A network of football industry professionals called Women in Football (WiF) has advocated for a 30% increase in women’s presence at the highest levels of the game.
Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, came under fire last month for claiming that women can “convince us men what we have to do” to advance women’s football.
Infantino is one of the 37 members of the FIFA Council, and only eight (22%) of them are female.
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Debbie Hewitt, chair of the FA, was chosen to serve as a FIFA vice president earlier this year.
“We welcome the progress made towards gender equality by many football bodies, but across the game as a whole it’s not enough, and it’s too slow,” WIF CEO Yvonne Harrison said in a statement.
“If football wants to end the cycle of inequality that results in abuse and institutionalised sexism, and if the doors are truly open, then inaction is not an option. Football has to change, starting at the top, and starting now,” she said.
The FIFA stated that a “major strategic priority” is enhancing the representation of women in football at all levels.
“In 2016, after the FIFA Reforms, the organisation appointed its first ever female General Secretary, Fatma Samoura, the first non-European, Muslim person to ever hold this post,” a spokesperson for world soccer’s governing body told Reuters.
“FIFA also established a Women’s Football Division, and required all confederations to appoint at least one female member to the FIFA Council… According to the recent Annual Report 2022, 40% of full-time employees at FIFA are female.”
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has 140 members and delegates, but just six of them are women, according to WIF.
After the Women’s World Cup final last month, RFEF President Luis Rubiales, who has since been suspended, is accused of giving player Jenni Hermoso an uninvited kiss on the lips.
WIF requested governing organisations to develop “clear policies against discrimination, abuse, and inappropriate physical contact” in addition to the other six measures they listed in their statement on Friday.
They also urged them to set up channels for reporting and handling infractions.
Eighty-two percent of women who work in football have encountered prejudice at work, according to a WIF research from July.