The news was startling. Two weeks ago on Monday, it was reported that a Finn Rosa Lappi-Seppälä is the new head coach of the Saudi Arabian women’s national football team.
Lappi-Seppälä, 48, has had a long and international career in football. In addition to Finland, he played a total of ten years in the USA, Belgium and Italy. As a coach, he has piloted various league clubs, the 23-year-old women’s national team and worked as an assistant coach of the women’s A national team.
But Saudi Arabia? A country in connection with which there has been a lot of talk about blatant human rights violations, and where gender equality is not as well realized as in most Western countries.
According to reports from human rights and non-governmental organizations, executions, torture, detention of minors and show trials are still common in the country.
Lappi-Seppälä says that he did a lot of research before receiving the washing machine. He also visited the place to get to know the conditions and people.
– Of course I had to evaluate the different aspects of things very carefully. Of course, traditional Nordic values are very important to me, Lappi-Seppälä explains from Dammam, Saudi Arabia via video connection.
Lappi-Seppälä carefully weighed the pros and cons with his close circle, and received a lot of support from his close circle.
His father Jyrki Lappi-Seppälä worked in his international career in the years 1992–94 as the coordinator of Kepa’s development cooperation project in Nicaragua. The daughter participated in the work at her own level by taking football to poor villages.
30 years later, Saudi Arabia appeared to him as a somewhat similar project from a football perspective.
– I have seen many different countries and different world situations, for example in the 1990s in Nicaragua. Through such international experiences, I have learned that the world is not black and white and that things can be influenced in different ways, Rosa Lappi-Seppälä points out.
– It’s good to be critical and point out grievances. But it is equally important to actively influence things from within, when there is an opportunity, he continues.
Lappi-Seppälä’s appointment aroused a lot of criticism, for example, for how she has allowed herself to be used as a propaganda tool for a state that tramples on human rights. Pesti has also been considered a PR trick. Lappi-Seppälä foresaw what kind of outcry would follow from his wash in the Finnish media.
– But I didn’t think it would turn out like this, he says.
Messi, Ronaldo, Lappi-Seppälä…
In 2019, the status of women’s football in Saudi Arabia became official when the country’s football association SAFF established a women’s division. The first women’s amateur league was founded in 2008. In 2020, women’s regional racing series began, and a year later the women’s national team was officially established. The national women’s league saw the light of day last year, and the first national championship was won by Al-Nassr in early February.
Saudi Arabia’s women’s national team has been described as a “pure PR stunt” to justify better positions in international football. In connection with the country, we are talking about sports washing and speeding up the application process for the 2030 men’s World Cup.
Also the director of the Finland branch of the human rights organization Amnesty International Frank Johansson brings up sports underwear repeatedly.
– It is quite clear that Saudi Arabia uses sports – be it football, formulas or golf – with the purpose of covering up the country’s repeated human rights violations and the fact that there is no freedom of speech or expression of opinion in the country. Any criticism of the system leads to long prison sentences, says Johansson.
– The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has consciously set out to polish the country’s image through sports and spending big money on it. Related to this, for example Lionel Messi’s becoming the country’s football ambassador and Cristiano Ronaldo going there (to Al-Nassr), Johansson sees.
Johansson puts Lappi-Seppälä in the same group as the superstars. Lappi-Seppälä himself guessed that the topic would come up and understood the question, but not its logic.
– It’s hard for me to imagine what would be the practical examples through which I would become an intermediary for something like this. I’m not even a famous person in the football world, and I don’t think that my face or my name has any PR value, he answers.
– I have not been featured or involved in anything that is not directly related to the women’s national team and the development of girls’ and women’s football. That’s why I don’t believe in this PR thing. Here, it has been made clear from the beginning that I have been chosen because of my skills and international experience, he says.
According to Lappi-Seppälä’s experience, Saudi Arabia’s women’s soccer project is on a much more stable footing than Qatar’s, where the women’s national team was stopped soon after the country was awarded the 2022 World Cup.
– Women have been playing here since the beginning of the millennium, and this project is not dependent on one team. The futsal national team has already existed before, and in February the U17 girls’ national team was established. The popularity of girls’ school leagues is huge. Many training centers have been built here, and a large number of female coaches and referees have been trained here. As part of my work, I train coaches myself, Lappi-Seppälä lists.
– I see that a lot of things have been done here, and in the right way, in order to have a long-term effect. It wouldn’t be worth putting in so much effort if the desire to develop wasn’t genuine, he says.
He also does not believe that the Finnish women’s football coach’s words will have an impact on the country’s situation. Therefore, Lappi-Seppälä does not promise to become a mouthpiece for anyone or anything. Such a thing has also been demanded in Finland.
Johansson has a proposal for Lappi-Seppälä.
– I hope that he and the other foreigners on the spot would take a stand, make observations, give recommendations and do things from the inside. At the same time, those outside them, for example human rights organizations and football associations, must intervene in what is happening in Saudi Arabian society. You have to influence both internally and externally, says Johansson.
Of course, Lappi-Seppälä also wants to influence social issues in her own role. Instead of talk, he believes in actions that he believes will make an impact.
– When making this decision, it was very important for me, and I thought very carefully about whether this work has meaning and whether the opportunities for influence are good and genuine. I have come here to develop women’s football. I want to inspire these women and help them achieve their dreams, she says.
Lappi-Seppälä says she believes in the power of example.
– When I started playing futsal in my youth, there were a lot of prejudices. In Finland, there has been a big change in women’s football and ice hockey in about 30 years. The more the issue is exposed and visible, the more women’s sports will become a natural part of society, she reasons.
Fast pace of change
Ambassador of Saudi Arabia Anu-Eerika Viljanen according to, many changes have taken place in the country in recent years, which have liberated the position of women.
The biggest single change was the last country in the world to allow driving. The women’s driving ban was lifted on June 24, 2018. Women now also have the option to apply for a passport without a male guardian. For example, these things have had an impact on women’s social life.
The most visible vestige of guardianship is that a woman needs a man’s, usually her father’s, permission to marry. A woman can get a divorce without the man’s consent.
Women are also not obliged to wear the traditional abaya or cover their head and face with a scarf, but many still want to do so.
– The segregation that previously divided everything here into women’s and men’s worlds no longer exists, ambassador Viljanen says.
According to him, about 37 percent of the country’s workforce today are women. There are women in both public and private sector positions at all levels, and they are increasingly also in management positions.
– The pace of change here is probably faster than anywhere else in the world. Even those who live and work here find it difficult to keep up with the pace of change. If you try to observe it from the outside, things tend to go wrong.
Johansson speculated earlier In Iltalehti (you switch to another service)that women’s football would be subject to restrictions or privileges that would not improve the status of ordinary Saudi women at all.
According to Viljanen, this is not true.
– All the reforms and increased freedoms made here, including those related to football, belong to everyone. They are not the privilege of the upper classes or city dwellers, says Viljanen.
Circus fun for the people
According to Ambassador Viljanen, football has already risen to the status of a national sport in Saudi Arabia. According to the most official estimates, about 80 percent of Saudi Arabia’s approximately 36 million inhabitants play or watch football.
The national sport got a lot of fuel for its frantically beating cylinders in the infamous Qatar Games, when Saudi Arabia sensationally beat Argentina 2–1 in its opening match.
Football is part of the “big plan” of the state, which is strictly controlled by the royal house. The name of this plan is Vision 2030.
The ultimate purpose of the vision is to reduce the country’s dependence on oil resources, i.e. to diversify the country’s economy. The vision includes opening the country to tourists, organizing various mega-events such as sports competitions and concerts, and generally offering a variety of previously forbidden entertainment such as movie theaters to citizens.
In the 2024 budget, two billion dollars have been budgeted for sports and supporting sports clubs. The Finnish state’s sports budget is around 160 million euros.
At the London Olympics in 2012, Saudi Arabia had a women’s team (two athletes) for the first time. Now there are 37 sports federations in the country that have a women’s national team.
Passion is rewarding – calculating the salary is funny
In January, the women’s national team won a four-nation tournament in their home country, in which Mauritius, Comoros and Pakistan also participated. In March, Saudi Arabia is listed for the first time in the Fifa rankings.
This season, there were 25 teams and about 700 registered players in the top two league levels for women, including about 50 foreigners from 20 different countries. According to official data provided by SAFF, 1,900 schools, 4,700 teams and 48,000 players participated in the school leagues for secondary school-age girls.
– My experiences so far have been really positive from all sides. When people see girl players with the national team logo on their chest, many are very interested and come to chat. The feedback has been really encouraging and inspiring. And the players are really passionate and appreciate this opportunity. I believe that girls’ playing affects attitudes and mental images very widely, says Lappi-Seppälä.
Frank Johansson also sees a positive side in washing Lappi-Seppälä.
– In my opinion, instilling football culture is always positive. If it enables some Saudi women to have good experiences, and if people are able to equally and openly participate in it and follow it, of course it’s a good thing for them, says Johansson.
It has been speculated in Finland that his annual salary in Saudi Arabia is “certainly six figures”, and that the first number would not be number one.
– In my opinion, the calculation of my salary has acquired rather tragic features. Quite wild claims have been thrown around as if they were facts.
– It’s a bit funny if you imagine that in women’s football anywhere in the world there is such money that (Lionel) Messi and Ronaldo are drawn into the same title. I’m happy with my salary, but we’re not talking about six- or even five-figure sums (per month), Lappi-Seppälä laughs.