Al-Samarai has been part of the board of the Norwegian Sports Confederation, which Kjøll has led since 2019. When they met on Thursday evening for a debate on “Dagsnytt 18” on news, the sports president suggested that the opposing candidate has been running a hidden election campaign for the past year. – I was very aware of the activity that was going on with your candidacy, which I heard about via detours that you launched – not directly to me. It is now so. When the selection committee came up with its recommendation, quite a lot of work had been done on the part of Zaineb and your supporters. And then I wouldn’t have done a job on it, claims Kjøll. – Shouldn’t it be an advantage to be a leader? OPPONENTS: Sports board member Zaineb Al-Samarai and sports president Berit Kjøll are fighting for the presidency of the Norwegian Sports Confederation. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB – It should certainly be an advantage, but running an active election campaign in sport is also part of what is involved – but I imagined that I would have to start with that when the election committee’s recommendation came, if it was split. But I expected that it would not go in my favor at all and that is why I signed up, answers the sports president. The two candidates meet again in “The Debate” on news 1 at 21.20 on Thursday. – Not running an active election campaign Al-Samarai believes that she and Kjøll answered the election committee at about the same time that they wanted re-election to the board – and she only answered the election committee, not the media. – I have not run any active, public election campaign. I have followed the rules of the sport and kept calm until the selection committee’s recommendations were available – and it was only then that I started to speak out about what I wanted for Norwegian sports, she explains to news. When news’s reporter confronts Kjøll with the hints about an active election campaign from Al-Samarai’s side after “Dagsnytt 18”, she replies: – I just want to talk about myself here now. Photo: Joakim Halvorsen / NTB On 12 December 2022, news published a report that Viken sports circle had proposed Al-Samarai and Åsne Havnelid for the post of president. Exactly one month later, a case showing that six out of eleven sports circles wanted Al-Samarai instead of Kjøll was published. – Could have acted differently On Wednesday, the selection committee of the Norwegian Sports Confederation (NIF) presented the proposal for a new board. Seven out of ten members pointed to Al-Samarai in the question of the presidency. Kjøll wants to take up the fight. Vibecke Sørensen, among other things, was badly affected, who was not nominated for a renewed seat on the sports board. She has had the role of one of two vice-presidents since 2019. Kjøll has held the post of sports president since May 2019, but has been in a bit of a storm lately. It came in the wake of the much-discussed whistleblowing case. NIF board member Marco Elsafadi was warned against in the inflamed case that the sports association has spent just over NOK 1.4 million plus VAT to put to death. During the Dagsnytt 18 broadcast, Kjøll was asked if she could do anything differently in her time as president: – Absolutely. What I would like to say is that in that period of almost four years there have been a great many large, complex cases. We have carried out 460 decision cases in the sports board, and it is clear that some of those cases have been more extensive than others and you could certainly think that you could have acted differently, Kjøll replies. The choice of who will be sports president in NIF will be decided at the sports council in Bergen in June.
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Berit Kjøll accuses the rival candidate of playing behind the scenes – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
