The Norwegian Sports Confederation (NIF) refuses to provide the real figures for its legal expenses in the much-discussed whistle-blowing cases. It must be said that it is a deliberate insinuation to say that NIF refuses to state the total sums they have spent on lawyers. They say they will do it. It just doesn’t. For exactly three weeks, news has been waiting for answers to simple, fresh figures. On how much the Norwegian Sports Confederation (NIF) actually spent on lawyers and PR advisers in connection with the notification case in the association last winter. The numbers they have operated with until now have proven to be consistently incomplete. And the attempts to camouflage this less and less convincing. Philosophical openness Therefore, news wants the full and real sum of how much of Norwegian sports’ money has been spent on this case, which one of the lawyers involved, Jan Fougner from the law firm Wiersholm, called “a misunderstanding”. For three consecutive weeks, news has been told that the information about the real numbers should appear immediately. WAITING TIME: news’s reminder to NIF, 17 April. The request for access was submitted on 4 April. Photo: Screenshot Nothing has yet happened, despite constant promises from the information department in NIF. This Wednesday finally comes the proposal from the selection committee in the Swedish Sports Confederation for the election of a sports president in just over a month’s time. It’s getting harder and harder to believe there isn’t a connection. Three days after Berit Kjøll had been surprisingly elected as sports president in 2019, she appeared for an interview in the chair at “Torp” on news. Kjøll’s promises from the lectern at the sports council about transparency became a topic again. “I have openness as my real philosophy,” said Berit Kjøll to Ole Torp three days later. Already there, many began to feel that something was amiss. A helping hand It had been revealed that Kjøll had the help of PR advisers in the election campaign – all financed by the Handball Association and its powerful president Kåre Geir Lio, who together with IOC member Kristin Kloster Aasen were Kjøll’s most high-profile campaign managers in the run-up to the election. With unexpected success. SUPPORT PLAYER: Handball president Kåre Geir Lio contributed behind the scenes when Kjøll became sports president. It was far from free. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB The price tag for the PR councils was up to NOK 100,000 in federal currency. No one really knows to this day what the expected returns were. Despite the important philosophy of openness. What has been spent on external legal assistance in NIF in the period from then until today, no one knows either. TV 2 wrote earlier this week that they have requested access to the total sum. Without getting an answer. Suprisingly enough. Because right now, the union’s modus operandi in the sensitive access matters is more than transparent. The philosophy can obviously be summed up in one word: Training. WAITING TIME: news’s reminder to NIF, 18 April. The request for access was submitted on 4 April. Photo: Skjermdump Historical work The mentioned expenses NIF is apparently reluctant to disclose to news this time concern costs related to the recently concluded notification case, between a member of the elected sports board and an employee in the administration of the Norwegian Sports Confederation. Timeline in the notification case In December last year, an employee of the Norwegian Sports Confederation (NIF) delivered a notification against a board member. The warning came after a telephone conversation in which whistleblowers experienced being accused of refusing orders in front of sports president Berit Kjøll. The Norwegian Sports Confederation hired an external lawyer to investigate. At the beginning of March, Erling Grimstad delivered a comprehensive report. At the same time, notifications, re-notifications and NIF received their own lawyers. NIF’s lawyer Jan Fougner concluded that the case was based on a misunderstanding, and on 31 March the notification case was closed. The case has probably cost Norwegian sports around NOK 1.5 million. Sports president Berit Kjøll said that no one has done anything wrong, and that no one can be blamed for anything. On 4 April, news asked for access to the lawyer and PR expenses related to the case. So far no luck. On 13 April, Marco Elsafadi came forward as the person against whom the notification was made. At the press conference where the conclusion was presented, it was also disclosed what should be the actual expenses for Norwegian sports in this case, which had involved at least four well-employed and generously remunerated lawyers. The figure, NOK 1,120,590, turned out to be flawed at best. Because when asked by news whether this included the presence of labor law lawyer Jan Fougner from Wiersholm, who had been NIF’s adviser in the final stages of the case, the problems began for sports president Kjøll. She claims that Fougner was there for free. She then claimed that by chance we got to experience the first lawyer in history who took on assignments from association life on a volunteer basis. This was of course not the case, something an astonished Fougner also informed news about in the background. When Kjøll finally admitted that she had not been telling the truth, she called it a “bad joke”. Such jokes should necessarily be avoided as the supreme elected leader of Norwegian sports. Someone could accuse you of lying. Or suggest that this was part of a pattern. The closed door of transparency But there was more, also in pure expenses. For the management of the Sports Confederation had also hired assistance for communication in this case, expenses Kjøll called minimal. The figure turned out to be NOK 150,000. How minimal this is, I think there are more people in the sport who are willing to discuss. In the aforementioned interview from 2019, Kjøll repeated several times the importance of transparency. “One of my core values is to be open, proper and honest”. It is no exaggeration to say that basic values obviously have an expiration date. Now the door to transparency in NIF has been closed. On 17 April, news responded to the request for access. The reply from the acting communications officer was “as I understand it, it is likely to arrive today or tomorrow”. When news rang again three days later, the same person had suddenly gone on holiday and referred to a colleague. WAITING TIME: news’s reminder to NIF, 20 April. The request for access was submitted on 4 April. Photo: Screenshot The figures, which must be considered very urgent to obtain, have still not arrived. And the feeling that there is something NIF wants to hide grows stronger with each passing day. Perhaps there is a desire to release more notices about spending money before the selection committee’s recommendations are made public. Perhaps the reason is completely different. New legal bills Regardless, there will be more challenges of the same kind. While TV 2 and news are still waiting, VG says that a new case about dismissal in the union may now end up in court. And that NIF has already engaged lawyers from the firm Arntzen de Besche, also one of the country’s largest and most expensive. The time until the Norwegian Sports Council will show whether NIF will make one last attempt to fulfill Kjøll’s election campaign promises. That about transparency. And perhaps also another one of those she smilingly hinted at when she sat in Ole Torp’s chair, who wondered if it was no longer the time for all types of catering when sports gather for things. “Perhaps sports should not drink red wine at the expense of sports?”, he asked Kjøll. “No, maybe we’ll pay for it all ourselves,” replied Kjøll, and continued: “That might be a good idea. Maybe it should be white wine.”
ttn-69
Red or white, Berit Kjøll? – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
