FIFA official Fatma Samoura leaving after 7 years as pioneering woman in soccer

ZURICH (AP) — FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura is leaving after seven years as the highest profile woman working in world soccer. FIFA says Samoura will stay in the job she has held since 2016 through this year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and leave at the end of the year. The 60-year-old former United Nations official from Senegal was an unexpected hire seven years ago soon after the election of Gianni Infantino as FIFA president. She became the first woman, first Black person, first Muslim and first non-European to be FIFA’s top administrator.