On Tuesday, 21 March, the FA Council (of which Katrien Meire is a member) will discuss the proposed structural changes already approved by the current board. These include
• Reduction in the size of the FA board to 10 members, with three positions on the FA board to be reserved for female members (by 2018)
• Addition of 11 new members to the FA council to ensure it better reflects the inclusive and diverse nature of English football (this will include ethnic and disability diversity)
Like many, I welcome in principle the proposal by the FA to ensure female representation on the FA Board from 2018, and hope this will provide a catalyst for an increase in competent female participation at all levels of the FA, and in positions of influence throughout the industry. However, the devil is always in the detail, and I see nothing within the FA’s statement in ABOUT THE FA
http://www.thefa.com/news/2017/mar/06/governance-reforms-060317 to indicate how they will ensure that the positions reserved on the Board and in the Council for women and minority groups will be anything more than a “tick box” exercise, with the calibre of the appointee being secondary to their gender, skin colour, disability, etc. In my view such tokenism would be totally counter-productive, both from the perception it would give of those thus represented, and as a way of validating the work of the FA.
Of course we all have a particular interest in this at CAFC. In early 2014 we still had a very popular black manager, Chris Powell; a fans’ favourite since his playing days with us, and well respected throughout football as a man of integrity. Just the sort of person who might in future be welcomed to share his professionalism in the cause of governance of his sport, as he did in on the field as an England player. I, like many fans, felt “special” to be part of the minority of clubs with a black person in such a senior role.
So when the new owner of CAFC installed a young female lawyer Katrien Meire as his CEO, her presence was initially embraced by many fans in a similar fashion. How lucky were we to have the joint “uniqueness” of a black manager AND a female CEO? Well, as experience has unfortunately taught us, not lucky at all! Offers of help and cooperation from the fan-base were rebuffed. We were told bluntly by KM that the “shareholder” (owner Roland Duchâtelet) would do things his way, the 1/3rd of the income stream provided by ticket sales was unimportant, and “customer” input was unwelcome. Since then season ticket sales have fallen 40%, largely as a result of boycott, and presumably income from merchandise has seen a similar reduction.
It became clear that, rather than being run as a competitive sporting team, we were to be used as a “player farm”, putting the maximum number of youngsters from the Academy into the shop window of the first team as early as possible, in order to sell them to Premiership clubs, with minimal reinvestment in the team. No surprise when we were relegated last summer, and have once again been looking over our shoulders at the relegation zone this year. During her three incompetent years in charge, KM has supervised the relegation of the team, constant churn of players, managers and other senior roles at the club, and increasing financial debt to Staprix. Above all, she has driven a wedge between our club and its supporters.
What I find even more worrying is that, since last year, our inept but limelight-seeking CEO has had a nominated place on the FA Council, as a result of the EFL having more seats in its gift than candidates to fill them. I hope the FA is not misled by KM’s attempts to grab media plaudits rightly due to Charlton Athletic Community Trust for its work with minority groups, and the separately managed Charlton Women’s Team. Do KM’s FA colleagues realise that CACT was founded 25 years ago, and runs independently of the management of CAFC? To us fans who have lived for the past three years with the wrecking ball KM has wielded at Charlton, the possibility that she could be nodded onto the FA Board next year purely on grounds of her gender (and there could be no other valid reason) is unthinkable, whether or not she continues much longer as CEO of CAFC.
In summary, I have two concerns about the FA’s restructuring proposals:-
(1) What measures are planned to ensure the 3 female seats on the future board will be occupied by competent women, not just token females, such as KM?
(2) In the event that it is not possible to identify 3 suitably qualified women from the world of football, who are willing to serve, what alternative measures will there be to identify women with appropriate transferable skills from other sports, or from the business community? 
Comments
But if she is still here, what an opportunity to publicise further her utter incompetence and malice!
But lose it when/if the takeover happens.
I wonder if the good ladies at WAR might want to pick it up and see if a national journalist (preferably also female) might run with it.
What do you think, @Fanny Fanackapan , @Arsenetatters ?
If it was a young male CEO that said and did all the stupid things she has, they wouldn't get a look in and would be laughed at so hard.
Would be seen as a complete imbecile and written off straight away.
This is not how things should be done.
If I was a woman I would be furious. Katrien has completely mis-represented women in football.
She has professionally jumped forward a lot further that what she earned (merit based) and deserved.....and mostly , simply because of her gender and her looks that may charm people around her.
I believe people like Mandy Myers whatever her name was, and Sue Parkes, were promised certain things and possibly paid a little bit under the table to speak highly of Miss Meire.
Remember that email leak AB attached, to indicate that Parkes didn't like Meire at all to begin with?
You should get a job because you are good at it, not because you are a minority of some sort within the field.
I hope more women get the work they deserve in football, because they are as good as or better then the person next to them.
The same applies to men and women - I agree with you that advancement should be a result of ability, skill, and hard work.
And they have to figure a way to sort this out.
If, as Katrien Meire, I really really wanted a spot on the FA panel/committe EFL group thing whatever.
I would think to myself, sure, I want that, but considering I have absolutely fucked everything up at Charlton and made a significant contribution to the large shambles of a mess behind the scenes and the recent relegation.
The fans also clearly do not like me at all. The ones that pay the money to make the club what it is and they in theory, keep the wheels turning via the support and financial input.
So they are valuable to the business. With, or without Rolands investment.
I've personally pissed them off. It's quite rare for supporters of a football club to specifically call out the CEO and try to tell that person they are not wanted at the club.
I'm a train wreck basically.
How embarrassing. Even more embarrassing is the fact that I can't help but smirk while they are having a moan.
I would think. It would be really cheeky of me to forward an interest in such a thing, like be on an FA panel.
Especially at this present time. I better sort this mess out first, at least. Get some genuine solid respect and improve my reputation.
shes a con-woman.
She will climb up that ladder with absolutely no fear and without questioning herself one bit.
Maybe just got a normal nice side to her as well and where she isn't quite so deluded, but who cares. That's not quite important or relevant. Not really the business of others.
She's a rather uniquely ruthless individual though in my opinion.
However, I am more concerned for the immediate future of Charlton, & the medium future of football in this country. What price hopes that the FA will ever update its "Fit & Proper" test for owners, if KM is ever in a position of real power?
Her outburst at the Telegraph conference last summer makes me think @IdleHans is spot on, and while most of us would think as @Dave21 suggests, there is little evidence KM thinks like that. This is a weakness of being surrounded by sycophants to the exclusion of critical friends, and it is possible RD labours under the same disadvantage, given his wealth.
Hold on... i hate Daisy, but even i would advise her to apply!
Of the 3 proposed female FA Board positions, I guess at least one will go to a representative from Women's Football; there will rightly be uproar if they are excluded! I can see one of the others going to a woman in a senior position in Men's Football - here there is a very small pond in which to fish, and all the obvious inhabitants come with disadvantages. It is possibly significant that The Mail article in January named KM.
True, KM appears to have little interest in football as a competitive sport - but we do have evidence she likes to enhance her CV. A senior position at the FA would certainly do that, and I am sure she will have no compunction playing the gender card to achieve that end. Having done so, she may well have no further use for the stepping stone called Charlton Athletic.
The press really wanted to slaughter him, but he won them round by throwing himself into the role and doing a decent job of clearing up an almighty mess. He's still working in the UK, apparently.
He could have been the role model for KM, of someone coming from a different culture into the mad world of English public life. But she just seems to be one of these individuals powered by their own bullshit. Hopefully she won't be our problem for much longer.
The award (the VRG Alumni prize) was made in 2016 and it is particularly pertinent to your posting.
The Alumni professors of the KU Leuven made the award over two years into KMs tenure at Charlton and at time when she had not only overseen the ill-judged Score-on-the-pitch fiasco (which was censured by the British Advertising Board for showing simulated sex-acts on the Charlton You-Tube where it might be viewed by children) but had also, in a national newspaper in Belgium (L'Echo) dismissed the history of Charlton Athletic with the unwise comment Je me'n fous which may be translated as I really don't care.
Despite the above being known to the Alumni and in the knowledge that there were difficulties arising over her role at Charlton, they gave her this prestigious award on the basis that she was:
1. Female
2. Young
3. Had made a bold career choice.
You can still find the summary of her prize-giving eulogy at https://www.law.kuleuven.be/vrgalumni/alumniprijs
although the full eulogy has now been taken off-line.
Meire has recently added this award to her Linkedin profile and she will carry the award with her for life on her CV.
However, subsequent contact with the KU Leuven on this matter has established that they are quite unrepentant about the reasons given for the award to Katrien Meire and they are now on record as stating that the award was made exactly as stated above and in that order (Female, young, bold career move).
It is impossible to argue 1 and 2 (34 is young in my book)
but her bold career move is purely down to Duchatelet's penchant for promoting totally untried and untested people into positions of great responsibility and power (but with no accountability and leaving them to get on with it, despite the inevitable consequences), together with his willingness never seemingly to find fault with or exercise any control over his appointed proteges.
Meire has thus, led a charmed life, where, in the case of the KU Leuven she has had an honour bestowed upon her not for any great achievement in her 'bold' career choice but by being young and female and fitting the bill when the KU were scouting around for a 2016 candidate as they openly admit.
As has been stated: both for male and female 'advancement should be a result of ability, skill, and hard work'.
In Meire's case she has advanced in spite of demonstrably failing to perform her fundamental duty to this football club (and indeed its owner) by not acting independently in the best interests of the club.
If this means taking issue with some of the owner's wishes so be it. As a Masters graduate of the KU Leuven she should have the ability to address the wider picture and forge her own way ahead.
Instead, Meire pedals the Duchatelet line without question, shows poor judgement in what she says at Press Conferences and to the media in England and Belgium and has yet been rewarded by those (like KU Leuven) who are too lazy and blinkered to look beyond her gender and youth.
In this country, many university departments are heavily dependent on funding from industry and wealthy individuals, particularly alumni. If the same is true in Belgium it might explain a lot... Always good to keep a benefactor sweet!
Worryingly, and this may be a fault of the translation, but he appears to be quoted as saying that when something is going wrong you let it capsize so that you can build it up again (or words to that effect)
OMG.
So, it is possible indeed that he had a word in the ear of the Alumni group re Meire
And we didn't need an iceberg !
And I think we do have an iceberg - the regime, with its icy, unfeeling heart, whose true nature was hidden by the mists of take-over until it was too late.