African Sports Monthly International Women's Day Special Edition | Page 36

Nested amidst a host of men who are not accustomed to having a woman leader, Isha Johansen the lone
woman FA Chief in the world has faced adversity as the head of the Sierra Leone Football association
since she went unopposed as a Presidential candidate in the 2013 SLFA Elections.
Her election was filled with controversy but regardless she became Sierra Leones first ever and the
world’s second woman to ever be elected as an FA Chief in FIFA’s history. Her election was a breath of
fresh air for a game that has been in search of more women leaders to grow the game and she was
celebrated and welcomed by FIFA and many around the world who were thrilled to see another woman
FA chief in a club of men that had a century long history of exclusion of women. Her election would
make her the second woman in the FIFA ranks but her time as one of two will be short-lived as Lydia
Nsekera would eventually lose her position in Burundi as the Head of her Association in late 2013.
However, Nsekera who had already been appointed to the executive committee will stay on in a
different capacity. Even though FIFA had found a way to absorb Ms. Nsekera as a permanent member of
its Executive Committee her presence was not the same as one who was in the trenches as an FA chief
leading its association.