The Time for Reform, Moya Dodd Says, Is Now
Moya Dodd, one of three female members on FIFA’s 27-person executive committee and the vice president of the Asian Football Federation, is, and has been, a champion of women’s soccer, and its international growth.
Dodd believes the time for substantive change has arrived – and FIFA — the sport’s world mercurial governing body that only recently began to recognize women’s soccer — rocked by an extensive corruption scandal last year and record-breaking viewership for the 2015 Women’s World Cup, is ready for change.
“The opportunity to contribute or add to that change arose in 2015 in a way that no one really imagined,” Dodd, 50, told reporters at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) convention in late January. “That opportunity having arrived, it was clear that this was a moment that meant big change became not only possible, but necessary.”
What would change look like? Dodd, outlined two simple proposals in a memo sent to FIFA — a male-dominated, 112-year-old organization — in October 2015.
RELATED COVERAGE: MOYA DOD BREAKS THE GRASS CEILING
What would need to change?
First, more women need to be involved in the decision-making process at FIFA.
Dodd wrote, is “inclusion in decision-making,” which would require the executive committee to have at least 20 percent female membership, with a long-term goal of 30 percent. And the second is increased investment in women’s soccer, everything from improved medical support and referee education to better training facilities.
Dodd’s insightful view on change comes from personal experience as well as being observant. Dodd, a former midfielder for the Australian National Team, remembers what it used to be like for women soccer players, 25 years ago when she was a professional – and the professional soccer players were paying for their own flights, training in hotel parking lots, sewing their national crests onto their apparel — to just list a few memories.
The women’s game has grown since then, of course, but it is far from being a bastion of gender equality: “women are still vastly under-represented at every level of the pyramid in the world’s most-loved game,” Dodd wrote in her memo to FIFA.
Take, for example, being a female coach.
“I think being a women’s coach is one of the most difficult things to be in football,” Dodd said. “I don’t want to discourage anyone here, but I have great respect for them, because the more you get to the grass, the more there is this unspoken assumption that women don’t really understand this game. That’s real.”
So the ones that possess the courage to try, have another task, in addition to their coaching duties – they must shatter stereotypes. This is not easy, Dodd said.
“There’s an old saying,” she said, “that men take charge and women take care. Well, if you are going to be a coach, you’re going to have to take charge. You have to be what you’re not expected to be. That can come with a price, with some baggage, or you have to work that bit harder to get there.”
Dodd understands this on a personal level – She has taken charge, albeit in a different domain. FIFA needs change, she thinks, but it still has value. Its flaws have been exposed, but it need not be eliminated. It can still be a vehicle for good.
In the USA, women’s soccer is far from an equal playing field. While the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) is just entering its fourth season — an unprecedented event in the history books of women’s soccer in our country, many issues still remain. And, while progress has obviously been achieved, earlier this month, the U.S. Soccer Federation “reluctantly” filed suit against our World Cup-winning U.S. Women’s National Soccer team in response to failing negotiations regarding the collective bargaining agreement. While the suit was filed against the USWNT players union to prevent the possibility of a strike and impact the Olympics, many people believe the issue boils down to a fight over gender equality.
U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo hopped on Twitter and shared her feelings:
According to Dodd, inequality is because of years of systemic discrimination, of barriers social and institutional.
Obviously decades, if not centuries, of gender inequality must be overturned and these major barriers eliminated. Soccer is not the only place where discrimination reigns stubbornly. Equal pay for women and men is just one of the wars fought on the soccer fields as well as the silver screen in Hollywood.
Shatter the glass ceiling, please. Isn’t it about time? Allow more women to have a clear voice in decision making.
Conflict must give way to cooperation and equality — the world is fortunate to have Dodd fight for a brighter future.
This article was written with the help of staff writers. SoccerToday’s Diane Scavuzzo and other media outlets spoke with Dodd in a group interview setting at NSCAA.
