16th February, 2016
Taiwo Adelu
Nigeria’s female football star, Asisat Lamina Oshoala will join other sports icons across the world to speak at the the second edition of the FIFA Women’s Football and Leadership Conference, which will take place at the Home of FIFA on Monday, 7 March.
Apart from Oshoala, a former African women footballer award winner, sports icon Billie Jean King is also among high-profile speakers confirmed for the Leadership Conference entitled ‘Equality Through Reform’.
The conference will bring together diverse voices from sport and wider society to discuss ways in which women’s football and women in football can be further promoted – particularly in light of recent reform proposals.
The conference, which coincides with the annual celebration of International Women’s Day (8 March) as an annual event and a focal point for women in sport and leadership, is part of FIFA’s commitment to promote, develop and invest in women’s football so that the sport and those who play it can grow to their full potential across the world.
Billie Jean King, founder of Women’s Sport Foundation; Kristin Hetle, Director of Strategic Partnerships at UN Women, and FIFA Executive Committee representatives, Lydia Nsekera, Sonia Bien-Aime and Moya Dodd, will kick off the panel discussions.
Panel speakers on Taking Women’s Football to the next level include the Nigerian player, Oshoala, who plies her trade with Liverpool female team in England, Abby Wambach (USA national team player), Samar Nassar (Chief Executive Director of the Local Organising Committee for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Jordan 2016), Barbara Slater (Director of BBC Sport) and Brigitte Henriques (General Secretary of the French Football Association).
Panel speakers on Diversity for Success are Ebru Köksal (FIFA consultant), Michael Kimmel (Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Stony Brook University), Donna de Varona (Olympic champion, lead advisor to the EY Women Athletes Business Network), Felicite Rwemarika (Executive member and chairwoman of the Women’s Football Commission at the Rwandan Football Association) and Annie Zaidi (Founder of the Coach AnnieZ Foundation).
Panel speakers on 2016 FIFA reforms – women’s football and women in football include Sunil Gulati (President of the United States Soccer Federation), Moya Dodd (FIFA Executive Committee co-opted member), Sarai Bareman (OFC Deputy General Secretary), Sylvia Schenk (CAS arbitrator) and Amanda Davies (CNN Sports Anchor/Correspondent).
According to fifa.com, the conference supports the ten key development principles proposed by the Task Force for Women’s Football as approved in 2014 and the calls to action for greater inclusion of women in football by the 6th FIFA Women’s Football Symposium in 2015.
FIFA regards this event as a proactive step forward for the organisation to listen, learn and drive progress, a signal of intent for a new era of development and engagement in women’s football.
Throughout the day, high-profile guests and speakers are expected to share their experiences and views.