Last week, the International Football Federation, Fifa, sent out a letter urging the participating countries during the World Cup in Qatar to focus on football and to stop giving moral lessons.
“We know that football does not live in a vacuum and we are equally aware that there are many challenges and difficulties of a political nature around the world. But please, do not let football be drawn into every ideological or political struggle that exists,” wrote Fifa in the letter signed by President Gianni Infantino and Secretary General Fatma Samoura.
“It’s going to be politics”
In Monday’s Aktuellt in SVT, the Norwegian Football Association’s chairman Lise Klaveness criticized Fifa. She believes that the letter has the opposite effect and that not raising the political aspect of the championship is wrong.
— We are at an extremely important crossroads. As we know, this championship has brought with it an all too great risk of human rights violations, and it has been violated. And it will be politics, says Klaveness and continues:
— It’s about human life and football’s responsibility. So I think Infantino’s (Gianni) letter defeats its purpose. He wants to moderate the climate of debate and hopefully be unifying. But it defeats its purpose and becomes polarizing.
Joint statement
Fifa’s letter drew criticism from several European confederations, including from the Norwegian Football Association and SvFF (Swedish Football Association). Together with eight other European football associations, they came up with a joint statement in which, among other things, they pressed the rights of migrant workers.
The WC in Qatar will be played from 20 November to 18 December.