Fifa n°2 Fatma Samoura will leave at the end of the year
By Le Figaro with AFP Posted yesterday at 6:36 p.m., Update yesterday at 7:14 p.m. Fatma Samoura. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP At 60, she was appointed in May 2016 following…
Fifa n°2 Fatma Samoura will leave at the end of the year
Posted
yesterday at 6:36 p.m., Update yesterday at 7:14 p.m.
Fatma Samoura. CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
At 60, she was appointed in May 2016 following the election of Italian-Swiss Gianni Infantino as president of the organization.
FIFA General Secretary Fatma Samourathe first woman and first non-European to become No. 2 in the world football body in 2016, will leave her post at the end of the year to devotemore time with (his) family“, announced Wednesday the organization.
After a career at the United Nations, the 60-year-old Senegalese was appointed in May 2016 in the wake of the election of Italo-Switzerland Gianni Infantino to the presidency of the organization, and contributed to “restore credibility“After a cascade of scandals, underlines Fifa in a press release. “Women’s football will have reached new heights under his leadership“, Continues the body, while the good performance of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (July 20-August 20) is the last major objective of the leader.
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A career started at the United Nations
Fatma Samoura chose to cut short the “speculation about (his) position“in anticipation of the announcement of her resignation, which she planned to formalize”next weekwith the FIFA Council, explaining that he wants to devote himself to his family next year. Fifa gave no indication of his succession, while the N°2 appeared for seven years as consensual and discreet as Gianni Infantino was thunderous and divisive, multiplying the proposals for reforms – sometimes unfinished, such as the page at a biennial World Cup – and the controversial statements.
“Joining FIFA was the best decision I made in my life. I am happy to have led such a diverse team“Commented the Senegalese, named without experience of sport or TV rights but with a long career as a diplomat. Quadrilingual – a major et in the body with 211 member federations -, Fatma Samoura had until then spent most of her career at the United Nations, as humanitarian coordinator, notably in Djibouti, Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, Madagascar and in Nigeria.
She had succeeded the French Jerome Valckeswept away by the series of corruption scandals which also carried away the former president of Fifa Sepp Blatter, to embody the “new fifawanted by Gianni Infantino. “Today, our body is better directed, more open, more reliable and more transparent.“, ured Fatma Samoura on Wednesday.
