Fatma Samoura

Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura (born 9 September 1962) is a Senegalese former diplomat and senior executive. She was appointed as the first female Secretary General of FIFA by president Gianni Infantino and assumed her post on 20 June 2016. Previously she worked in various positions at the United Nations, mostly of a humanitarian nature.

Fatma Samoura
Secretary General of FIFA
In office
20 June 2016 – 31 December 2023
Preceded byMarkus Kattner (acting)
Personal details
Born (1962-09-09) 9 September 1962
Senegal
Occupation

Early life and education

Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura[1] was born in Dakar, in the recently-independent[2] Senegal, on 9 September 1962.[3] She is the only daughter (the second of seven children), her father a Senegalese military man and her mother a teacher.[2] Her identity as a black Muslim woman is important to her.[4]

She attended the University of Lyon, attaining a master's degree in English and Spanish, and subsequently gained a postgraduate degree in international relations and trade[2] at the Institut d'Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées (IECS,[1] aka Strasbourg Business School). Her home languages are Wolof[2] and French, and she is also fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian.[1]

Career

Early career

Samoura worked for eight years for a leading fertiliser company, occupying a position that had traditionally been taken by men.[2]

UN

After joining the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) at their headquarters in Rome in 1995 as a senior logistics officer,[1] she served as Country Director for WFP in Djibouti (2000–2005[1]) and Cameroon[5] (2005–2007[1]), and altogether worked in seven countries, the others being Chad, Guinea, Niger, Madagascar (United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, 2010–2016) and Nigeria (United Nations Resident Coordinator/ Humanitarian Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative, January–June 2016).[1]

On 1 November 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in consultation with the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, appointed her as Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator (DHC) for eastern Chad. She was based in the town of Abéché, located approximately 80 kilometres west of the border with the Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region. In 2007, Chad was hosting over 280,000 refugees and over 170,000 internally displaced persons, most in the eastern region,[6] and she was tasked with working for their return.[7] The official's functions consist in providing support and guidance to a team composed of seven United Nations agencies and over 40 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in eastern Chad.[6]

During her career at the UN, she became used to negotiating with local war lords and heads of state.[4]

FIFA

Samoura met Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, in 2015 in Madagascar at a qualifying match for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. When she heard that the position of Secretary General of FIFA was coming up, she emailed Infantino,[1] who appointed her as the first female Secretary General of FIFA by Infantino at the FIFA congress in Mexico City on 13 May 2016. She was to succeed the disgraced Jerome Valcke, who had been banned from activities relating to football for 12 years,[8][9] and replaced acting Markus Kattner, who was also implicated in corruption.[10][11] The role had been occupied by white men for 100 years before her appointment.[4] On 20 June 2016 she assumed the role of FIFA Secretary General,[12] responsible for overseeing the commercial and operational side of the organisation.[1]

Samoura declared on 3 November 2016 that players for England, Scotland, and Wales would be punished if they wore the remembrance poppy on Remembrance Day, as FIFA classes it as a political symbol. "Britain is not the only country that has been suffering as a result of war", she said. "Syria is an example. My own [African] continent has been torn by war for years. The only question is 'why are we doing exceptions for just one country and not the rest of the world?'". UK Prime Minister Theresa May condemned FIFA for the decision.[13][14]

During her time as secretary general, Samoura oversaw the reordering of the organisational structure of FIFA in 2016, including the appointment of deputy secretary generals, and the creation of a new women's football division.[15][16]

On 14 June 2023, she announced she would be stepping down as FIFA Secretary-General, and tendered her resignation to the president, to take effect on 31 December 2023.[17][4]

In July 2023, Samoura travelled to Australia in NAIDOC Week, ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, learning about the culture of Australian First Nations people in the Top End and attending a football clinic in Darwin, Northern Territory. She has invited 50 Indigenous children and their carers to attend a World Cup game in Brisbane with her.[4]

She has said that her "last battle, and [one] that [she] will continue to fight even after [her] retirement from FIFA, is to make sure that we will root racism out of football".[4]

Recognition

In 2018, Forbes ranked her Number 1 in their Most Powerful Women in International Sports list,[18] and the BBC listed her as one of their 100 women.[19]

When Samoura visited the AU Pavilion at the Expo 2020 in Dubai in 2021 with other FIFA Officials, the AU Expo Commissioner General, Levi Uche Madueke, said of Samoura "she is a living testimony of the great human spirit that women across the African continent have, and her astute leadership should serve as a model worth replicating as we build towards the Africa we want, which involves the development of capable and credible leaders, especially amongst our women and youth".[20]

Personal life

Samoura is married and has three children.[2]

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fatma Samoura.
  1. "Secretary General". FIFA. 26 April 2021. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  2. Meenaghan, Gary (8 March 2018). "FIFA Secretary-General Fatma Samoura hails female empowerment". Arab News. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  3. "Governance Report 2016" (PDF). FIFA.com. FIFA. p. 47. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 July 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  4. Holmes, Tracey (11 July 2023). "FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura focused on culture, equality and breaking the FIFA mould". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  5. "WFP assures food aid to Cameroon". Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
  6. "New deputy humanitarian coordinator deployed to eastern Chad". 9 November 2007. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  7. "Ambitious plans to get 90,000 displaced to return home". The New Humanitarian. 29 January 2008. Archived from the original on 13 June 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  8. "Fifa appoints female secretary general". BBC Sport. 13 May 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  9. Payton, Matt (13 May 2016). "Fifa appoints its first female secretary general". The Independent. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  10. Das, Andrew (13 May 2016). "FIFA Appoints a Woman, Fatma Samoura, as Secretary General". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  11. "Fifa official sacked over bonus pay". BBC Sport. 23 May 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  12. Radnedge, Keir. "Testing times ahead at FIFA as Samoura makes an official start". Archived from the original on 15 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  13. "Fifa poppy ban 'utterly outrageous' says Theresa May". The Daily Telegraph. 2 November 2016. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  14. Owen Gibson. "England and Scotland players to defy Fifa and wear poppies in Armistice Day match". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 January 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  15. "Senegalese Fatma Samoura to step down as Fifa secretary general". TRT Afrika. 15 June 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  16. "FIFA restructures its administration to build a stronger and more sustainable organisation". FIFA. 8 July 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  17. "Fatma Samoura to step down as FIFA Secretary General". FIFA. Media release. 15 June 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  18. Settimi, Christina. "No. 1: Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura - pg.2". Forbes. Archived from the original on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  19. "BBC 100 Women 2018: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 19 November 2018. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  20. "African Union Hosts FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura at the AU Pavilion | Union africaine". au.int. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
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