Pop star Pink offers to pay fines handed out to Norway’s handball team for taking stand against 'sexist rules'

Women's side handed €1,500 fine by European Handball Association, which penalised players for competing in shorts rather than bikini bottoms

Norway's beach handball team
Credit: Twitter

American pop star Pink has offered to pay the fines handed out to Norway’s women’s handball team which opted to wear shorts like their male counterparts instead of bikini briefs.

The women's side were handed a €1,500 (£1,295) fine by the European Handball Association, which penalised the players for competing in “improper clothing” at last week’s European Beach Championships.

A week after the incident, which sparked international headlines and outrage on social media, Pink came out in support of the team, adding that she would be "happy" to cover the fines herself.

"I'm very proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team for protesting the very sexist rules about their ‘uniform’," the American singer-songwriter wrote on social media on Sunday. “The European Handball Association should be fined for sexism. Good on ya, ladies. I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up."

The Norweigan Handball Association, which had indicated before the match that it would pay any fines incurred by its women’s team for wearing shorts, thanked the Get the Party Started singer - who has a reported net worth of $200 million (£145m). "Wow! Thank you so much for the support," they wrote in a post on their Instagram story.

The Norwegian team had asked for permission to switch their competition attire to shorts ahead of the competition, stating their wish to wear clothing that was less revealing and more comfortable.

But EHA organisers ruled that the shorts were "not according to the athlete uniform regulations defined in the IHF [International Handball Federation] beach handball rules of the game." Female athletes must wear bikini bottoms with a close fit and cut on an upward angle towards the top of the leg, according to the International Handball Federation’s rules. “The side width must be of a maximum of 10 centimetres,” the rules say. 

Norway’s minister for culture and sport, Abid Raja, labelled the fines as "completely ridiculous" while Billie Jean King also criticised the decision. "The sexualization of women athletes must stop," the former tennis champion wrote on social media, in a reference to how men's beach handball teams wear shorts.

The furore came less than 24 hours after British paralympian Olivia Breen filed a complaint to English Athletics after receiving unsolicited comments from an official at the National Championships that her competition briefs were “too short”.

The beach version of handball will not be at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with only traditional indoor handball, which Norway women qualified for, being contested. Uniform normally consists of shorts and a shirt.

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