CULTURE CURRENT: Isha Johansen, one of football's most powerful women, says the sport is a 'refuge'

When Isha Johansen founded a youth soccer club in post-war Sierra Leone, she saw it as a way to get children off the streets and back into schools. That passion went on to shape a career that took her to the sport's highest levels — as the first female president of the Sierra Leone Football Association and later as the first West African woman to sit on the FIFA Council, soccer's global governing body, a role she held from 2021 to 2025.

In 2017, Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission accused Johansen and the secretary general of the Sierra Leone Football Association of misappropriating funds, resulting in their removal. They denied the charges, claiming they were politically motivated. FIFA stood by them and suspended Sierra Leone's federation during that period, citing government interference in soccer affairs. Both were later acquitted of all charges.

Johansen, who grew up in both Sierra Leone and England, reflects upon this episode and her career in her new memoir “The Uncommon Enemy: A True Story of Football, Power and Betrayal,” published earlier this month ahead of the World Cup.

Speaking with Reuters in London, she discusses the power of the sport to rebuild communities, challenges in global football governance, and what an expanded World Cup means for the developing world.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What first drew you to soccer, or football?

Looking back, it was probably destined. As a young child, my father was a chairman of perhaps the biggest football club in Sierra Leone, East End Lions FC. On Saturday mornings, especially in England, (I remember) being there together with my brothers, waiting for (the BBC highlights show) "Match of the Day," popping over to the shops with him on Saturdays to buy the newspapers and look at the forecasts, playing football with the boys. It was always there.

You went on to found your own club, FC Johansen, in 2004. What inspired that move?

After the war in Sierra Leone, our brutal civil war, there were a lot of displaced kids — a lot of displaced people, full stop. But there were children littered all over the place and I would see these kids playing football at every time of day.

It was very clear to me that either they didn't have homes to go to or they weren't under supervision or both. And so the (aim was) not to set up a football team or anything like that, but to actually play my own part in getting them off the streets and reintegrate them back into society and education. It was all about rebuilding Sierra Leone and getting back on our feet together. This would be my own contribution.

And I said (to the boys), I can encourage you to play even better and I can get you a ball, I'll get you boots — but you must go to school. That was the deal, and they stuck to it. Some of them did reasonably well at school, some of them didn't. But the fact of the matter is I got them off the streets. And the story goes on and on. We went to the Swiss Cup, we beat Liverpool. We played against Manchester City, we played against these big teams (and) their youth sides.

Apart from putting these kids back into society, I also used football to change the narrative of Sierra Leone.

What role does football play in the country today?

Football is a religion. And for most people, really, it’s a source of refuge. It is only now that people are beginning to gain financial benefits from football. People would play football for free. No expectations — just coming together and having a fun time and forgetting your woes and suffering. And for those 90 minutes, you forget everything.

Until today, to an extent, it's still the same. Only now, with FIFA and the development programs that it has introduced in developing countries, it has created a source of wealth and elevation. Players can look after their families, after themselves.

In your memoir, you reflect on being charged and later acquitted of corruption. Why write about it now?

Because I find myself in that space where I can talk about it. I cannot put in words what it was that I was going through. I had severe panic attacks. I had high blood pressure that I didn't know I had. I had severe depression. I was, at that period in time, the most vilified woman in the country. So it was an extremely difficult time for me to do anything but try to find something to distract my mind from football — which was very difficult because football was everything to me.

After those many years, I knew that I was going to one day tell my own side of the story. But, of course, I needed to be acquitted fully to gain my momentum. So it took me a long time. It was a long process, (like) the kind of therapy you pay thousands and thousands of pounds for, but the book did it for me.

You write that corruption in football isn't just occasional, but systemic. How entrenched is it today?

It's unfortunate because we see it cropping up time and time again. During my time as an executive board member of the Confederation of African Football — the equivalent of UEFA (in Europe), which oversees all the federations in Africa — I have seen or heard of cases where clearly it would appear that it was a witch hunt, but they use alleged corruption as a means of getting that president or whoever out of the way. My case was not an isolated one in terms of allegations and counter-allegations of corruption.

Corruption does exist. It is rife. There's no two ways about that. We know that. But there are also cases where people are just being accused because it's a witch hunt. And that is equally very worrying. (Editor’s note: FIFA and the Confederation of African Football did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

The ongoing World Cup is the largest in history, with 48 teams. What do you make of the expansion?

It's just great to see. I remember when that expansion was announced — there were lots of questions and even disapproval. But it is good. You open up the football to the world. It's good (because) the money that is being generated goes back into developing football. Especially for developing countries like ours. We need the infrastructure; we need the youth development.

Even other areas, like going into women's correctional centers (and) using football as a tool for reforms, getting courses into these women's correctional centers, empowering the women (to) put their energies into playing football. Sierra Leone was the first in the world to bring in this initiative called Football for Reform.

From my time as a FIFA Council member and sitting on all these other bodies, it's not all just doom and gloom. There are some spectacular opportunities that we've thought about, sorted through, and we're actually implementing.

This World Cup has faced challenges, including visa issues. Having written about the barriers FC Johansen players have faced competing overseas, how much do these barriers shape outcomes on the pitch — and what responsibility does FIFA have to lift them?

This is a difficult one, because one of the things that FIFA is very firm about is political interference. They frown upon political interference in the running of football and it's a no-no for FIFA to get involved in the politics of another country.

When a country bids to host a Nations Cup or a World Cup, you have the things that the host country should provide, will provide, signed up to provide. Visas and security is one thing that they look at. Now, when it comes to what happened with Somalia (whose referee was barred from entering the U.S.), this is something FIFA can absolutely not interfere in. It’s unfortunate because, of course, it goes against what football stands for — unity, oneness.

It's a hard one to debate on, and maybe something that FIFA will look into in the future, but from what I know and I've experienced, there are certain internal aspects of a government's policies and practices that FIFA can't intervene in and vice versa.

Some critics have argued that FIFA has run afoul of its own neutrality rules by awarding President Donald Trump its inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. What do you think?

What I would like to say is I would like to see, moving forward, that FIFA can give prizes to federations that have been able to implement good governance. I think that would be one that would be apt.

Finally, who are you cheering for?

I'm going for my African teams. I love Senegal. One of my favorite people in FIFA is Fatma Samoura, the first female African secretary general of FIFA. I'm very impressed with Morocco. They've raised our bar. I'd like to see Ghana do well as well.

The perspectives expressed in Culture Current are the subject’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Reuters News.

-Editing by Aurora Ellis/Reuters