Ebru Koksal: ‘Women tend to ask difficult questions, and that’s not always liked’
Former investment banker turned CEO of Galatasaray, Turkish FA chief and advisor to Fifa and Uefa Ebru Koksal on the barriers faced by women in football, how it compares to the world of finance, and what England has got right.
Ebru Koksal’s path to becoming a trailblazing female figure and one of the most respected executives in football happened entirely by accident.
After studying in the US and starting a career in investment banking on Wall Street, she returned home to Turkey to join a private equity fund that would invest in the country’s biggest club, Galatasaray. On the day the deal was signed, she had her second child.
“I was told after three weeks I couldn’t work for the fund anymore because they thought that, as a woman with two young children, I couldn’t handle the schedule and the pressure,” she says. “But they said, if I wanted, I could go and work for Galatasaray as interim CFO. You can imagine the dilemma: do I hire a lawyer and open a court case, or do I go and work in football?”
Within a few years, Koksal had worked her way up to CEO. She also became the first woman elected to the board of the influential European Club Association, had a spell as general secretary of the Turkish Football Federation, and later consulted for Fifa and Uefa.
“I was way too early for my time, I think, and initially I didn’t even realise that it was so unique for a woman to be the CEO of a football club, let alone in Turkey, even in Europe. It was very, very unique,” she says. “But it was more around 2010, when I was elected to the ECA through an election without a quota, I realised there is nobody else around.”
That experience is behind her continued push for more equal opportunities at advocacy group Women in Football, which she has chaired since 2018. Her financial expertise – she still works in asset management alongside board positions in football and tennis – also makes her perfectly placed to compare the two industries.
“I think in finance at least, there seems to be a better merit-based advancement, and possibly less prejudice, perhaps, although, of course, there’s always unconscious bias that might be shaping people’s decisions,” she says.
“But there’s quite a patriarchal system in football where the owner [of a club] or the president [of a governing body] has the last say and people around them are not necessarily always challenging the assumptions and asking the difficult questions. As women we do tend to ask difficult questions, and that’s not always so well liked.”
Koksal kept awake by ‘silent barrier’ for women
The last couple of weeks in football has certainly proved that. Koksal is “very proud” that England has Debbie Hewitt, Alison Brittain and Dawn Airey as chairs of the FA, Premier League and Women’s Super League respectively “but that’s only possible because they’re recruiting independent board members and chairs”.
The only female CEO of a Premier League club, Lina Souloukou, left this summer. “We see more women at senior leadership levels, but there is always a silent barrier when it comes to being at the helm, whether it’s chair, a board role or CEO, and that’s the part that is keeping me awake at night. Because when you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Female Uefa execs Lise Klaveness and Laura McAllister have been credited with leading the revolt against Fifa president Gianni Infantino, with Klaveness even tipped as a potential successor. Koksal has lived how hard it can be for women to reach the top – “it’s very political” – but, at 58, still has some big ambitions left in the game.
“There’s always one dream that my husband absolutely hates and says no, but I say I won’t die without having run for presidency of Galatasaray one day,” she says. “For the moment I’m enjoying the work I’m doing and being able to contribute to different aspects of football and look forward to the day when some Premier League clubs might have independent board directors where can help identify talented women who can take on those roles.”