Mahfuza Akhter Kiron (; born 12 February 1967) is a Bangladeshi

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

administrator and a member of 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 ...

. In May 2017, Akhter won the election for the seat on the FIFA Council reserved for Asian women. She ran against the incumbent Australian

Moya Dodd Moya Dodd (born 30 April 1965) is an Australian soccer official, a lawyer and former national team player. She is a former executive committee member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and a former member of the FIFA Council. Football ...

, who had held the seat from 2013 to 2016, and gained 27 votes to Dodd's 17. Akhter was questioned following an interview by the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

, when she struggled to name the current women's world champions, replying "Korea", then "Japan", and then the correct answer, the US because of her battle against cancer. In March 2019, she suffered conspiracy and was arrested for allegedly defaming the Bangladeshi prime minister,

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina (''née'' Wazed; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Her ...

. It was said that, Akhter had claimed that the prime minister "maintain ddouble standard for football and cricket."

References

1967 births Living people Bangladeshi football administrators People of East Pakistan Women FIFA officials Women association football executives {{Bangladesh-footy-bio-stub