March 4 – Following months of heated debate about VAR and a vote to retain the technology, the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) has also decided not to boycott the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Fredrikstad Football Club had proposed the boycott, but at the NFF Congress they received little backing, with their proposal failing by 269 votes to 50.
In 2021 the Norwegians also voted against a boycott of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but compelled NFF president Lise Klaveness (pictured) to speak up at the FIFA Congress, leading to her famous speech in April 2022, when she highlighted migrant worker rights and discrimination against the LGBT+ community, much to the dismay of Qatari organisers and the FIFA hierarchy.
Klaveness gained a reputation as an outspoken official, but she will soon become a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, signalling a more institutionalised approach.
“Norway has created so much ‘noise’ in the system that there can be no doubt about what we stand for,” said Eivind Kopland, of the NFF Ethics Committee. “Too much noise can cause us to become too much of a source of unrest. The Ethics Committee’s recommendation is that NFF, in its international work, takes on the role of a clear, predictable and principled player.”
Norway’s decision not to boycott the 2034 World Cup marks a shift away from the build-up to the Qatar World Cup, when the plight of migrant workers gained the global spotlight through media reports and rights groups. For years there was a strong mobilisation among sections of European fans and some European federations addressed the matter too.
Nine years out from the second World Cup in the Middle East, that is not the case this time around. At last December’s 2034 host award, Norway opted to abstain because of “concerns regarding the current FIFA World Cup bidding process”, not because Saudi Arabia was named as host. The Swiss Football Association also asked for its observations to be included in the congress minutes.
However, the decision not to boycott has come in for criticism. Andreas Selliaas, of Idrettspolitikk, wrote: “There was never any real debate about boycotting the World Cup in Saudi Arabia at this year’s football meeting. It seems as if the NFF has managed to stifle such a debate before it even gets started.”
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