Sarai Bareman


Sarai Bareman is a New Zealand born former footballer of Samoan and Dutch descent who represented Samoa. She is the current Chief Women's Football Officer for FIFA. She attended Massey High School in West Auckland.

Career

As a player, Bareman played club football based in Auckland, New Zealand before moving to Samoa and representing the Samoa women's national football team.
As a football administrator, Bareman also started her journey in Samoa after leaving a 10 year career in the banking and finance industry in New Zealand. She was first employed as the Finance Manager for the Football Federation of Samoa, responsible for all financial matters of the national association. This appointment came at a critical time in the associations history as they had recently been suspended by FIFA for misuse of funds by the previous administration
After a short time in the role, Bareman was promoted to the Chief Executive Officer where she took over the reigns of the national governing body and played an instrumental role in rebuilding the sport in the country. Bareman became a prominent figure in the Pacific sporting landscape after speaking at the Pacific Youth and Sports Conference held in 2013 about her experiences as female leader in a male dominated industry.
In 2014, Bareman moved back to Auckland to take up a role as the Deputy Secretary General for the Oceania Football Confederation where she was able to continue her work in football administration impacting the wider pacific region.
After the scandal in 2015 in FIFA, Bareman was appointed as the only women on the FIFA Reform Committee, the body that was put in place to reform the embattled organization and rebuild its global reputation. As part of the reform, Bareman advocated for increasing the number of women in leadership roles within FIFA and football, as well as more resourcing for the women's game. The reforms were approved in February 2016 at the FIFA Congress and later in the year, she was appointed as FIFA's first Chief Women's Football Officer. In 2018, Bareman conducted the draw for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France, her first World Cup at the helm of global women's football. Later that year Bareman also oversaw the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Uruguay.
Bareman also led the development of FIFA's first ever global strategy for women's football which was launched in October 2018.