FIFA last week announced the future appointment of a woman to the Executive Committee of the World governing body.

President of FIFA Sepp Blatter said in a press conference on the 30 March that a woman would be co-opted onto the highest body of world football at the 2012 Congress, due to take place on May 24th and 25th in Budapest, Hungary. This would be followed by a formal election at the 2013 Congress in Mauritius.

The move follows the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee to do the same thing a year ago at the their Congress in Paris. At the time Michel Platini said, "We must a find a way to break the glass ceiling preventing women from reaching positions of responsibility within our organisations".

The UEFA decision had followed a joint UEFA and FARE initiative to hold a conference on institutional discrimination in January 2011, hosted by the Dutch FA in Amsterdam. The conference had received the initial findings of a specially commissioned research project looking at the involvement of ethnic minorities and women in football. The research led by Dr. Steven Bradbury found an absence of both groups within senior positions in football structures.

FIFA have informed FARE that the next stage for the process will be for the FIFA legal committee to draft the legal wording for the proposal to go to the 2012 Congress. If the FIFA Congress agrees the FIFA statutes would be adapted accordingly and a formal election would take place in 2013.