Lise Klaveness, the Norwegian who rocked Fifa: ‘It’s our job to push further’

People don’t generally attend the AGMs of international sporting bodies if they are looking for drama. Consensus, backslapping and forelock tugging are usually the order of the day. But Fifa’s Congress in Doha this week took place in a period of unique political volatility and disruption duly followed.

On Thursday Lise Klaveness, the president of the Norwegian Football Federation, stood in front of Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa, the head of Qatar’s Supreme Committee, Hassan al-Thawadi, and more than 250 other – almost entirely male – football bigwigs and told them they needed to do more. More to help migrant workers in Qatar, more to protect LGBTQ+ supporters at the World Cup, more to make the global game welcoming to all.

Immediately she was told her remarks were “not football” by the speaker who followed her, and Thawadi suggested she needed to “educate” herself better on the progress made in Qatar. But Klaveness says she is clear on what has been achieved before the World Cup and what needs to be done.

“We have met [Thawadi], we have educated ourselves, we’ve had very good meetings,” she tells the Guardian. “They are welcoming, they try to inform us, they try to show us how many changes they’ve made and we believe them. But it’s our job to push further.

“Our members [in the Norwegian FA] have asked that we follow up, that we should pressure for real implementation. The kafala system going away, minimum pay, acts that protect against heat stress and give a break in the day, all these are very good legislative changes, but we hear from Amnesty, from Building and Wood Workers’ International, from many organisations, that they can still be improved. Now it’s our task to push more because the spotlight from the