Wales’ Laura McAllister and Norway’s Lise Klaveness have emerged as the most prominent female critics of Fifa president Gianni Infantino as opposition to his leadership develops into the biggest crisis of his decade in office.
The pair, the only women on Uefa’s executive committee, have led resistance to Infantino after his attempt to establish the private equity-backed Fifa Football Enterprises (FFE) collapsed amid strong opposition from Uefa and other regional governing bodies.
The dispute has prompted wider debate over whether football, traditionally controlled by male administrators, is ready to elect a woman as president of its world governing body.
“It would be wonderful to see a woman elected as president of Fifa,” McAllister, a Uefa vice-president, said in an interview with Reuters. “But it’s far more complex than that.
“I’d like to think we’re not far off having a female president, but I fear we are because I think the game has to do some catching up with the rest of society.”
The prospect gained further attention after former Fifa president Sepp Blatter publicly backed Klaveness on Tuesday and said the time had come for a woman to lead the organisation.
However, McAllister warned that Fifa’s international political structure would make any such change difficult.
“It’s not as simple as simply bringing forward a woman,” she said. “She might well be the best candidate for the job. But let’s not pretend it’s a simple meritocracy here. It’s not.”
The collapse of the FFE proposal has exposed divisions between Infantino and a number of national and regional football authorities. Wales was the first of several national associations to withdraw its support for Infantino’s re-election, while discontent has also begun to emerge within Fifa itself.
Infantino was due to hold an emergency meeting in Morocco on Wednesday as the governing body attempted to manage the growing unrest.
McAllister’s proposal for a boycott of Fifa events received unanimous backing at Uefa’s emergency meeting last week. She said the dispute was evidence of wider failures in the way Fifa is governed.
“There are signs that this is an issue that’s reaching a crisis point, if it isn’t already at a crisis point,” she said.
Among the issues she identified were Fifa’s links with the failed European Super League project, political controversies connected to the World Cup and the governing body’s decision to overturn a red card given to United States striker Folarin Balogun during the tournament after US President Donald Trump asked Infantino to review the decision.
“All of this tells me that there are deep problems in the governance of Fifa,” she said.
McAllister said the disagreement was not only about leadership or commercial strategy, but also about protecting football’s underlying principles. She and Klaveness were both former international players who later moved into professional careers in football administration and governance.
“We were both international players for Wales and Norway, and then we both developed our own professional careers. Lise is a lawyer, and I’m a political scientist. But we’re also very values-driven individuals,” McAllister said.
“For us, if football loses its values, then it loses its heart and soul, and therefore, the existential crisis is very real. So it was important for us to have our voices heard.
“I think sometimes women are less bogged down with the business of football and more focused on what the game really is,” she added. “The game is there for everybody, from grassroots to elite. It is as much for girls as it is for boys. It should reach every corner of the world in the poorest countries as well as the globally successful ones. It shouldn’t be bought by private capital and nor should there be any political interference in how we run the game.”
Only 10 of Fifa’s 211 member associations are led by women, with Klaveness among them. Any candidate seeking the Fifa presidency would need support from associations outside Europe, meaning a challenge led by the pair would require a broad international coalition.
McAllister said she did not believe the issue of female leadership should be forced prematurely.
“We have to pave the way, and we have to build, and we have to keep building momentum,” McAllister said. “Sometimes softly softly is the best approach because we can get there faster than by trying to force a revolution.”
Michael Payne, a former marketing director of the International Olympic Committee, said football had historically been slower than other sports to appoint women to senior leadership positions.
“The fact that the IOC is now led by a woman (Kirsty Coventry), I would make an important distinction between the IOC and Fifa,” Payne told Reuters. “The IOC has been pioneering in sport gender equity for a decade or more, two decades, and the Olympics are now 50-50 equal between men and women competing. The World Cup of football is not 50-50 equal.”
