By Andrew Warshaw
August 11 – FIFA has confirmed that new Secretary General, Fatma Samoura will deliver a keynote address as part of the opening of this year’s Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester at the end of September.
Samoura’s appearance seems certain to take on extra spice following the controversy over her appointment and whether it went though due process, as well as the extent to which she may have been complicit in a number of long-serving FIFA employees leaving the organisation, several of them allegedly because they became whistleblowers and provided evidence to ethics officials concerning Gianni Infantino.
Samoura, the first female Secretary General in the organisation’s 112 year history, is a 21-year veteran of United Nations programmes. Although she has no prior football experience she has been charged with orchestrating FIFA’s reform process which many observers feel has taken a significant backward step after FIFAs ethics committee cleared Infantino of any wrongdoing.
“I am looking forward to speaking with delegates about my thoughts and vision for our game and the work we have started at FIFA to ensure football enters a new era of greater transparency and good governance,” Samoura said of next month’s appearance in Manchester.
When she took over the job, Samoura said “the reputational damage that all the financial scandals have caused to FIFA needs to be repaired.”
It will be interesting to hear how she intends to set about doing that.
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