Someone – a woman at that – comes onto the big, international soccer stage and makes serious accusations. Scandal! At the FIFA Congress in Qatar, Norway’s soccer federation president Lise Klaveness has come in for a lot of criticism from the soccer powers that be. What on earth did she say? Only the truth. But no one else dares to do that.

Quite sad. For the facts Klaveness presents are well known to all. But too serious to be forgotten. Human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have denounced Qatar for years. “The World Cup was awarded by FIFA in an unacceptable way, and that had unacceptable consequences,” the 40-year-old said Thursday. “Human rights, equality, democracy and the core interest of soccer were not in the starting eleven. These basic rights were pushed off the field to the bench.” She spoke of injured and deceased workers on stadium construction sites in Qatar, lack of rights for women and LGBTQ+.

She was the only one to speak the unvarnished truth the day before the World Cup groupings were drawn. Unlike her FIFA colleagues, who vacillated between horror, outrage, and defense of Qatar, she is celebrated, at least by Western pundits and fans. “Excitement” Twitter is full of praise for the former international, saying she is “sensational,” while FIFA is a “disgrace,” it says, for example.

Too many twisters in power

Indeed, the speech was one thing above all, exceedingly remarkable, but what are we actually rejoicing about here? That someone is speaking the truth. Absurd that there is so much praise for facts that are not new. Or not absurd, because it makes it frighteningly clear how much we have meanwhile moved away from automatically expecting the truth in speeches.

For too long now, it has been normal for men – it is mostly men – to powerfully want to present their own view of things as reality. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is a master at it, ex-FIFA President Sepp Blatter mastered the discipline as did his successor Infantino. IOC President Thomas Bach belongs to this group, and there are also some in the German Football Association who have probably twisted more facts than left them in their place. Sport is political, there’s no getting around it, and so sport must also deal with those in power, not simply adopt their opinions. Be it Bach with the Olympic Games in China or the DFB with the awarding of the 2006 World Cup and all the ensuing disasters and criminal investigations. And Infantino with Qatar, the emirate, by the way, where not only the World Cup is taking place, but where he has been living since October.

Pessimists might almost assume that (sports) politics and truth don’t belong together at all. Sure, there’s no harm in fundamentally questioning statements, but immediately exposing them as lies is tiresome. Klaveness shows that there is another way. That you don’t have to play every power game. That you can also perform on the world stage of soccer without being lulled into it. That’s refreshing, that’s encouraging. It would be even better if imitators could be found. And that’s why it’s perfectly okay to be grateful even for something as simple as the truth.