On Tuesday, Lise Klaveness took her case for remedy to politicians gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of the OECD’s guidelines for ‘responsible business conduct’. Klaveness is president of the Norwegian Football Federation.
Her argument reaches back to the World Cup in Qatar, where families of people injured or killed while preparing for the tournament were left without financial compensation after Fifa sent a legacy fund elsewhere.
Klaveness first raised remedy from the floor of the Fifa congress in 2022. At her prompting, Fifa reviewed its process. The review concluded that Fifa had a responsibility to provide remedy, yet the organisation did not redirect the money.
She is now seeking practices that would be in place for Euro 2028, which England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland will co-host, and for the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
The campaign has placed Klaveness in a wider dispute over Fifa’s leadership. Gianni Infantino was elected on a platform of reform which, Klaveness says, was never really carried out. She called for his resignation this summer after the scandals of the Balogun red card and the Fifa Forward Enterprise fiasco.
The deadline for nominations for the Fifa presidency is 18 November.
Sepp Blatter said Klaveness ‘deserved the utmost respect’ and that ‘the time has come for a woman to take over the leadership’. Klaveness answered by recalling that Blatter ‘wanted us to play with shorter shorts’.
A former midfielder with 73 Norway caps, Klaveness is 45 years old. She spent seven weeks on the road with 65 men during the World Cup in the US this year. Norway’s women now face a playoff against Wales for a place at next year’s World Cup.
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