Here it is already possible to correct the initial statement. Despite the result against Serbia in the group final in the national league, the Norwegian national team has clearly gone up several levels in terms of sporting quality. In the deepest sense, it is the only thing that counts for the football team.

But before the Ståle Solbakken national team became a sporting force, it had taken on a role that gave it importance and status far beyond what they had achieved in 90 minutes of playing time, which is what Solbakken himself began to call. “little campaign” theirs.

Which may not be too small.

The one with the T-shirt.

And that hand in the air, which always seems a bit out of place, but because it really makes an impression.

And must be allowed to continue to do so.

Because when the rest of the world is now finally starting to take good care of what’s happening in Qatar and neighboring countries, Norway has stopped the warning.

The superpower of football humanity

Well, they’re probably as much self-righteous symbolism as the new, Dutch “One Love”campaign, of which Norway is also a part.

But it looked genuine and it did something for us. It gave Norway something that no one else had, something that gave pride and a feeling of the national team that led us to something significant, no matter how sporting it was.

We have a national team that understands the opportunity it has to use the attention the game gives them to show the world that football also has an inherent human superpower.

But then it ended. Because it must be internal costs.

And not least because it all became football politics.

Politics becomes politics

New football president Lise Klaveness is bringing the bout to the sport’s biggest stage, the FIFA Congress in Qatar. And talk about a stupid and discriminatory world.

From there there was no turning back to the T-shirt, which Ståle Solbakken poetically printed on the roadside in Hamar before he went into the world to lead Norway in an international match.

And no banner should unite the national team behind a higher goal than winning an upcoming football game.

Because everything political has become political.

And it is in this area of ​​politics that real change can occur, we are told – also when it comes to football.

There is no doubting the hard work Lise Klaveness has been and is doing to truly influence the way FIFA thinks and acts.

But the windmill he fought against was huge.

The perfect symbiosis of rot and cynicism

Stands behind – and at least sits down – a national team manager who appears to be of the same commitment and articulation, but is moving further and further away from all discussion of what the fans were up to during his first qualifying round as national team manager.

Which Norway lost to Turkey and the Netherlands and never made it to the WC in Qatar.

But still, they were the first to actually tell the world that the Emperor’s new soccer kit didn’t exist.

Top-flight football is more foul and cynical than ever, and any attempt to disguise it is pure confusion.

And no one has seen a more perfect symbiosis of these qualities than at the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar – from start to finish that could not come soon enough.

With less than two months to go to the start of the World Cup, the wider world is also starting to heat up the wheels of conscience.

Reasonable limit

This is reflected in campaigns such as “One Love” above, where the captain’s armbands of the participating national teams have been replaced with rainbow colors, as an expression of diversity and against discrimination.

The captains of eight European countries will wear ribbons around their arms throughout the championships held in a country where homosexuals are persecuted and imprisoned.

Its size was commendable, but sadly not enough for one to believe that it had any particular effect.

Because there are still too many countries, including Serbia, which don’t want to take part in the campaign.

And there are too many places where people don’t care about how human rights are practiced in Qatar. Or what FIFA did to change this.

But there was no point in looking to Norway anymore for signs of what was wrong. Because they have done it “everything they can do with a reason”as Solbakken formulated last week.

The best sports washing machine in the world

On the other hand, our national team has received the attention it deserves due to the uniqueness of its attacking players. Erling Braut Haaland plays for Manchester City which is owned by the United Arab Emirates, for those of you who don’t know. It has been mentioned several times.

The Erling Braut Haaland is currently the most effective sports washing machine in the world.

And he’s just doing the job he’s paid for, which is scoring goals.

This is what a sports wash is all about.

Making a product so eye-catching that you forget why someone would invest billions of kroner in it.

There is nothing more exciting in football than a player like Haaland or French star striker Kylian Mbappé, who scores goals with almost as impressive naturalness for his club, Qatar’s PSG.

– Something important has been lost

Therefore, questions also come from domestic journalists, when Haaland represents his country. Which luckily he continued to do.

While the depressed national team manager Solbakken must spend more energy to leave keep the gems.

And going through that withdrawal step by step is what he really wanted to convey when he started as manager of the national team two years ago.

Erling Braut Haaland has gone to Manchester City.

And the Norwegian national team no longer flags human rights violations in the Arabian Peninsula.

Something important is missing.

No matter how happy it made former Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who was the one who get the most attention to reveal that the signs had played their part this past fall.

Solberg wants people cheering for the team now. And find his way.

On the pitch, Norway and Haaland and degaard and the hopes of other nations can still give us pride.

But when it comes to the fight for human rights “on and off the pitch”, as it says on the T-shirt, it’s pointless now.