Norwegian football leader facing Qatar wants top UEFA job

GENEVA (AP) — The Norwegian official, who rose to fame in football politics after delivering a speech criticizing World Cup hosts Qatar in Doha last year, is seeking a seat on the UEFA Executive Committee.

The Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) announced Wednesday that Lise Kravenes, one of the few female presidents of the national football federation, is running for election to a seat on the decision-making committee of the European governing body.

UEFA has set a 5 February deadline to participate in the elections, including a quota of 20 Executive Committee seats reserved for women.

The vote will be taken by the 55 UEFA member federations at the Annual General Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on 5 April.

If Kravenes wins, she will sit on the UEFA Executive Board alongside Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain, one of the most influential Qataris in world football.

Al-Khelaïfi is president of the European Association of Clubs and a close ally of UEFA President Alexander Ceferin.

In an interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday, Klavenes said he met Ceferin last week to explain his candidacy.

Klaveness was just weeks into the NFF’s presidency when he spoke in Qatar last March.

A gay judge and former national team player, Klavenes came to the attention of global football leaders in more than 200 countries on the eve of the World Cup final tournament draw to advocate for migrant workers’ rights and We focused on Qatar’s record on the criminalization of homosexuality.

FIFA tried to persuade the Norwegian delegation not to make a speech, but was met with strong opposition in the parliament hall from the chairman of Qatar’s World Cup Organizing Committee.

Klavenes then joined FIFA at the Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg, France, in October to offer compensation for the families of workers killed or injured to help build a World Cup project in Qatar. Claimed the fund. The fund has not been created.

The women’s seat on the UEFA Executive Committee, which will be elected in April, has been held by the French Football Federation’s secretary-general, Florence Hardouin, since 2016.

Hardouin was suspended from work in Paris last week as part of a broader investigation into the French federation’s management culture.

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