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Fatma Samoura
She had never worked in football, and FIFA handed her its administration a year after the arrests.
The rise
Born in Dakar on 9 September 1962, she studied languages at Lyon and international trade at Strasbourg, then joined the World Food Programme in Rome in 1995 as a logistics officer. Twenty-one years of UN postings followed — Chad, Guinea, Niger, Djibouti, Cameroon, Madagascar — ending as resident coordinator in Nigeria in 2016.
What they did
Appointed on 13 May 2016 and in office from 20 June, she was the first woman and first non-European to run FIFA's administration. Over seven years she carried the post-scandal governance overhaul and the expansion of the Women's World Cup to 32 teams for 2023, and spent six months from August 2019 as FIFA General Delegate for Africa reforming CAF. She left on 31 December 2023.
The full picture
Her CAF secondment was opposed by African federation officials, by UEFA and by Sepp Blatter, who read it as Zurich annexing the continental body; CAF's president Ahmad was banned by FIFA's own ethics committee a year later. Her tenure also covered Qatar 2022 and the executive pay disclosures that drew sustained criticism.
Why it matters
A UN logistician with no football background was handed the administration of the world's biggest sport at its lowest point and ran it for seven years, evidence that football's governing need not be a closed club.
“The only moment when people would stop fighting and receiving orders from the warlords was when it was raining or when they were playing football.”
What citizens said
Afrobarometer Round 9 (2021–2023) — Senegal
% who say 'trust somewhat' or 'trust a lot' · Afrobarometer Dispatch No. 891