Football President Warns Against Pitting Top and Bottom Against Each Other in Youth Sports

BERGEN (VG) Football president Lise Klaveness (42) warns against pitting width and top against each other in children’s and youth sports.

At the sports council, there were several proposals that dealt with regulating what clubs and teams should be able to offer children and young people, including a proposal to limit the number of training sessions per week.

Klaveness warns against this.

– We must be just as careful about taking away the competition – as we are about sports not being exclusionary. After all, we are running a competition, she tells VG.

– I ask for the same “care” for those who want to bet and become good – as those who just want to play sports.

• She does not like the division into summer and winter sports. Soccer is Norway’s biggest winter sport, she says.
• She wonders what an unnecessary amount of exercise is.

– I think we all agree that top and width are closely linked, says the football president.

– With us in football, the top is crucial for the wider economy. It is also crucial for recruitment, even for those who do not want to be very good. You have to do a lot of recruitment work to replace the effect of Haaland or Graham Hansen, she continues.

– I would like to warn against the debate where we unnecessarily pit top and breadth against each other.

Lise Klaveness is not afraid of being politically incorrect. She has shown that several times internationally. And she also dares to do that in Norwegian sports.

– My point is that there is a preponderance of sports managers and politicians who believe that the capital of sport is in the social significance for children and young people. I agree with that, but it must not be compared to betting on top sports.

– Give examples!

– In football, we have problems because many girls quit when they move up in the youth classes, when it becomes more serious. But I believe that it is equally important to work with sufficient seriousness. If we don’t have a professional investment, many people will be able to give up for that reason. They want to be role models, envision career opportunities and mastery.

– And to make big money?

– I’m primarily talking about professional development, but for a few it can also be about good money, says Klaveness and talks about how little he got out of his own career financially.

– Don’t you create losers?

– We must learn to lose with dignity. And as I said, competition is what we do in sport, no matter what we call it.

– Are the sports leaders trying to ignore it?

– No, but we must have sports leaders who are as concerned with finding out what it takes to be good as they are concerned with the role of sport in society and the inclusion of many. I think there are two sides to the same story.

– Do you feel that football is frowned upon because you dare to talk about betting on the good ones?

– No, I have no basis for saying that. We are the greatest and are humbled by it.

– But what about all those who come from families who are currently struggling to pay their dues?

– It is of course important. Making football inclusive and for everyone is our most important mission. But in order to make it happen, it is at least as important that the clubs have finances that enable them to offer what children and young people need.