Around the world, there has been a huge investment in women’s football in recent years. Something that has yielded results, as for Spain, which shot like a rocket in the world rankings and won WC gold last summer.
Now top clubs in Europe are recruiting the stars and in Sweden it is still difficult to make everyday life as a footballer.
– The economy is too weak to enable a fully professional women’s league in the sense that the players who play in the teams that qualified for the women’s league cannot make a living from their sport, says Swedish Football Association chairman Fredrik Reinfeldt to SVT Sport.
– Greater efforts will have to be made to attract more people to come to Ladies’ League matches. And we also need a different negotiation climate when we discuss rights money and sponsorship money for women’s football. There are many people who say they want to support women’s football, but in real terms there are not as many resources.
“We were pioneers”
Someone who has looked out towards Europe and seen that we in the Nordics have not taken the necessary steps to keep up is Lise Klaveness, who says that women’s football in the Nordics needs to gather strength.
– It is a part of women’s football that has been stagnant in the Nordic region for quite some time. We were early adopters, we were pioneers. But on the league side, things have been pretty quiet. And now we see that the rest of Europe is exploding a bit, something is happening. Then I think we need to put effort into giving energy to the Nordics. That we strengthen what we are good at, such as club structure. We have to put our heads together and spend time on this and start concrete projects so that we get new innovation and further investment, she tells SVT Sport.