Friday, 09 September 2005 CONTACT FIFA
access.FIFA.com Español Français Deutsch

Women’s Ranking
Team Rank
Germany
1
USA
2
Norway
3
Full Ranking
Full Fixtures
All Results
Women's 
advanced search

"What matters is success on the sporting side"


(FIFA.com) 23 Jul 1999

Linda Medalen leads Norway's challenge.
Linda Medalen leads Norway's challenge.
PICTURE: DANIEL MOTZ

"Is women's football an attractive proposition for sponsors?" Yes, says Karen Espelund, General Secretary of the Norwegian Football Association. Karen Espelund has been General Secretary of the NFF since 1 May. Following a successful career as a player, she started working for the NFF in 1986 in an honorary position, before moving over to take charge of the management. She had been vice-president for three years before stepping up into the top job.

FIFA Magazine: Karen, one of the aims of the upcoming World Cup is to help the women's game make the final breakthrough. Do you think it will succeed?

Karen Espelund: I am very optimistic. In any case the level of interest in women's football will rise. The USA is great on public relations and I think we will all benefit far beyond national borders. The Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 already did a lot for the women's game, and in Norway for example, where the play-off for the bronze medals between Norway and Brazil was televised live in the middle of the night because of the time difference, no fewer than 1.3 million viewers tuned in. An incredible number if you think that the entire population of the country is only 4.5 million people. This time, all the Norwegian games will be shown live, as well as the opening match, even though we are not involved there. And even if we do not reach the final, you can be sure that that too will be shown live. Four years ago that would not have happened.

Have the association and the players themselves benefited financially from this development?

Yes. We already have a good sponsor, and interest in the game will continue to increase. When we qualified for the World Cup, our sponsor paid us a bonus of about 100,000 English pounds, even though this was not directly specified in the contract. The players themselves received a bonus from the association. Developments like these show that our performances over the last few years have had a big impact.

But sporting success is the key factor?

Definitely. What we achieve on the sporting side must be right, and then well marketed. If that happens then sponsoring companies will start to get interested. In Norway a number of firms have realised that it can have a positive effect if they advertise via women's' football and individual players, but only if match performance lives up to expectations. Sporting success is the bottom line.

Does this effect spread down to club level too? After all, there are not many spectators for club football?

A few years ago the association put money aside to help the top clubs in their efforts to develop more quality in their infrastructure and their marketing efforts. That was a complete success. In many cases, budgets have been doubled, so that working conditions could be improved. This helps the players through those difficult times when they have to work at the same time as being involved in top level sport. But a greater effort needs to be made to attract more spectators into the stadiums. At the moment, the average in the national league is about 250 per match. An exciting World Cup and a strong performance by the Norwegian team in particular would help enormously. The good ticket sales in the USA and the advance media interest will certainly help our sport.

On the first of May you moved over from being vice-president of the association to the position of General Secretary. This brings you closer to day by day events. Will this signify even more advantages to women's football, and possibly threaten the position of the men's game?

That's what a lot of journalists ask. But priorities within the association will not change. Previously as vice-president I had quite a lot of influence, and the change of office is for the outside world more of an image-improvement for the status of women's football. For me personally, it means an easing of my situation. A lot of the things that I used to do on the side in my old position, and which I was not really comfortable about then, are now part of my duties as General Secretary

Women's World Cup Teams:
Group A Group B Group C Group D
Related News


 
Copyright © 1994 - 2005 FIFA. All rights reserved LegalSite Map