Bad news for parity in sport: Lydia Nsekera, one of the only women at the head of a national football federation in the world, has lost her position as president of the Burundian Federation (FFB). She was ousted from the presidency on Sunday, November 17, following a vote which pitted her against Senator Révérien Ndikuriyo, a member of the ruling party in Burundi. The latter came first in the vote, with 31 votes out of the 56 votes cast.
At 46 years old, Lydia Nsekera has gained over the years a status and a position much broader than her sole function at the head of football in Burundi. Elected to the presidency of the FFB in 2004, she was until last summer the only woman to lead a national football federation. A privilege that she then shared with Isha Johansen, 48, elected in Sierra Leone at the beginning of August 2013.
Better: Lydia Nsekera made history in May 2012 by becoming the first female member of the FIFA Executive Committee.
Its future is now written in dotted lines. On Sunday, she obtained only 25 votes, against 31 for her rival, following a vote organized behind closed doors. A vote which would have taken place under completely regular conditions, according to the testimonies of the two observers from FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Primo Corvarro and Foster Abega.
“This election should have taken place since February 2013, but it dragged on because of the war between Lydia Nsekera and Révérien Ndikuriyo, supported by her party,” a provincial official explained to AFP on condition of anonymity. . Before adding: “Révérien Ndikuriyo won because he managed to infiltrate the provincial associations. »
The new president of Burundian football, a former rebel fighter, is the president of the “Aigle Noir,” a second division team in Makamba province in the southeast of the country.
Lydia Nsekera, basketball player and high jump specialist who did not hide her ambition to bring out women leaders in Burundian football, herself “denounced in her farewell speech behind closed doors the interference of politics and ethnic issues in Burundian football, and warned of their consequences”.
