KEIR RADNEDGE COMMENTARY —- Lise Klaveness, head of the Norwegian football federation and one of world football’s few but most respected reform voices, has taken a new swipe at FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino.

Klaveness was delivering her opening address at the NFF’s annual parliament to a backdrop of international concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, with the bombing of Iran and its own retaliatory airs strikes.

The majority of Klaveness’s speech was taken up with celebrating the progress of Norwegian football at home and abroad, as evidenced internationally by World Cup qualification and the Champions League progress of Bodo/Glimt. This led her onto the subject of the administration of the international game.

Klaveness, a rare voice of dissent before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, was prompted by disturbing memories of her presence at the World Cup draw in December when Infantino presented US President Donald Trump with a newly-minted FIFA Peace Prize.

She told her audience: “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently said: ‘We are in a rupture, not a transition.’ And: ‘The time has come to stop living the fiction. To live in truth.’ This is transferable to football. Because even in our world there are spaces where it costs to say the obvious. And where it is tempting to be silent – ​​because it is easier.

“Recently I sat in Washington, in a room full of football presidents, and felt the painful feeling of being hostage to something that is obviously wrong. The feeling that the emperor is not only walking without clothes – but that he is leading us in a dangerous direction, and that at the same time I cannot stop it. Not there and then, at least.

“It is in such a landscape that we will take Norway into the World Cup – and it is in such a landscape that we will manage the values ​​of Norwegian football. As you have seen in the news: this morning, Israeli and American fighter jets attacked Iran. There are reports of several explosions in several cities. Iran is responding by sending missiles at Israel. Tens of millions of people in the region are sitting right now fearing for their lives, health and future.

‘Turbulent times’

“This is the latest example of the extremely turbulent times we live in. The worst thing we leaders can do going forward is to become apathetic, passive, become sheepish and isolate ourselves. We must be motivated by the unrest. We must look up, make eye contact with our teammates and get the ball back in play. We must be principled and pragmatic. Value-based, realistic, but not tacit.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing – and when democratic values ​​in the world around us are under pressure, we [should] respond with more democracy.”

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