute only 8% of FIFA Ex Co members globally right now. And only two out of 209 federation presidents are women.
What's more, the European Commission recently called for minimum 30% gender representation in international sports governing bodies, 40% in national sports governing bodies, with a minimum 40% in management.
Dodd’s submission has sparked much media attention internationally with Julie Foudy, one of the greatest ever US players, arguing greater gender diversity at administrative levels is needed urgently, as is the need to promote football for young girls as a sport they can play.
Read Julie Foudy’s piece HERE
Dodd concludes in her paper that a 30% female representation at decision-making levels should be the goal for football and within FIFA.
‘Critical mass is essential. Once there are 30% women in a group, the culture shifts,' she writes.