October 28 – FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura has joined the Board of Directors of The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN), an international non-profit organisation that works towards a hunger-free future, the global governing body announced on Wednesday.
“At a time when one in three people worldwide faces food insecurity, her experience leading FIFA, her work with the World Food Program, and other high-level organisations will play a key role in guiding GFN as it supports community-driven solutions to alleviate hunger across the world,” said GFN chairman Jason Ramey in a statement.
The role is on a voluntary basis and Samoura will draw on her expertise from her time with the world food program to contribute to GFN. She said: “Alleviating people’s suffering, combating malnutrition and helping people rebuild their lives when confronted with natural or man-made disasters was at the core of my work with the World Food Programme.”
A veteran UN diplomat, Samoura joined Zurich in 2016 as secretary-general, the first black woman to hold a senior executive position in FIFA. She didn’t have any experience in sports governance or negotiating broadcast and sponsorship deals.
Her role as secretary-general has remained contentious and shrouded in mystery ever since. In 2019, FIFA sent her as a special delegate to Africa to clean up the Confederation of African Football (CAF) but after six months, unhappy with her intervention, CAF voted for her return to FIFA HQ in Zurich.
This summer, Samoura attended the Beach Soccer World Cup and then the Futsal World Cup, events she live-tweeted intensely. Recently, she visited the Expo in Dubai and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation.
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