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Khadija Timera and Geremie Njitap represent Africa in FIFPRO’s global board

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Khadija Timera and Geremie Njitap will represent the African countries in FIFPRO’s new global board. Both were elected during the General Assembly of FIFPRO Division Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, last week.

Timera is the fourth woman board member after FIFPRO Europe last week selected Mila Hristova, Caroline Jonsson and Karin Sendel as their women representatives. She will be the first African woman on the FIFPRO board.

Player unions from the Americas and Asia will nominate at least one female board member each in the coming weeks.

Under new statutes approved in February, the FIFPRO board will expand to 18 from 13 members in November with no more than two-thirds from either gender.

Timera is a lawyer, who was part of the Ready to Board program that FIFPRO organised with Women in Football to prepare women for senior positions in football.

“It would be an understatement to say that she is motivated, passionate, combative, that she has a union mentality and a mind of steel in view of her sporting career”

— by FIFPRO Africa General Secretary Stéphane Burchkalter talking about Khadija Timera

“It's a beautiful encounter,” says Stéphane Burchkalter, General Secretary of FIFPRO Africa. She is a woman who comes from civil society, but her career as a high level athlete in boxing testifies to her passion for sport. She knows the realities of African professional sport, including of course football, her other passion, through her role as advisor to our union in Gabon, ANFPG."

“It would be an understatement to say that she is motivated, passionate, combative, that she has a union mentality and a mind of steel in view of her sporting career. She convinced the members of FIFPRO Africa with a powerful speech, her desire to act for the benefit of African footballers and even beyond, as well as with her academic background and her degrees obtained in Paris and Berkeley. As a UN ambassador for women rights, she is part of FIFPRO Africa's commitment to excellence."

Timera's main goals, as far as Africa is concerned, are the same as those targeted by FIFPRO Africa as she herself says:

  • "to create a real status and establish labour contracts for the professional footballer in Africa;
  • "to create clear regulations on the rights and duties of the different stakeholders of professional football in Africa;
  • "to obtain guarantees for the respect of the rights and remuneration of the professional player in Africa;
  • "to make African professional football a vector of local and sustainable development.”

 

FIFPRO Africa Board JBH 1100
Kgosana Masaseng, Desmond Maringwa, Magdy Abdelghany, Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe, Geremie Njitap, Jonas Baer-Hoffmann, Khadija Timera, Herita Ilunga and Stéphane Burchkalter

Former Cameroon and Real Madrid midfielder Geremie will remain on FIFPRO’s global board for a second term. He will also act as President of FIFPRO Africa.

“I am proud,” said Geremie Njitap, “to continue to represent Africa in the global board, proud to be accompanied by Khadija Timera, who testifies to the willingness of our continent's members to embrace diversity and inclusion, while not hesitating to open up to civil society. Africa is on the move, strong and united."

The African player unions who gathered for the two-day meeting in Johannesburg voted for Kgosana Masaseng as their Deputy General Secretary. He is already acting as General Secretary of the Footballers Union of Botswana (FUB).

As each FIFPRO division has its own board, the General Assembly also selected their own board members for FIFPRO Africa. Geremie Njitap (SYNAFOC, Cameroon), Magdy Abdelghany (EPFA, Egypt) and Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe (SAFPU, South Africa, vice president), remain on this board together with newcomers Herita Ilunga (UFC, DR Congo), Desmond Maringwa (FUZ, Zimbabwe) and Khadija Timera (ANFPG, Gabon). There is still a vacancy for another female board member. Didier Drogba is Honorary President of FIFPRO Africa.