– Football is for everyone. And it is an unimaginable shame when such a big championship is to be held in a country like Qatar. So, I can be completely honest: I don’t think anything of this, says national team captain Maren Mjelde to news. She has just been told about news, SVT and DR’s pursuit of the Qatari national football team. A hunt that hardly brought us any closer to finding a women’s national team from the WC hosting. – It is of course sad, and what is happening in Qatar raises many questions. Now it is the case that the World Cup will be held there and then I hope that in the long term both human rights and respect for each other can get better and better. And I hope in the long term that the women will be respected in the same way and get to play for their country, says Vilde Bøe Risa, on the Norwegian national team, to news. SAD: Vilde Bøe Risa thinks little of the fact that there is no women’s national team in Qatar and hopes for change. Photo: Annika Byrde/NTB / NTB – Incredibly bad signals When the WC organizer was awarded the championship in 2010, they promised that they would bet on women’s football. The Qatar women’s national team was established in the same year. Fifa has promised the same thing, that all member countries must have comprehensive plans for women’s football by the end of 2022. But today, 12 years after Qatar won the World Cup, the fact is that the national team has not played a single official match since 2014. They are not on Fifa ranking. And even if some women play football in Qatar, it is difficult to find evidence that Qatar and Fifa have kept their promises. PROFILE: Kosovar Asllani. Photo: Rui Vieira / AP – There are incredibly bad signals as the men’s World Cup will be held there. It is the whole view of people there that should be changed, but if it is a requirement from FIFA that they must have a women’s system, and there are rules that are not followed, then that is obviously a big problem. It must be resolved. I think it’s incomprehensible how you can let it pass, says Kosovare Asllani on the Swedish national team. – Unbelievably important news, DR and SVT have thus not succeeded in tracking down and talking to the Qatari national team. On some occasions, it is true that a group of female players have appeared in national team uniforms. Most recently in November, when they played a training match against Afghanistan. Asllani is supported by Mjelde. – It does not give good signals. Now I know it’s a different culture and different rules, but hopefully there can be a change in that. – How important is it to have female role models in the national team? – It is incredibly important. And there will only be more and more of that. When I was younger, many people played football, but we somehow didn’t get to see them in the same way as men’s players. But now we are shown more, we have a bigger voice, and it’s about taking it, Mjelde replies. – Upset Also in Denmark, which is the only Nordic country that is qualified for the WC in Qatar in November, national team players are reacting. – It is very upsetting. It’s a shame that there isn’t a women’s national team, says Denmark profile and national team player Pernille Harder. news has repeatedly contacted the Qatar Football Association (QFA) to do an interview with them about the women’s national team. They have referred news on to Qatar’s Women’s Sports Committee (QWSC), which works to increase the number of women in sports in Qatar. QWSC initially wanted to be interviewed, but withdrew when they saw the questions we were going to ask. READY IN SPEECH: Harder is disappointed by the lack of a women’s national football team in Qatar. Photo: Alessandra Tarantino / AP – When you see women’s football in Europe progressing, doesn’t it seem conservative that you don’t have a women’s national team in a country? – Of course it does. It is, but unfortunately that’s what you see with women’s football. There are some nations where it goes very fast, some where it goes fast and some where it goes slowly. And then, unfortunately, there are some nations that do not have a women’s national team, says Harder.
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– Incredibly bad signals – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
