January 7 – Belgian FA president Pascale van Damme is set to join FIFA’s ruling council after being the only candidate to run for a seat reserved for a female official from Europe.
Van Damme will run unopposed and is set to be elected at the UEFA Congress on April 3 in Belgrade.
She has only been in charge of Belgian football for under two years yet is in line to get a four-year term in the FIFA post that pays $250,000 annually.
She will replace Evelina Christillin whose background is in skiing and tourism and who has connections with the Agnelli family at Juventus. She leaves after more than eight years in the role.
In 2016, Christillin was the first woman elected by UEFA to join the 37-member FIFA council.
Each of the game’s six confederations has a place reserved for a female on the FIFA Council though none has ever elected a woman in a head-to-head vote against as man.
Four other European FIFA Council members are set to continue after standing for re-election without any rival candidates: Răzvan Burleanu of Romania, Georgios Koumas of Cyprus, Bernd Neuendorf of Germany and Dejan Savićević of Montenegro, the former AC Milan star. All are presidents their national federations.
UEFA has set a February 3 deadline – two months before the congress in Belgrade – for candidates to enter elections for 10 vacant seats on its own executive committee, including that of David Gill, its treasurer and the former CEO at Manchester United.
Gill has reached the 12-year term limit for UEFA elected positions.
One of the 10 vacancies is for a second seat protected for women, joining current UEFA vice president Laura McAllister of Wales who was elected two years ago. Candidates will likely include Norwegian federation president Lise Klaveness, a frequently outspoken campaigner for human rights.
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