Court of Appeal Judge Kerstin Elserth has sat on various committees in the Swedish Football Association for nine years and is currently chairman of the appeals committee.
But now she is leaving the association a year early in protest against Sweden's vote in favor of the 2034 World Championship in Saudi Arabia. She calls the Swedish Football Association's (SvFF) actions on the matter "spineless".
Elserth believes that Saudi Arabia, which is criticized for its view on human rights, is "engaging in advanced sportswashing". And she thinks that the International Football Federation (Fifa) paved the way for Saudi Arabia by ensuring that there was only one candidate to vote for.
Then Sweden could at least have abstained from voting, like Norway did. For this is a dictatorship we're talking about. It was the same in Qatar, but then there were more candidates and maybe one nurtured a hope that the World Championship would lead to improvements in the country. But that didn't happen, says Elserth.
Now it's enough, I think. I no longer want to have any connection to Swedish football when it's like this.
The chairman of SvFF, Fredrik Reinfeldt, says in a statement to Fotbollskanalen that "we respect that people can have different opinions".
