– I know it will be difficult. Presidents vote for each other. Most of them have been sitting longer than me and know each other. There are larger nations. There has only been one female elected person there before, summarizes Lise Klaveness after confirming to news that she is standing for election to the board of the European Football Association (Uefa). The election takes place in Lisbon in April. Nine steering posts are in the pot. One of the nine the Norwegian Football Association and Lise Klaveness now want to occupy. – After many discussions with the board and with myself, we have agreed that we and I should make myself available. And lean in and try to come to the table, even if it will be difficult to come to the table, says Klaveness. – You are prepared to lose? – We have to try to make it happen, but if you were sure of getting in, it would have been better to wait a few years. But then you can quickly become part of the challenges that I don’t think we should become part of. NOTED: Lise Klaveness had international football wide-eyed with her speech to the Fifa Congress in Doha last year. Photo: n20403 Then I think it is better to take it from the start and try already now. news’s sports commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt believes that Uefa needs a person like Klaveness. – Uefa is a conservative organisation, but I think Uefa understands – and at least president (Aleksander) Ceferin understands – that she is an opportunity they cannot afford to say no to. Uefa needs a Lise Klaveness now and I think she also knows that quite well, says Saltvedt. Met the Uefa president in Slovenia On Thursday last week, Lise Klaveness went to Slovenia to meet Uefa president Ceferin. There they talked, among other things, about Klaveness’ candidacy. – After all, he leads this board, has great support in Europe and will be re-elected. It was important for me to talk to him before I go out and say I’m running for office. The Norwegian football president knows that she must have some support from Ceferin to be elected. At the same time, it is precisely these kinds of things that she wants to change: That you first have to have friends in positions before you can stand for election at all. – I can never compromise with values or integrity. But creating good relations with the presidential colleagues out there who will vote for you is a crucial prerequisite for all elections. – Seen from the outside, I think all international organizations in sport – not just football – are characterized by very personal positions. At least we want to do something about that, says Klaveness. PRESIDENT: The Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin has held the job of Uefa president since 2016. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP – What does your feeling say after you’ve talked to him? – The most important thing for me was to try to read him a little. Hear what he thought about it. We sat for three hours and had good discussions about what we thought about the Super League, how he assesses women’s representation, how I assess it, my position internationally. It was like a good conversation, without me leaving with a very clear feeling about support or not support, says Klaveness. Opposing candidate suffered a heart attack Of the nine board members to be elected at the Uefa congress in Lisbon on 5 April, eight of them will be elected for eight years. The last board member shall be elected for two years. Three of these board positions are as vice presidents, while the remaining six are regular members. Here there are several challenges for Klaveness. The first challenge is that there are already two Scandinavian members on the UEFA board. The Swedish representative, Karl-Erik Nilsson is not up for election, but the chairman of the Danish Football Association, Jesper Møller, is. – I do not know if he is running for re-election. We are five football presidents in the Nordics. Three men and two women. Karl-Erik Nilsson sits on the board. The Finnish president is running for FIFA elections and Jesper Møller from Denmark sits on the UEFA board. The last two are women and we are the ones who are not represented, says Klaveness. The Uefa board also has a requirement for at least one woman on the board. That position is already held by French Florence Hardouin, but she too may have to be re-elected. Hardouin has been central to the French Football Association since 2013. She has been on the UEFA board since 2016. ON THE UEFA BOARD: French Florence Hardouin. Photo: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP A week ago, Hardouin was suspended by the French Football Federation. The same day she had a heart attack. The doctors have, according to the major French newspaper L’Équipe, concluded that the heart attack was a consequence of stress and the emotional discharge of being fired. According to the newspaper, she was informed of her resignation via the media after a controversy with the French football president. Hardouin is now in the intensive care unit of a hospital and thus no longer has a formal position in French football. – You must have a job in football to be on the board. It may be that it opens. My impression of her is good and I only wish her all the best, says Klaveness. Want to change the election system The election process in Uefa is such that a female representative is elected first. The other representatives are then elected to the board. Klaveness is not satisfied with that arrangement. – I wish it wasn’t the case that the election of women came first, and then you almost have to work against each other as a special group. But that is the way the system is and it must of course be changed. And we have to work for that. news commentator Saltvedt is also clear that the UEFA board needs more women. – Uefa needs a Lise Klaveness, they need more women and they need the progressive force she represents. But Lise Klaveness also needs Uefa as a much broader and more powerful platform to continue the work she obviously wants to do to reform world football, says Saltvedt. Uefa naturally rose before Fifa The Norwegian football president says that she has considered standing for election “for quite some time”. They have discussed it internally in the board of the NFF and on Wednesday they therefore arrived at the decision that she should run. – Why Uefa and not Fifa? – Our path, as we have considered it, must go via Uefa. We have been quite clear critics of a number of things in Fifa, although I would have had no problem sitting on that board and working there. I think it is a natural step to take it via Uefa, and that after all it will be more effective for us to get in there. – Is the idea perhaps Fifa in the future? – I simply haven’t given it any more thought. There is enough to do in Uefa and this is also connected. There are many things that Fifa works for that Uefa is against. We go into this with great enthusiasm, but also with an open mind. It may not work, but then we have to try again. Klaveness made a name for himself with this speech at the Fifa Congress last year:
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