100 of the Most Influential Women in Sport >> Boardroom & Administration

Lydia Nsekera, Burundi

Member of the IOC and FIFA Council

The list of people who are members of both the FIFA Council and the International Olympic Committee is a short one. Just one person long, in fact: Lydia Nsekera. Her election to the FIFA Council – in 2013, she became the organisation’s first woman executive in its then-109-year-history – was a long time coming, as she’d been president of the Football Federation of Burundi for nine years before taking her spot in football’s overall governing body. Along with rescuing Burundian football from the shambolic state it was in at the time, she also spent her term as president advocating for the growth of women’s football in Africa, instituting grassroots development programmes and calling for more professional leagues to be formed. She’s been just as tireless in her role with the IOC, where she chairs the Women in Sport Commission, pushing for gender equality at all levels of sport. Nsekera’s unique position as a figure of authority for both the world’s biggest sport and global sport’s biggest event brings to mind the famous Spider-Man line. But the responsibility that comes with her power is one she’s bearing with grace and steely determination.

– In Forbes’ 2018 list of the most powerful women in international sport, Nsekera was ranked second.

– Nsekera won the IOC Women and Sport Award in 2009.

– She has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of National Olympic Committees since 2014.

Did you know…

Burundi held its first women’s football championship under Nsekera’s watch during her tenure as FFB president.

“The secret of my success is simple. I work, I work and I work.” – Lydia Nsekera