At the International Football Association (FIFA) Congress in Doha on March 31st, Lise Klaveness came to the attention of the football public.

The President of the Norwegian Football Association NFF, who had been elected shortly before, criticized the circumstances surrounding the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar in December 2010 and the preparations for the tournament since then.

Her speech provoked a sharp reply from the head of the World Cup, Hassan Al-Thawadi, the gist of which has since been repeated by the Qatari side whenever Western criticism of the hosts has been raised.

Klaveness, 41, won 79 caps in her career between 2002 and 2011.

Ms. Klaveness, what happened to your orange ball that you talked about during your speech at the FIFA Congress in Doha?

I used it so much that it ended up being gray instead of orange.

There was only the inside of the ball.

The outer layer was missing, but I still played with him for a year.

I had a close relationship with him even though I was 15, not eight anymore.

I played in the top league.

The ball symbolized my passion for football.

But I don't have it anymore, one of my coaches threw it away.

The ball had become a problem because I just wanted to warm up with it - it wasn't professional anymore.

It annoyed me at the time, but I was big enough to understand that the coach meant well and was right to throw him away.

Let's go back to March 2022, to your six-minute speech in Doha, in which you criticized World Cup host Qatar and FIFA President Gianni Infantino in no uncertain terms: How did you feel when you left the podium afterwards?

First of all: I was very determined to say exactly that because it was something that our Congress in Norway decided to let the President say.

It wasn't Lise's solo effort.

In June 2021 we had a very heated debate in Norway about whether we want to boycott the World Cup or not.

The members decided against it, but we also decided to do a lot of things should we be there with our national team – we were quite good at qualifying at the time.

We wanted to take an active stance, we wanted to try to get FIFA, Qatar and ourselves as an association to strengthen human rights.

Part of those duties was to come forward at the FIFA Congress and criticize non-respect for human rights.

So it became my job, my duty.

Were you scared?

i am a lawyer

It is very important for me as a person and as a professional to represent something I stand for.

I never doubted the content of the speech and its importance.

But of course it was difficult because I had only been President for three weeks.

I was new, I didn't know the culture of FIFA or the people at Congress, the other presidents, their companions.

To be honest, I didn't know any.

I hadn't met anyone before, not even my Nordic colleagues.

It was an extreme start - but something that my association and I were very confident about.

I was neither ashamed nor afraid.

Did you notice the atmosphere?

It was hostile.

But I was well prepared.

I had been warned.

So many people have come up to me and said watch out for this, watch out for that. I knew this could ruin my political career before it even got started and I was like, if that happens, okay.