Under the Swedish Football Association's representative meeting, a vote was held on whether American investors should be allowed to enter Swedish women's football, and representatives from the districts gave a resounding yes to the proposal.
We have worked within EFD on this issue for over a year. We see a world where we feel it is important that we keep up with lifting women's football. What we really want to do today is to test the question with the entire movement, says Anders Billström, EFD's chairman, during the meeting.
"Difficult with financing"
We must have all clubs on board with this, if you want to do something like this, it requires a consensus decision, he continues.
EFD sees it as a difficult task to keep up with the development when other parts of Europe are making major investments in women's football, unless additional resources are provided.
It is difficult with financing in women's football. We understand the need to bring in another and larger investor in women's football, says association chairman Fredrik Reinfeldt during the representative meeting.
The association owns the commercial rights to Damallsvenskan, but the interest association EFD gets a user right to the rights through a principle agreement that normally lies on two years.
Give 200 million kronor
EFD now wants to have the opportunity to sign an agreement with American investors for 25 years, but then it requires an adjustment of the agreement.
With this construction, EFD does not have a finished contract on the table that we say you should sign. We have a sketch that we ask for a mandate from the representative meeting to move forward with. We want to get a growing interest in women's football, says Fredrik Reinfeldt, who before the meeting gave a thumbs up to move forward with the proposal.
Little is known about the investor group called "Women's Football Group". It should, however, consist of both Americans and Swedes, according to DN.
Several Swedish media outlets have reported that the agreement can be worth 200 million kronor for women's football.