Norway have offered a refreshing antidote to the often joyless buildup to a World Cup knockout match against England by releasing a sarcastic video in which players admit that prejudicial views about women’s football are “all true”.
The four-minute long mockumentary features a series of interviews with Norway players in which offensive stereotypes about women’s football, including the supposed inability of women to kick a ball over a wall, dreadful goalkeeping, poor control and prejudicial views about homosexuality are all sent up in admirable fashion in a number of straight-faced interviews.
The captain, Trine Ronning, says: “We’re shit, we suck. Plain and simple.” While the midfielder Cathrine Dekkerhus, who didn’t make the squad, plays up to the stereotype about women footballers and lesbianism by saying she recently had to move clubs because “all my team-mates fell in love with me … lesbians everywhere. It’s teeming with them.”
The goalkeeper Ingrid Hjelmseth deadpans that goal-kicks give her “nightmares” because she just can’t get the ball in the air, while the offside rule is wrestled with for the duration of the film by the forward Emilie Haavi.
They’re not the only Norwegians having fun in the buildup to the last-16 tie with England. In a nod to the famous 1981 commentary on Norwegian radio when England were beaten 2-1 by Norway, VG Sporten’s front page asked Mark Sampson’s side: “Are you girls ready for a hell of a beating?”
