Lise Klaveness has her big appearance in 2022 when she publicly criticized Gianni Infantino and FIFA. This harms her official career. Nevertheless, she is now entering the UEFA executive committee.
Lise Klaveness made it to the UEFA Executive Committee. The President of the Norwegian Football Association is now where she wanted to be two years ago. In the power apparatus of the European Football Union. But the path is one that she actually didn’t want to hit.
It is the one over the quota place. For the first time, two women belong to the UEFA Executive Committee. This was prescribed by UEFA itself with a change of rule in 2024. In the election as part of the UEFA congress in Belgrade, another woman had to be chosen in addition to the Welshiner Laura McAllister, which was drawn in 2023 in 2023. The piano had no opponent. It was only in 2012 that the first woman was appointed to the UEFA Executive: Karen Espelund, like a plyness, a former Norwegian footballer.
In 2023, slaveness had tried it through the regular path. She wanted to be the first woman to prevail against men. But her project failed. She was only able to collect 18 out of 55 votes. Because the functionaries are a male-dominated unit. And because the slaveness had already established itself as a critical voice in world football. This is not well received by the mutually protecting officials. The 43-year-old is not afraid to publicly criticize FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
Just like in 2022 at the FIFA Congress in Doha. There she had billed with World Cup host Qatar and the World Football Association. She had complained about the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. She had asked for changes in dealing with human rights and diversity. It had denounced a lack of transparency and the departure of ethical basic principles in world football. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf welcomed the critical speech, but was silent. Because: It is rare that a person with functional office publicly expresses such criticism.
Law studies during the football career
But this courage was doomed a year later in the UEFA election. In retrospect, the piano said in retrospect: “Of course this was not well received everywhere. That was aware of this in advance. But we thought it was necessary to focus on human rights.” Already the joint application from Norway with Denmark, Sweden and Finland for the EM 2025 of women was previously inferior to Switzerland. Here, too, the personnel personnel was decisive, it said.
“I will compete again in 2025,” she said after her election defeat 2023 of the ARD “Sportschau”: “I hope that it is no longer an issue that a woman is available. I received a lot of news from girls and women who want to be represented.”
She studied law during her active career. Also out of necessity, as she said in an interview with NTV.de in June 2023: “During my time as a player, this was at best semi -professional structures. I had to build a mainstay as a lawyer to have something after my career.” Later she worked as a judge and in a law firm. Then the piano moved to the legal department of the Norwegian Central Bank. In addition, she commented on football games on the Norwegian radio. Trained lawyer and football: This paved the way: in 2018 she took over the department management of Norwegian professional football.
In 2022 she rose to the President of the NFF. As the first woman. However, this is not relevant for the association, according to Pal Bjerketvedt, General Secretary of the NFF: “We were looking for someone to get our association analytically, strategically and with pleasure in responsibility. We found the best with Lise.”
Monor in the committee?
Focus on sport, but also on values - that’s what the piano is about. Football should be “a place where right and left wing players can play at the same time, in the actual and in the political sense. I think it is very important that we don’t become activists,” she told the Guardian.
So she should mix up the committee as a reminder. Shortly before the election, she told the “Deutsche Welle”: basic values were at stake. “This is not just a headline of the media. The European sports model is under pressure today, more pressure than ever. And if we like it, if we want to get this democracy in sports, we have to be ready to argue about talking about it and putting pressure on it.”
So pressure against FIFA, that’s how it can be read. Where the president once again pretended. After the men’s world championship 2030 and 2034, he freely announced this Thursday a year before the official vote 2026 that the World Championships 2031 and 2035 of women were awarded to the USA and the United Kingdom. He told this at this UEFA Congress, which was just taking place, where he was invited as a guest.
Move to Infantino
The man who cuddles with the sizes from politics. With US President Donald Trump, with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. In contrast, the piano, grew up in the west of Norwegian, in the municipality of Meland. Unlike Infantino, she appears for integrity and democracy. Even if she appears as his critic, she told the “Blick”: “I try to never become personal with my criticism. I am a chosen manager myself. I therefore have great respect for the selected executives of FIFA.” It emphasizes that it focuses on the regulations describes itself as “rather principled as brave”. “For example, we cannot agree on everything culturally or religiously and we will never. But we can agree on the statutes.”
Unlike Infantino, the piano was professional footballer. As a 16-year-old, she was appointed to the youth team for the first time, later she made the leap to the professionals. With Stabaek Fotball Kvinner she won the trophy and championship – and the heart of her today’s wife Ingrid Camilla Fosse Saethre, with which she has three children. In 2010 she was a top scorer in Norway’s top division and Norway’s player of the year. She played 73 times between 2002 and 2011 for Norway. In 2005 she was in the European Championship final, where Norway lost 1: 3 against the series winners from Germany. With her gender and her own career, she naturally knows better in women’s football. She should also focus on this. She told NTV.de: “It is the structures of the men in which football moves. We only have to look at the management levels. There are no women there. That is why it is clear that there is a reactive way of working.”
On the other hand, she referred to differences between the sexes, performance conditions, physiology, and the topic of pregnancy. At NTV.de she demanded: “There is no longer just one market for men’s football. We have to invest in the new market.”
A topic that is still not happy to be supported by everyone. The piano will feel headwind. Also because it continues to rest with unpopular topics. In December 2024, she said critically when Norway’s men had been drawn into a World Cup qualification group with Israel. “It is difficult for us beyond the purely sporting aspect,” said Klaveness. “In view of the disproportionate attacks of Israel, none of us can remain indifferent to the civilian population of Gaza.” When asked about a possible boycott, she said: Her team is playing – the first leg on March 25th the Norwegians around Erling Haaland won 4-2. “But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t fight for our basic values.”
The piano is where you have been giving for years. She has achieved her goal – and many more in view. She will certainly not rest. Your demands are too great. But the power struggles will not rest either.
