“If he qualifies, he will go to the World Cup in the winter,” Tove Moe Dyrhaug told news on her way out of a ski board meeting at the end of April. “He” she was talking about was, of course, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. This was just after he had controversially said no to the national team – and long before negotiations had started on a so-called representation agreement for the winter. On follow-up questions, Dyrhaug emphasized that “there is no doubt”. But there definitely should have been doubts. Because in one sentence, the skiing president had set aside the entire so-called “national team obligation rule”, which reads “Runners who have refused an offer to participate in the NSF national team, shall not be selected by the NSF to represent the NSF in competitions in the season in which the offer of a place in the national team applies, unless there are special circumstances.” Dyrhaug had obviously done so without being anchored in his own board. And without special circumstances. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, on the other hand, suddenly found himself with completely different cards in his hand in the negotiations with the union. But then it would eventually turn out that he didn’t need these cards after all. U-turn Five ampere and implacable months later, last Friday there was a new and particularly surprising dispute in the long-running tug-of-war between the Ski Association and the nation’s biggest cross-country star in a special class. IN CONFLICT: Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB After Klæbo had sent out a press release that he had decided to drop his personal sponsor Uno-X on the kit – and with that take what was perceived as a long step towards an agreement with effect for the whole winter, with the exception of a few days – cross-country manager Espen Bjervig was asked what this would mean by news’s reporter on the way into the Ski Association’s so-called autumn meeting. The answer was startling. Because almost directly, the until then reticent, bordering on cross, Bjervig instead gave his previously subordinate commitment to a completely different agreement, which was much better than Klæbo himself had had any hope of achieving. “Yes, the case is out of this world. This solution has been there all along,” said Bjervig. And in the space of two simple sentences, Klæbo had been given permission to use the winter to commute on weekends on national team assignments – and use the rest of the week to do almost whatever he wants. Including showing off exactly the sponsors he wants at all times. Without the fact that the large community, also called the Ski Association, actually got anything in return. Although Klæbo was determined that they should actually get it. And the whole of Ski-Norway howled. Only on Sunday evening did something resembling a counter-notification come from Bjervig and the union. It was all a big misunderstanding. And that was in no way what Bjervig had really intended to say. Which was what everyone else had really realized all along. But then Klæbo and his father and manager Haakon were already on the plane heading for Italy and altitude training in Livigno. They will be there in November. Without any desire for new negotiations – and in the safe certainty that he who is head of cross-country skiing in the Norwegian Skiing Association has told the world that they have an agreement for the winter. Including going to the World Cup. But Klæbo had actually known since the end of April that he was going to be allowed to. Sometimes one percent is enough. Someone who eventually knows enough about this to promise himself away is football’s national team manager, Ståle Solbakken. After the disappointing loss in the decisive World Cup qualifier against the Netherlands in autumn 2021, a still offensive Solbakken trumpeted that he was 99 percent sure that Norway would make it to the European Championship play-offs in 2024. After Sunday’s well-deserved loss to Spain at Ullevaal, the hope is at best 99 percent out. PROMISED EM: Ståle Solbakken. Photo: Frederik Ringnes / NTB It is easy to draw parallels to former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland, who promised to resign if the Labor Party did not get at least 36.9 percent of the vote in the general election in 1997. They got only 35. Only 35 percent. Jagland had to stand by his promise and leave without anyone actively trying to stop him. Jens Stoltenberg was waiting in the hallway. No Stoltenberg is ready to succeed Solbakken. And then he will also be allowed to continue, until a new WC qualification is decided, in the election year 2025. Perhaps he will be allowed to continue because, most of all, we still feel that Ståle Solbakken really is – or at least will be – national team football’s own Jens Stoltenberg . The 36.9 percent is what is clearly best remembered from Thorbjørn Jagland’s long and extremely rich political career. In the same way that the 99 will define Ståle Solbakken’s period as national team coach if he does not take Norway to the next WC. The power of well-formulated communication is enormous and at the same time relentless. Anne, you’re lying Athletics president Anne Farseth doesn’t promise much. Instead, it turns out that she is simply lying. When she was asked directly whether Jakob Ingebrigtsen had had an impact on the decision to deny the extreme athlete Gjert with the same surname accreditation to the World Championships in Athletics in Budapest in August, Farseth answered bluntly “no”. It was a no with quite significant modifications, as it turned out. Last weekend, Farseth admitted that the association had nevertheless spoken to several of the Ingebrigtsen brothers before they came to their controversial decision. Such concessions only further weaken confidence in the process. Especially when the same association had announced just a few days earlier that the denial of accreditation is going to be extended to the entire championship year 2024. Which includes the most attractive of all, namely the Olympics in Paris. The person who will be injured is Norway’s new running star, Narve Gilje Nordås. The person who knows best how to exploit the situation is his coach, Gjert Ingebrigtsen. The new Gjert Gjert Ingebrigtsen has always known how to use the volume of the speech as a tool. One thing is his trumpeting clarity in his coaching work, well documented through five seasons of the extremely popular TV series “Team Ingebrigtsen”. But also as a rhetorical tool in other contexts, this was a trademark for Father Ingebrigtsen for a long time. IN THE STORM: Gjert Ingebrigtsen. Photo: Carina Johansen / NTB The comeback edition in the public domain has so far been transformed into a more muted, thoughtful and apparently self-examining one, including in a curious conversation in the podcast “Skyld og skam”, belonging to former Minister of Culture and Sports Abid Raja and his wife Nadia Ansar . For the athletics association, this is bad news anyway. For their decisions regarding accreditation access or not for Gjert Ingebrigtsen, has created a noise that is not only violent. It also appears quite unnecessary. And it does not seem that those who made the provisions are not the ones who are set to front the decision externally. Not in the WC, not now. The apparent dissatisfaction with the manner in which the decisions have been made by sporting director Erlend Slokvik and top sporting director Håvard Tjørhom was at times palpable during this summer’s WC in Budapest. Perhaps these two, who are also closest to the Ingebrigtsen brothers in the union, would also have been able to contribute to a greater extent to a solution that would have removed the basis for this part of the conflict. If they had been given the opportunity. A solution where the association had given accreditation to those who should be qualified for it. But with obvious restrictions on where one is actually present – and when. And clarity on who actually makes these types of decisions. And a much clearer signal that they do not tolerate Henrik Ingebrigtsen scolding Narve Gilje Nordås over breakfast at the Norwegian training camp in Sierra Nevada last winter. Time for responsibility Now the wording in the press releases, where they talk about giving the athletes a “safe environment”, has instead become a lawyer’s exercise. Gjert Ingebrigtsen has engaged Norway’s most famous lawyer, John Christian Elden. As if there was more public theater this conflict needed. Because Elden is not only the best known, he is also the best at attracting attention to his cases and clients. Whatever it is about this time. DUO: Gjert Ingebrigtsen and Narve Gilje Nordås. Photo: Hanne Skjellum It is difficult to understand that it could really be defamation, at least if you read the article about this in Store Norske Leksikon, written by the late professor Johs. Andenæs, as well as two lawyers named Frode Sulland and, yes, John Christian Elden. The association has also engaged a lawyer, in a process which is only suitable to burden already strained sports finances. Now, instead, several of those so-called responsible should apologize as soon as possible and find a worthy solution that can give the athletes the opportunity to do what they really should, namely run. Including the president, who regularly lied when she had the chance to lead. Which was the exact opposite of what she should have done. For Anne’s no, no one saves from war. PS: news first wrote that Farseth admitted that she herself had spoken to the Ingebrigtsen brothers before Gjert Ingebrigtsen got the WC no. It is not true. The admission was that the union had listened to the brothers before the aforementioned decision. news corrected 15.22. Have to throw up after every race 00:43 Swedish spectators are praised by Belgian fans 00:47 Pottesur Mol: – It went to hell! 00:35 Salum Kashafali has never done this before 00:52 Show more
ttn-69
Communication crisis and crisis communication – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
