(see previous posts in this series here, here, here, here, and here)

Plenty of issues plagued the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) before and during the Women’s World Cup earlier this month. From field conditions to unequal prize money to FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s absence from the final game for the first time in twenty years, it seemed that each day brought negative attention to international soccer’s governing body.

Of course, these issues are just symptoms of a bigger problem: the corruption that has permeated FIFA for years. Various groups, including the U.S. and Swiss governments, are now taking a closer look at how the nonprofit FIFA functions. The U.S. Department of Justice issued indictments for fourteen FIFA officials in May of this year; the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will hold a hearing today on the governance and integrity of international soccer.

What hasn’t been mentioned much, if at all, is the lack of female representation at FIFA and in international soccer generally. The FIFA Congress, which elects the President, approves the annual report, and elects the members of the Executive Committee, is made up of representatives of the affiliated member associations. Of the 209 associations, only Sierra Leone (Isha Johansen) and Turks & Caicos (Sonia Bien Aime) have women occupying the position of association president.

The main decision making body at FIFA is the Executive Committee, which is made up of the president, eight vice presidents, fifteen appointed members, and one female member elected by the FIFA Congress. Currently, the Executive Committee includes only three women:

• Lydia Nsekera (Brundi) – Member
• Sonia Bien Aime (Turks & Caicos) – Member
• Moya Dodd (Australia) – Co-opted Member for special tasks

In an era where the Women’s World Cup broke viewing records and where some people posit that FIFA would be less corrupt of there were more women at the helm, FIFA and the 209 soccer associations could stand to reevaluate the level of female participation in the governance of the world’s most popular sport, and how women might be able to turn the current corrupt structure around.