Caribbean woman moves up football’s ranks
SONIA Bien-Aime of the Turks and Caicos Islands has been appointed to the CONCACAF Executive Committee, making her the only female to sit that high on the sub-continental body.
The general secretary of the Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA), who was promoted during a CONCACAF ExCo meeting in Montego Bay on Saturday, Bien-Aime was earlier this year appointed to FIFA’s Executive Committee.
Bien-Aime is one of three women on the world governing body’s powerful 25-member executive. The others are Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera and Australia’s Moya Dodd.
“I would like to thank President (Jeffrey) Webb and the members of CONCACAF’s Executive Committee for their warm welcome and appreciation of my work in football,” Bien-Aime was quoted as saying.
“I will fully embrace this responsibility and commit to providing my best guidance in order to make a genuine contribution to the region, especially in women’s football.”
In addition to her new post with CONCACAF, Bien-Aime also serves as deputy chair of the Women’s Technical Committee of the confederation and is a member of the Women’s Championship Committee.
Furthermore, she serves on four key standing committees at FIFA: Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Women’s Committee and FIFA Women’s World Cup, Organising Committee for the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup and is the deputy chairwoman of the Organising Committee of the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup.
A former athlete, Bien-Aime represented her country internationally in track and field events, softball and as the captain of the Turks & Caicos Islands women’s national football team. After moving away from the playing field, a passion for football still burned and she dedicated herself to a career in administration.
In 2006, she was appointed to the position of general secretary of the TCIFA and, six years later, became the first woman elected to an executive post in the Caribbean Football Union.
Other members of the CONCACAF’s Executive Committee and who were present at Saturday’s meeting are vice-presidents Alfredo Hawit (Central America), Justino Compean (North America) and Captain Horace Burrell (Caribbean); Luis Hernandez (Caribbean), Eduardo Li (Central America) and Victor Montagliani (North America), CONCACAF’s representative to the FIFA Executive Committee Sunil Gulati and CONCACAF general secretary, Enrique Sanz.
