I get it, there is a difference between stating ideals and then realizing ideals. I also understand that change takes time. Baby steps, I am told. Be patient, I am told. But this I also know -- I'm all out of time and most important, patience. I will no longer hope for things to change at organizations like FIFA or FIBA or (insert any international sports federation here), especially when they say they have ushered in reforms. It is time to start demanding better. It is time to call out the stank that has infested so many of these organizations for far too long because women playing sports is not a thing that is going away.
Sadly, many girls and women still have to fight for the right to play despite the fact that more women around the world are playing sports than ever before. Fact is, the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro had approximately 45 percent female participation.
While that is certainly encouraging, the reality remains that executive committees, boards and all levels of management at federations in every corner of the globe are not keeping the same pace.
To show you just how frightfully slow that pace is, I remind you of Richard Lapchick's study before the Rio Olympics. "The Gender Report Card: 2016 International Sports Report Card on Women in Leadership Roles," released by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, was the first graded report card on the representation of women in leadership roles in international sport. The report card examined the international sports federations (meaning those affiliated to the International Olympic Committee like FIFA for soccer and FIBA for basketball), the national federations then connected to the international federations and the regional zone confederations (like CONCACAF for soccer). More than 8,500 leadership positions were examined and well, let's just say the grades were not surprising. International federations received an "F". Collectively, the national federations affiliated to each international federation received an "F". The regional zone confederations received an "F". FAIL, FAIL and FAIL.
Lapchick added, "We knew anecdotally that women were poorly represented, but the lack of women in the international federations was astounding."
My colleague Val Ackerman, who recently served as the U.S. representative for FIBA for eight years, said that international basketball is among the sports who are behind the times. "The international federations are patriarchal, socially conservative organizations who simply haven't made women a priority. ... Without more change agents working from within and continued external pressure, it will remain an uphill battle to bring women to the table and move these groups into the modern age."
This brings me to what happened this week with FIFA. As most know, FIFA has been embroiled in corruption charges for many years, but they have been especially pronounced in the last few years as the U.S. Department of Justice started spoiling FIFA meetings in Zurich with early morning arrests and raids. In response to these corruption charges, FIFA rolled out a series of reforms last year to show just how progressive it intended to become. One of those reforms -- the only one I will address in this article because I haven't had enough wine yet -- had to do with gender diversity on its executive committee, or as it is now called, the FIFA Council. FIFA announced with much fanfare that it would increase its number of women on the council to six voting members -- one woman from each of the six confederations. Given there are 37 total FIFA Council members, I will save you the math -- that is 16 percent women. That FIFA is celebrating 16 percent women on their voting board as "progress" tells you about everything you need to know about FIFA. Oh, and the fact it took FIFA 109 years to install its first woman on the board in 2013.
On Monday, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held its vote to elect its mandated female FIFA Council member. Four women ran for one spot. The Asian Confederation then voted on who would win that one seat. One of the women up for the council position was Moya Dodd, current lawyer and former player with the Australian national team. Three years ago, Dodd had been brought on to the FIFA executive committee as a non-voting member and in her short time was widely credited with implementing changes and support for women's football within FIFA. She was a champion of reform and transparency and a consistent advocate to make women's football a higher priority.
Ask anyone within and outside FIFA to name the one woman who was most responsible for reform on women's football and they would say without hesitation, Moya Dodd. Well that very same Moya Dodd ended up losing the Asian council seat to a woman from Bangladesh, Mahfuza Akhter Kiron. The vote by 44 men was not even close, 27-17. Post-election, Akhter Kiron was interviewed by the BBC about her new board seat and asked who won the last Women's World Cup. Akhter Kiron first said North Korea (North Korea was not even at the Women's World Cup, banned for doping). She then said Japan (nope, wrong again). And finally mumbled USA (third time's the charm).
Bangladesh, where Akhter Kiron is from, is ranked 103rd on the FIFA women's world rankings. The other five women's seats on the FIFA Council went to Burundi (ranked 116th), American Samoa (ranked 116th), Ecuador (ranked 116th), Turks and Caicos (ranked 116th), and Italy (ranked 19th). How can four teams all be ranked 116th, you ask? Because they all essentially lost their rank (115 is the lowest they go) for not having played a competitive match in the last 18 months. Think about that for second: Five out of the six women's council seats do not crack the top 100 in rankings. Four out of the six council seats for women are part of federations that barely have a women's team or at least not an active one. Let's be clear: I am not anti-smaller countries. I am not anti-growing women's football countries. I am pro-progress. To have all six seats on a board filled with countries who do not support the women's game (yes, I am talking to you too, Italy) feels like regression, not progression. This is clearly not representative of the women's game. You must play, recruit, invest and support the game to get a better ranking.
Dodd was the only prospect for the most active women's football nations to take a seat, with Australia ranked No. 8, while Akhter Kiron is known for barring the Bangladeshi women's players from speaking to the media because of negative reports about the program. It became so problematic that the media boycotted the team's recent February press conference.
And the other problem I have with this attempt at "reform" is one not confined to FIFA. These six executive committee seats were mandated by FIFA because it recognized the lack of gender diversity. But FIFA cannot mandate these seats and then leave the selection of these women to the same men inside FIFA who are widely known to not always have the best interest of the game at heart. Again, for the record, I am not anti-men. I am pro-progress. And FIFA is notorious for men who are more concerned with amassing power and voting blocs than reform.
To give you an example of the culture within FIFA and the confederations who vote on the women's board seats, I give you an excerpt from Richard Lai, the president of the Guam Football Federation, recently admitting his guilt before a United States federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, on April 27. In his testimony, Mr. Lai said:
"In about January 2011, an AFC (Asian Football Confederation) officer ... approached me and offered me $100,000 if I would serve as a consultant to his construction business in connection with purchasing construction material in China. At that time, I operated restaurants in Guam, and while I had earned an engineering degree decades before, I had never performed any kind of consulting in the construction field for [this person] or anyone else.
"When [this officer] made his offer to me, I had publicly opposed many of his policies and practice as head of the AFC (Asian Football Confederation). And when he announced his candidacy for the president of FIFA a few months later, I understood that he was seeking to pay me a bribe in exchange for my support and my vote as president of the GFA."
Mr. Lai goes on to say that he was paid $100,000 for work never performed and for his vote. Mr. Lai also confessed to taking over $850,000 between 2009 and 2014 from soccer officials in the AFC region to vote as they wished.
By the way, the officer referred in the testimony is now known to be Mohammed Bin Hammam, who was later suspended by FIFA for handing envelopes of cash to Caribbean officials in exchange for their presidential vote.
Yes, welcome to FIFA.
So to then ask that same body of people to make good decisions on electing women is setting the system up to fail. It would be like asking members of the IOC to pick the athlete representatives who sit on its board. The IOC doesn't pick the athletes, the Summer and Winter Olympic athletes do. And, equally important, there is a minimum standard and credential required for the people running for that athlete commission seats.
FIFA must do the same to ensure that the most qualified women are up for election. It needs to be truly representative of those who love, play, defend and advocate for the game. Maybe it's a women's football representative who needs to be able to nominate and vote, or maybe it's a minimum standard test. The point being, FIFA must ensure that any candidate has met a minimum standard. They must seek women who proactively are advancing the game and/or women's sports. It is not enough to be in the game. They must be experienced AND effective AND vocal. If FIFA cannot ensure this independence of thought (yes, insert snarky line here about not putting my money on it), it must hire a global search firm that vets the candidates for them.
And until it does, stop asking us to trust you, FIFA. Stop asking for patience. Stop boasting about reform and instead, start acting responsibly. Start showing the world that you do indeed think the game is "for everyone and for all." Here is your first test, and we will be watching. Take that first step. Empower women to help empower you. I promise you, you will not regret it.