Senegalese FIFA secretary General, Fatma Samoura speaks with the media in Abuja, during her two-day working visit, to Nigeria. The Nation’s Sport & Style was part of it.
FATMA Samoura, FIFA’s first-ever female secretary general, says coming to Nigeria, which incidentally is her first major work since becoming FIFA’s second-in-command, is like coming back home. Speaking to a cross section of Nigerian journalists in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), during the two-day working visit of Nigeria, alongside FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, Samoura informs that she is conversant with Nigerian football, culture and people, having worked for the United Nations (UN) in Nigeria.
“As a diplomat for the UN and the most senior officer in Nigeria from 2015, I am conversant with many places in Nigeria. I have many friends here and I know that Nigerians, like Senegalese, don’t joke with their football.”
Ms. Samoura presented her Letters of credence as UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Resident Representative in Nigeria, to the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the Hon. Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in February of 2016.
Before that,she was UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for the Republic of Madagascar, Country Director and Representative, Guinea, (2009-2010); Representative and Country Director, Cameroon, (2005-2007); Representative and Country Director, Djibouti, (2000-2005) and Senior Logistics Officer, Italy (1995-2000).
She adds that she was actually in Nigeria, when Infantino offered her the FIFA job. “I was representing the United Nations Development Programme at a summit to discuss efforts to defeat Boko Haram Islamists when FIFA president called to offer me the job. He made me an offer and convinced me.”
She said she met Infantino, who was appointed to succeed Sepp Blatter in February, for the first time in November last year.
“I was in Madagascar at the time and it was during a match between Madagascar and Senegal in a qualifier for the 2018 World Cup,” she said.
“But we did not speak at all about the secretary general post. At the time he was not yet a candidate for the FIFA presidency and was preparing Michel Platini’s campaign.
“After dinner, somebody told me about what he had said. And Gianni Infantino had apparently said: ‘If one day I am president of FIFA, this is my secretary general’.
“When he was elected, it was me who went to talk to him. I sent him a mail and he called me. He then offered the post to me.”
Asked about taking over the affairs of world football in crisis time, she notes that crisis is her specialty. “I may be an outsider in the football world but my two decades of experience as a UN diplomat will help me restore the sport’s image. My goal is to support the programme of President Infantino and to those who speak of my lack of experience, FIFA is the United Nations of football and I bring 21 years of experience in the private sector and the UN in terms of good governance and transparency, and the obligation to make the different federations and FIFA accountable,” the 54-year-old said.
“I’m aware of the challenges that I will be facing in this very moment within FIFA and we have already started this administration under of the leadership of the president of FIFA and put in place massive reforms.”
Samoura’s years with the UN, including with the World Food Programme, have also taken her crisis-management skills to hotspots such as Afghanistan, Chad and Darfur.
“We must try to restore football to what it was, the most popular sport that breaches social divides.
“And one of the things I am going to try to do is bring greater support to women’s football.”
The mother of three says football is also not new to her.
“I’m married to a former football player for 28 years who’s also been a good advisor to me on a daily basis. But more importantly, I have many, many friends among football players. Roger Milla, who I met a few years back in Cameroon, we are in regular touch and we have many other football players, especially the legends, who are in daily contact with me.More importantly, I have a deputy secretary-general midfielder Zvonimir Boban who played in the great days of AC Milan.”
Among her idols, she lists former Bayern Munich winger and now president, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, and retired Malian striker, Salif Keita, who played for Marseille.
Samoura speaks fluent English, Spanish, French, Italian, as well as Wolof.