Education the key, says FIFA’s Dodd as Scudamore faces emails D-Day
HO CHI MINH CITY: FIFA executive member Moya Dodd has talked of her “surprise and disappointment” over the Richard Scudamore emails.
Australian Dodd, in Vietnam for the Asian Women’s Cup, is a vice-president of the Asian Football Confederation, a co-opted member of world football’s governing body and chair of its women’s football task force.
Scudamore, chief executive of the English Premier League, is under heavy pressure after the content of “sexist emails” had been leaked to the media.
Dodd, interviewed on BBC Radio Five, said her “disappointment is shared by many women in the football world . . . There is a level of outrage and resignation that this can exist in the world and is still unchallenged and inhibits the development of women in football and women’s football.”
She added: “We’ve heard of ‘casual racism’ as one of the terms to describe attitudes in that context and there is a lot of ‘casual sexism’.
“It comes down to the fact that most of us are of an age where women’s football was not commonplace when we are growing up so . . . so it’s not particularly familiar to most people of the age of those in authority. It does make it tough for women working in the game.”
Dodd insisted she was “not party to all the facts and circumstances” of the Scudamore issue and would not make a judgment on whether or not he should keep his job.
Apology
She said: “It’s more important to educate people rather than berate every person who has displayed sexism because that would include a large number of people.”
Sports Minister Helen Grant refused a BBC invitation to state her views on the same programme.
Scudamore, who has led the Premier League explosion as chief executive, has apologised for comments made in private emails after details were revealed by the Sunday Mirror last weekend.
Critics suggesting he should consider his position have included Heather Rabatts, the only woman member of the Football Association board, and by Edward Lord, an anti-discrimination adviser to the FA.
Other critics have included FA chairman Greg Dyke and by England women’s goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis.
A Premier League panel meet tomorrow/Monday to decide whether he should face action.
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