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CONCACAF & CSA to champion women’s football at the Soccerex Americas Forum

Soccerex Americas Forum

Soccerex Americas Forum

With the Americas Forum approaching, Soccerex confirmed that a panel of industry experts will be leading a presentation titled ’The Home of Women’s Football’ on the second morning of the event that is taking place at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) in Barbados on 21st and 22nd October.  

Over an 18 month period, starting from March 2014, the CONCACAF region will have hosted every official FIFA Women’s World Cup, as well as having launched a women’s Caribbean Cup. The panel, consisting of FIFA ExCo, CONCACAF and CFU ExCo member Sonia Bien-Aime and Canada Soccer Association (CSA) President and Chair of the 2015 FIFA World Cup Victor Montagliani will be discussing how major events across the region have lead to a boom in women’s football in viewership and commercial investment.

One of the industry’s rising administrators, Bien-Aime is a member of the executive committees of FIFA, CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union. Those responsibilities give her a unique perspective on national, continental and global footballing topics. Within CONCACAF, Bien-Aime sits on the Gold Cup, Women’s Technical and Women’s Championship Committees. Additionally, she serves on four key organizing committees at FIFA: World Cup, Women’s World Cup, U-20 Women’s World Cup and U-17 Women’s World Cup.

In addition to his role as 2015 Women’s FIFA World Cup Chairman and CSA President, Motagliani has been a CSA vice-president for three teams, a member of its executive committee since 2005 and chair of the national team’s committee. Montagliani places player development as his primary priority and is very passionate about developing the women’s game throughout the nation by creating a league similar to that set up in women’s soccer throughout the US.

“The huge strides being taken by women’s football on and off the pitch are testament to the incredible work being done throughout FIFA and CONCACAF of which these industry leaders are a huge part of,” said Soccerex CEO Duncan Revie. “We are very excited to host this high level group and are confident the session will be fascinating for all those attending.”

Bien-Aime and Montagliani join a growing list of industry leaders who will be speaking at the Americas Forum, including FIFA Vice President and CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Orlando City Soccer Club Founder and President Phil Rawlins, MLS Medical Coordinator John Gallucci and Manchester United and England legend Bryan Robson, plus many more.