Kimberly Morris’s career has taken her from Eastern Ontario to the great cities of Europe. A former commercial litigation lawyer, she is qualified to practise law in Canada, England, and Wales. Now living in Zurich, she leads a global, multi-faceted, multinational team in a key role at FIFA. We talked to her about the intersection of football and feminism and what it’s like to be behind the scenes at the World Cup.
The World Cup has just ended after captivating audiences for weeks. But beyond the pitch, are there lessons the beautiful game can teach us about leadership and teamwork?
The World Cup is the beautiful game at its biggest scale, and bringing it to life teaches many of the same lessons about teamwork that make football itself so compelling to watch. Delivering a competition across three countries and 16 cities is, in itself, a lesson in teamwork: you can only succeed if everyone respects one another, believes in their own ability to deliver, and trusts that every individual contribution matters to the overall result.
There’s a leadership lesson in that, too: recognizing the work that doesn’t make the highlights. Good leaders make a point of seeing and valuing the people whose work can go unnoticed: drivers, hospitality staff, IT support, volunteers, and all those working behind the scenes. It’s all one team effort, and it’s on leaders to make sure that work gets cheered as loudly as any goal.
That’s really the lesson the game teaches, on the pitch and off: everyone has something to contribute, whether or not their role is the most visible one.
Before FIFA, you worked with organizations focused on violence prevention and the advancement of women and girls. What’s it like carrying that perspective into soccer, which has for many years been a very male-dominated sport?
I worked for the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children and the YWCA Toronto before joining FIFA, and that experience has served me very well. The values and skills built in social impact organizations – purpose, advocacy, understanding how change happens – translate directly into an organization like FIFA, which exists to serve and develop football globally.
What I learned along the way is that every intervention matters, and that working from within – and finding allies at all levels – can help move the needle, whether the goal is advancing gender equity or growing the sport. It’s about building alliances, not being afraid to say what you think, and bringing positive, solution-focused energy to how things can get better.
And often, what looks like a gender issue is really a people issue. The real work, in any organization, is getting people engaged and creating the conditions for everyone to contribute to solving a problem – and that mindset travels across causes and contexts.
What’s a behind-the-scenes story that captures the magic of the World Cup?
During the opening match at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico, I went to see the technology team working to ensure media operators around the world received the feeds they needed. It’s exactly the kind of behind-the-scenes work that goes unnoticed, and I went to thank them for it. One colleague was devastated because something had gone wrong – nobody else really noticed, but the accountability he took, and the heartfelt way he apologized and wanted to make it right next time, said everything. For me, that’s the magic: people with passion, caring deeply about what they do and taking enormous pride in their contribution.
You’ve said before that diversity of staff is a huge strength for FIFA. Tell us what diversity can bring to an organization.
Diversity of culture, diversity of experience, diversity of thought – all of it matters in any organization, because we each bring different points of view and different ways of doing things, and that’s really what the world is all about. Whether you’re at FIFA or at Queen’s, you need to stay open to the fact that there’s never just one way of doing things. People from different backgrounds and experiences help shape and innovate in ways that are genuinely unique.
In interviews, you’ve spoken about mentorship and the importance of lifting other women up. Can you share a story of gratitude for anyone who did that for you?
I have many stories of gratitude throughout my career – from when I was a young lawyer practising at Stikeman Elliott through to now, where I still have people who continue to lift me up. I’m a big believer in paying it forward, and I think mentorship comes from everywhere, including from people who are more junior than you. It runs up, down, and sideways, and it often comes from people you’d never think to ask directly. That’s why it’s important not to reserve your kindness for senior people – be kind to everybody.
