When I looked into this, I thought this should be relatively easy. After all, we're it their male counterpart I was after, I could wax lyrically (or otherwise) on Gianni Infantino, he of FIFA, or Aleksander Čerefin of UEFA, Thomas Bach, the President of the IOC, or indeed Yasir Al-Rumayyan who is seemingly bringing every sport in existence to Saudi Arabia, and who doesn't think twice about dropping $10b on something that involves a ball. But a woman?
A quick search returns the ommission of 'powerful' and substitutes it for 'influential'.
First the good news: there are many influential women in sport, more than you can shake a big shaky thing at. In every sport there is a woman who stands head and shoulders above the rest (no, not including men, and we will get to that shortly, I promise). And even if there isn't a definitive answer in a particular sport, there are several who can claim the right to hold that crown.
Now the bad news.
The fact that search engine results must say "No, you want 'influential', because we're struggling a bit here, sorry,' is not a good look. I suppose you could find an answer, but it would be based upon certain parameters and the non-inclusion of others to achieve this. This is a problem. Not to the men in power in sport of course, but then I guess you probably knew that already.
Further into the rabbit hole we shall go ...
There are, oddly, some sports that only women play, so surely the one in charge would be a woman? Synchronised Swimming, perhaps? Nope. Falls under 'Aquatic Sports', and it is Husain Al-Musallam. How about Rhythmic Gymnastics? That, too, falls under an all encompassing umbrella, which is Gymnastics, and that is ran by Morinari Watanabe.
Finally, we reach Netball (a sport that was essentially basketball but made for the weaker sex, and the official rules aren't actually what the rules initially were, meaning they are wrong). Yes, I know women play basketball, but we know whoever is in charge of that definitely isn't a woman.
Dame Liz Nicholl DBE. Yes! A woman, and a woman with titles! Is ol' Liz the most powerful woman in sport? If she is - and, no offence to Liz, if you're reading - that is pretty damn shocking.
Look, this is not a piece that is going all nuclear on the whole women vs men debate. It is a fact that men are better at some things than women are, but the opposite is also true. What should not be up for debate is that in every sport - a man is in charge, then that has to be an issue, yes?
There are so many, many reasons to celebrate the amazing women in sports, and we have covered some here already, and we will continue to do so. But we have to admit that there is a hell of a long way to go.
For now, please go read the rest of this issue.
