Women’s soccer is having a moment — except in the boardroom, results are in, and once again no women have been chosen to serve on the executive committee of UEFA, the organization that has governed European soccer for nearly 70 years.
Lise Klaveness, the president of the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), wanted to change this appalling precedent, so she decided not to run for the one quota seat that the association reserves for women. As a result, this month, she became the first female candidate to compete against male candidates for a seat on the ExCo.
She didn’t succeed. There are 20 people in UEFA’s executive committee, and 19 of them are men.
The committee is in charge of the governing body, among other things. Laura McAllister of Wales was appointed vice-president and received the one seat allotted to women at the UEFA Congress this year, which saw seven of the eight seats filled by men.
The UEFA reported “extraordinary interest in the competition with record stadium attendances, large numbers of TV viewers, and fans following the action online like never before” after last year’s women’s European Championships in England.
Women’s soccer is having a moment — except in the boardroom
The organization also brags about backing a legacy initiative that “aims to get more girls and women interested in football on a regular basis” and will last until 2024.
However, the highest levels of the organization do not share this zeal and support for including more women as decision-makers.
“An integrity matter”
Given the goals of larger 
society, it seems UEFA also has some work to do. Companies must have 40% of the “underrepresented sex among non-executive directors or 33% among all directors” by 2026 per a new EU law established in late 2022. Since UEFA is a non-profit organization with a Swiss base and not a commercial business, it is exempt from legal restrictions.
However, Klaveness claims that UEFA’s organizational structure “does not really reflect the interest in society,” and that if the executive committee is made up of “19 out of 20 men, then we are simultaneously saying that [the] women’s side is not a priority.”
UEFA significantly influences change in the sport due to its revenue of more than €4 billion ($4.4 billion) for the 2021/22 season and its claim that 97% of net earnings are “invested back into football.”
But in UEFA’s nearly 70-year history, women have only recently been involved in the highest levels of decision-making; the first female member of the UEFA ExCo took her seat in 2012. Due to her status as chair of the Women’s Football Committee, Karen Espelund of Norway was “assigned” to the position rather than “elected,” UEFA informed CNN Sport via email.
