By Samindra Kunti in Lisbon
April 4 – Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness can write history by becoming the first female member of the UEFA executive committee to be elected in a direct contest against male candidates at UEFA’s annual Congress in Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday.
After campaigning heavily on a programme of grassroots initiatives, good governance and gender equality, Klaveness is looking to break the glass ceiling of male dominance.
UEFA’s statutes provide for a single place for a woman on the executive committee, which is currently taken by France’s Florence Haradouin, who will stand down at the congress in favour of Laura McAllister of Wales.
Klaveness has gone for the riskier option of election against a politically strong group of male candidates – eleven candidates will be vying for seven seats including Jesper Moller, the president of the Danish FA (DBU). With Sweden’s Karl-Erik Nilsson already in the executive committee until 2025, it’s unlikely that both Moller and Klaveness would get elected to make it three Scandinavian members on UEFA’s executive committee.
A lawyer, the 41-year-old Klaveness rose to prominence internationally when she delivered a blistering speech at the FIFA Congress in Doha last March, demanding football compensated migrants workers in Qatar and that FIFA fight discrimination against the LGBT community in the 2022 World Cup. She was promptly rebuked by local organisers and FIFA, though her words stuck a chord with most of the national federations, at least privately.
In Kigali, at the recent FIFA Congress, Klaveness campaigned heavily and spoke of “a culture of fear” in football politics in the media. However, she did not address Congress again about labour issues in Qatar and FIFA’s human rights policies in the future, a politically astute move to not jeopardise her chances in the UEFA elections.
Klaveness is one of just nine female FA presidents in FIFA’s membership of 211 national associations. Debbie Hewitt chairs the English FA and Vanda Sigurgeirsdottir leads the Icelandic FA. Sonia Bien-Aime (Turks and Caicos), Charmaine Crooks (Canada), Cindy Parlow Cone (USA) and Johanna Wood (New Zealand) are the other female bosses, while Jacqueline Moudeina (Chad) and Mariama Diallo (Guinea) head normalisation committees.
The eleven candidates for the Uefa executive committee elections are Jesper Moller (Denmark), Philippe Diallo (France), Armand Duka (Albania), Petr Fousek (Czech Republic), Lise Klaveness (Norway), Andrii Pavelko (Ukraine), Rod Petrie (Scotland), Hugo Quaderer (Lichtenstein), Luis Rubiales (Spain) and Bjorn Vassallo (Malta).
UEFA will also elect four representatives for the FIFA Council.
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