Norwegian women who are influential in football have fought for equality. According to Norwegian researcher Bente Skogvang, the background is the power of the community.
Are you Finland’s greatest Futsitista? Tell me who will beat whom and with what result in the summer European Championships. You also compete in Futistietäjä for great prizes. You can get to the hottest football game of the summer here.
– In 2010, FIFA awarded the World Cup in an unacceptable way, with unacceptable consequences. Human rights, equality and democracy, the basic values of football, were not taken into account until years later. There is no room for employers who cannot ensure the safety and freedom of World Cup workers. Nor for managers who are unable to organize women’s competitions. And not for the race organizers, who are unable to ensure the safety and respect of sexual and gender minorities who come to the games.
It was brave also because Klaveness himself lives in a relationship with a woman. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar under threat of imprisonment. Although FIFA has welcomed all football supporters, is part of the World Cup official hotels have refused (you switch to another service)from accommodating same-sex couples.
Discrimination and treatment of gender and sexual minorities is just one of the issues that emerged in connection with the World Cup in Qatar. Most attention has been focused on the conditions of foreign workers working in the country, and climate issues have also come up in the discussion. The competitions are exceptionally played in November-December, because in the summer the country would be dangerously hot.
Klaveness is by no means the first Norwegian woman to change the world of football. Star player Ada Hegerberg strongly criticized the country’s investment in women’s national team activities. That’s why he stayed away from national team activities for several years and focused on his club career at French giant Lyon. This spring, Hegerberg returned to the national team.
But there are others besides Hegerberg.
Norwegians are actually to be thanked for the fact that women play in official value competitions at all.
The international football association FIFA agreed to organize the first official Women’s World Cup only in 1991. This change also started from a speech by a brave Norwegian at the FIFA Congress in 1986.
– Ellen Wille was the first woman on the board of the Norwegian Football Association. She, a very petite woman, from a small Nordic country, entered the first Fifa Congress to criticize Fifa for not paying attention to women’s football in their annual report and suggested organizing the World Cup and including women’s football in the Olympic program. The first World Championships were held in 1991 and ten years after the speech, the first women’s Olympic final was also played, Norwegian researcher Bente Skogvang remembers.
The Atlanta Olympic final in question was also a significant experience for Skogvang, as he refereed the match in front of nearly 80,000 spectators. Later, experiences as a player, coach and in various positions in the Norwegian Football Association have inspired Skogvang to study women’s football.
Skogvang, who came to the football seminar organized in Jyväskylä in May, is exactly the right person to answer why Norway has such strong, influential women in football.
– I have to add to the list as well Karen EspelundSkogvang starts.
– He has also spoken at FIFA congresses in the same way as Lise. He didn’t get as much media attention, but still.
Espelund became secretary general of the Norwegian Football Association in 1999. He was a member of UEFA’s executive board from 2012 to 2016.
But let’s get back to the topic and the burning question: how do small Norway inspire such highly influential women into the world of football?
Skogvang thinks again for a moment.
– It is not just the work of one person, but of several who have been fighting for these issues for years. They have good support from different corners of society and the football world behind them. That is the reason why they dare to be bold when they enter the international stage.
Even though Hegerberg’s one-woman protest criticized the association’s women’s national team activities, the truth is that, at least in the final matches, equality has been invested significantly in the Norwegian Football Association for several years.
Half of the board are men, half are women. However, former national team player Klaveness is the first woman to become chairman.
– It’s been 150 years since the association was founded, so it’s about time! Skogvang snorts.
Skogvang remembers his own youth and constant battles with the men’s team. The men’s team got better training sessions regardless of the division they played in.
– In terms of equality, a giant leap has been taken. There is an opportunity to play on better fields, there are more educated, better coaches, there is more time to rest, Skogvang begins.
The women’s league organization has developed tremendously in recent years.
– They have three full-time employees who work with the media. They make their own sponsorship contracts and sell their own media rights. The women’s league has “pro days”, meaning every player has at least one day for which they get paid, Skogvang says excitedly.
Some of the players in the series play professionally. Those who study or work alongside playing get to enjoy professional life at least four days a month.
– For others, there is always one day a week when they can come in the morning, have breakfast, gather, train, have lunch together and train a second time. They can live like male professionals even for one day. That’s a big improvement indeed!
The Norwegian women’s national football team is ranked 11th in the world rankings. In addition to Hegerberg, the team includes numerous world stars, such as Barcelona’s Caroline Graham Hansen and Chelsea Guro Reiten.
In the previous European Championships, Norway was disastrously at the bottom of the A group, when it lost all three of its matches and did not score a goal. From the same group, Denmark and the Netherlands fought until the final match.
– In recent years, Norway has lagged a bit behind the golden generation, Skogvang admits.
The team has the World Championship gold from Sweden in 1995 and the Olympic gold from Sydney in the summer of 2000. In addition, it has won the European Championship gold twice in 1987 and 1993. The previous prize medal is from the European Championship played in Sweden in 2013, when Norway was awarded silver.
This year, however, Skogvang feels that the team will be competitive. The team has won their five previous games, most recently against Denmark before the start of the European Championships.
Even more than the success of his own country, Skogvang is happy about the Nordic success.
– All five countries have made it to the top 16, it’s really great and tells about our development!
All matches of the European Championship are shown on channels. Norway will face Northern Ireland in their opening match on Thursday at 22:00. Everything about the European Championships on Urheilu’s competition website.