– None of us is aware of the development, or the lack thereof. This is what ice hockey president Tage Pettersen says to news. Already in 2019, Berit Kjøll was tasked with investigating the current joint organization between the Norwegian Olympic Committee (NOK) and the Norwegian Sports Confederation (NIF). It has not been done. – In the debate we are now in, it would have been nice to have this clarification in place, Pettersen continues. He talks about the ongoing uproar in the wake of Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen’s controversial post during a meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Several have advocated that it is very problematic that board members in NIF also hold positions in the IOC. news can now say that the group that was supposed to work on this problem, as late as Wednesday evening, had not been set up. This despite the fact that the report – according to the board resolution – should be finished by the end of last year. This is the decision from March 2022 Case 91: Follow-up of court decisions – the joint organization of NIF and NOK The Secretary General introduced the case. Head of NIF’s board secretariat, Magnus Sverdrup, gave further information. At the Swedish Sports Council in 2019, the sports board “[…] asked to investigate at the next Sports Council how the joint organization of NIF and NOK is viewed against NIF’s values; volunteerism, democracy, loyalty and equality. The report is to be used as background for processing the issue of separating NIF and NOK”. The general secretary will facilitate the start of this work during the autumn of 2022. A resource group will be established at shop steward level which can function as support for the administration’s follow-up of the matter. Such a resource group shall consist of representatives from: The sports board Two special associations NIF’s athletes’ committee One sports circle Administratively, the work will be anchored in the general secretariat. The Secretary-General, together with the Presidency, was tasked with assembling this resource group and giving it a final mandate. The work on this case should be completed by the end of 2022. Resolution: 1. The Sports Board asked the general secretary to initiate the follow-up of case 13.24 from the Sports Council in 2019 in accordance with the presented framework. Source: The Norwegian Sports Confederation’s minutes from board meeting number 9 2021–2022 – As president of an Olympic sport, I believe that NIF/NOK are now speaking with two tongues, is Pettersen’s summary. He hopes that a case will come to the sports council in May, but points out that time is running out to get a thorough process going. – I don’t think Norwegian sports are aware that Pettersen is supported by Erik Hansen. – The IOC has a tight grip on Norwegian sports. I don’t think Norwegian sports are aware of that, he says to news. He was the Norwegian president of the bandy association when in 2019 he advocated a discussion about separating the boards of NOK and NIF. Hansen believed that Norwegian sport would benefit from separating from the IOC and the obligations that came with being an Olympic committee. Now he is surprised that the issue, almost four years later, has not yet been clarified. – There is something jarring. It testifies to the uncertainty that NIF has in accordance with its membership as a member of the IOC, and how they will deal with it, continues Hansen. The former bandy president says that during NIF’s leadership meetings in Tromsø, he has reminded the sports leaders of the issue. He still thinks it is just as problematic as in 2019 – and it has become particularly relevant after the debate surrounding Russian and Belarusian participation in international sports flared up last week. Confusion around the group For the matter he raised, it is recorded as “withdrawn” in 2019. But it was passed on to the new sports board. The task they were given was to look into it more closely, so that it could be discussed at subsequent sports events in 2020. Then the pandemic came. The work was then decided to continue during the board meetings of the Norwegian Sports Confederation in mid-March 2022. The sports board delegated the task to the presidency to put together a resource group consisting of representatives from the sports board, two special associations, NIF’s athlete committee and one sports circle. The General Secretariat was to follow up on the matter. The group was to start work in autumn 2022 – and should have completed a report by the end of the year, the minutes from the board meeting state. It is planned to form the basis for a discussion during the sports council in May. It was not followed up. What has happened since then? Board member and performer committee leader Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen writes in an SMS to news on Thursday evening that she is not aware that the group has been set up. Several sources close to the process tell news that they are not aware of the group’s existence. Nor have they heard anything more since this was a topic during the board meetings in March, and news has read all meeting minutes without finding any trace of this matter. On Thursday morning, vice-president Sondre Sande Gullord tells that he is the one who will lead the committee. The Presidency will now be in the process of contacting relevant candidates. The group has not had its first meeting yet. SPORTS PRESIDENT: Berit Kjøll. Photo: Geir Olsen / NTB Communications adviser at the Norwegian Sports Confederation, Finn Aagaard, explains it as follows: – All matters to be dealt with at the Sports Council are followed up, including this one. There were several “orders” from the Sports Council in 2019 that were not processed at the Sports Council in 2021 as a result of Norwegian sports’ handling of the pandemic, which was particularly resource-intensive for Norwegian sports. These questions news asked NIF These questions news sent to the Norwegian Sports Confederation on Tuesday evening: At the sports council in 2019, it was decided that the new sports board should present a report that would form the basis for the question of separating the boards of the Norwegian Sports Confederation from the Norwegian Olympic Committee ( case 13.24). It was to be presented at the Sports Council in 2020. How far did you get in the work on that report? Why was it not presented in 2020? The decision was followed up during the Sports Board’s meeting number 9 in mid-March. There, a decision was made in case 91 “follow-up of court decisions – joint organization of NIF and NOK”. The decision states: “The Sports Board asked the general secretary to initiate the follow-up of case 13.24 from the Sports Council in 2019 in accordance with the presented framework”. Furthermore, it says that the work should start in autumn 2022 and should have been completed by the end of 2022. How far have you come in the work on that report? What mandate has the resource group been given by the secretary-general and the presidency? Who sits in the resource group that will follow up on the court decision? How many times has the resource group met and when is the report expected to be available? Why has it taken more than three years to complete the work? Kjøll himself does not have the opportunity to answer news’s questions until Friday, but Aagaard adds the following late on Wednesday evening: – Work on this case has been started (and before news’s editors have contacted NIF regarding the case), but however relatively recently due to extremely high workload in NIF’s administration and access to scarce resources for the implementation of several large investigation assignments that were carried out during the period. – The investigation related to the NIF/NOK case will therefore now keep good progress and will be completed within the deadline before the case papers go out to the organisation, reads the statement, which does not comment on the criticism from Hansen and Pettersen. news knows that information will be given on the matter during Thursday’s meeting of the Sports Board. Problematic dual roles news commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt is among those who have raised questions about the dual roles of several members of the sports board in light of the IOC statement that a large majority of the athletes want Russian and Belarusian participants back. Kristin Kloster Aasen and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, head of the Norwegian athletes’ committee, are also IOC members. This means that they are covered by the IOC charter. Former sports president Hans B. Skaset writes on Facebook that it is problematic because one is thus obliged to “ensure that the provisions of the charter and the will and decisions of the IOC management are respected and implemented in Norwegian Olympic sport”.
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NIF leaders did not follow up decisions on IOC issues – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
