“Women’s football and women in football is a priority – it’s part of the solution for the future of football,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino, speaking on International Women’s Day in 2016.
While calling for ambitious objectives, Infantino also announced reforms at FIFA. These have since become a reality, among them the requirement that there be at least one female representative per confederation to be elected to the new FIFA Council, which in practice means that there are a minimum of six women sitting on this decision-making body. At the same time as these changes were being made, Fatma Samoura was appointed FIFA Secretary General, becoming the first woman to hold the post.
These significant steps were the first towards a new type of administrative model in world football, one that strives to bring about gender equality in the game, a much sought-after goal. And yet more ambitious objectives have been set since then, with the FIFA 2.0 roadmap seeking to double the number of female football players worldwide to more than 60 million by 2026.