Isha Tejan-Cole Johansen (born 25 December 1965) is a

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and the former president of the Sierra Leone Football Association. Johansen is one of only a few women in the world to have headed a national football association, along with Lydia Nsekera, the former president of the Burundi football association, Izetta Sombo Wesley, the former leader of the

Liberia Football Association The Liberia Football Association is the governing body of football (soccer), football in Liberia. Its offices are located at Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia. National teams Men's national team The Liberia national football team, Liberian ...

and Sonia Bien-Aime of the

Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association The Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association is the governing body of football in the Turks and Caicos Islands The Turks and Caicos Islands (abbreviated TCI; and ) are a British Overseas Territory consisting of the larger Caicos Isl ...

. Isha Johansen is the owner and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Sierra Leone National Premier League Sierra Leone National Premier League is a professional football league in Sierra Leone. It was founded in 1967. The league is sponsored by Leone Rock Metal Group. East End Lions and Mighty Blackpool are the two biggest and most successful clubs ...

club

Johansen Johansen is a Scandinavian patronymic surname meaning ''"son of Johan"''. It is most common in Denmark and Norway. The Swedish variant is Johansson, while the most common spelling in the US is Johanson. There are still other spellings. Johan ...

Early life

Isha Johansen was born as Isha Tejan-Cole in

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

, into the Tejan-Cole family, who are of Aku Mohammedan descent. She was immersed in football from the very beginning, as her father co-founded East End Lions F.C. in Freetown. Her father took her to see football matches, and she played football with her brothers and their friends. She was educated at a convent school in Freeport and a boarding school in

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

, England.

Career

F.C. Johansen

Isha Johansen founded her own football club, F.C. Johansen, in 2004. The club was started with the objective of giving guidance and opportunities to children whose lives had been disrupted by the recent Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). It began playing in Division One in 2011 and was promoted to the Premier League the following year.

SLFA

Johansen was elected president of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) unopposed on 3 August 2013, after her main opponent, former Sierra Leone international footballer

Mohamed Kallon Mohamed Kallon Order of the Rokel, MOR (born 6 October 1979) is a Sierra Leonean association football, football manager and former player who is the manager of the Sierra Leone national football team. He was a striker and played for Inter Milan f ...

was disqualified by the Sierra Leone Football Executive committee for not meeting the SLFA residency requirement in the country. Kallon appealed his disqualification, but the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

delegation to Freetown confirmed the disqualifications of Kallon and two other candidates (for links to gambling), so Johansen was unopposed. When

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

was pressured to step down as head of FIFA, Johansen was touted as a possible successor in the press. She launched Powerplay, an initiative to encourage women and girls to play the game and to help empower them. It has the support of FIFA and the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

. She also started the annual African International Youth Tournament in 2009. On 7 September 2016, SLFA President Isha Johansen, Vice President Brima Kamara and Secretary General Christopher Kamara were jailed by the Anti-corruption Commission for failing to provide reports regarding the SLFA's financial statements and the use of money. The trio were released after posting bail. FIFA defended the SLFA in a letter, stating, "FIFA has no reason to suspect there has been misuse of funds that FIFA has provided to the SLFA", having audited the SLFA's accounts earlier in the year. In June 2021, after an 8-year stint as president of SLFA Johansen withdraw from an upcoming election, with her reasons being that her new role in the FIFA Council would demand her travelling globally and playing a higher level and more active role as a global ambassador for football and FIFA. She was succeeded as SLFA president by Thomas Daddy Brima on 5 June 2021.

CAF

Johansen was also an executive committee member of the

(CAF) from 2017–2021, doubling as the president of the women organizing committee. In May 2021, she maintained her role as an executive committee member but she was succeeded by Kanizat Ibrahim as the president of the women organizing committee whilst she took the role of vice-president to continue the mission of improving women's football in Africa.

FIFA

On 12 March 2021, she was elected into the

FIFA Council The FIFA Council (formerly the FIFA Executive Committee) is an institution of FIFA (the governing body of association football, futsal and beach football). It is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of FIFA Congress ...

after defeating Burundian Lydia Nsekera, who had held the position since 2013, by 28 votes to four during the CAF General Assembly. This made her the first West African woman elected into the council and the first Sierra Leonean to join the 37-person team.

Other activities

In 1993, she became the first woman publisher in the country's history, producing ''Rapture Magazine'', an entertainment publication. She was also contributing editor to ''Ovation'' magazine. She founded the Pink Charity Fund to combat

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

in 2006 and the Women of Excellence Awards.

Personal life

She was raised in a religious

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

family. She is married to the Norwegian Consul in Sierra Leone, Arne Birger Johansen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johansen, Isha 1965 births Living people Sierra Leonean businesspeople Sierra Leonean women in business Football people in Sierra Leone Oku people Sierra Leonean Muslims People from Freetown Members of the CAF Executive Committee Women association football executives FIFA officials Women FIFA officials