Infantino exit debate puts Fifa’s gender imbalance in the spotlight Gender 6 min ago

Fifa’s gender imbalance remains despite reforms, raising questions about women’s influence in football governance and decision-making at global level.

Specifically, the accountability traumas of 2015 led to amendments in Fifa’s governance instruments in February 2016, providing that members’ legislative bodies “must be constituted in accordance with the principles of representative democracy and taking into account the importance of gender equality in football”.

It notes that while “reserved seats for women on the Fifa Council and expanded investment in women’s tournaments are frequently presented as evidence of structural change … beneath these visible gains lies a more complex reality in which gender disparities persist across financial, institutional and cultural dimensions” as evident in decision-making authority that is “concentrated in established networks, often dominated by long-standing regional alliances and leadership blocs” headed by men and in which there is systematic resistance to gender reforms.