Will 10-year-old Noah’s letter reach Santa so his cancer-stricken mother can get out of the hospital and home for Christmas? Will Norway win the handball World Cup on a relatively home ground? The answer is, in all likelihood, “yes” to both of these heavily December-existential questions. Because we know what the predetermined dramaturgy is. JOY: Norway’s handball girls burst into jubilation when Henny Reistad (right) scored the winning goal. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB When you have reached the third Friday and worries are looming in both Vu and Snøfall – while nerves will reach their preliminary peak when arch-rivals Denmark and Norway meet for a potentially epic semi-final in the World Cup. The turmoil and mystery will be with us for another week and a half in Snøfall. In the WC, we are approaching the redemptive climax. Exactly as planned. They have a plan Christmas calendars and women’s handball championships are Norway’s two major Advent traditions on TV. Until this year, we haven’t thought enough about how similar they are obviously also in the dramaturgy. The three Scandinavian countries in their respective quarter-finals. The Olympic champions from France in the fourth. Exactly as planned. The three Scandinavian countries and France in the semi-finals. Exactly as planned. Because even on Fridays, we cannot escape the fact that this World Cup, regardless of who becomes world champion, will be remembered as much for the revelations of what goes on behind the scenes. FINAL OPPONENTS: France beat Sweden in the semi-finals and will meet Norway in the final. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB When the Swedish Aftonbladet was first able to tell how the organizing nations could agree among themselves how the path to the decisive medal matches should be as favorable as possible, completely contrary to what should be basic principles in what tries to appear as a world sport, among other things by increasing the number of participating nations to a meaningless 32. Now the sport of handball appears most of all as a company club, with a completely separate set of rules and ethics. If there was a real sporting arrangement, one would have made the tournament arrangement first and then drawn which teams finished where – and let the sport and fate decide from there. Here they did the opposite. Draws first. Create the layout page. To get exactly the result you got, namely Denmark and Norway in a semi-final, where it is about 50-50 who goes to the final. In all likelihood, you will meet the Olympic champions from France there, while Sweden in any case has a medal chance that it would otherwise never have had. The Norwegian national team manager Thorir Hergeirsson analyzed the whole thing in the clearest and clearest way: “This is not fair play”. Of course, it shouldn’t be this way. Then we’d rather watch Snowfall 2. NOAH AND THE MOTHER: The picture is from this year’s Christmas calendar “Snøfall 2”. Photo: news “Walk like an Egyptian” The players are innocent. The coaches are innocent. The national and international handball federations are not. Allowing such a set-up is an obvious expression of a fundamental lack of culture. And unfortunately there is nothing to suggest that Norwegian handball is not also part of it. “Pharaoh of handball” was news’s term for the all-powerful president of the international handball federation, IHF, when he allowed himself to be interviewed by the public broadcaster ahead of the WC. In Snøfall, the Egyptian Hassan Moustafa would still be able to get the role of Santa. Because the way he has now held onto power in the IHF for 23 years is by incorporating more and more nations, many without actual handball activity, and securing their loyalty through the allocation of so-called “development support”. Some would use much more blaming terms. VG showed the consequences earlier this week, when they visited Nepal and were able to demonstrate the total lack of activity in one of the aforementioned nations. During Moustafa’s presidency, the number of member nations has risen from 137 to 209 (!). The main character in Snøfall 2 is called Noah and is 10 years old. By the time he is an adult, the International Handball Federation may have had a new president as well. Maybe. Contrary to all modern democratic principles, the IHF has no limit on the number of presidential terms. Such systems are open to exploitation. And for arrangements that do not harmonize with our principles around sporting justice. But even if our part of the globe has a sporting dominance to some extent, it is not the Europeans who determine the development of international handball. POWERFUL: The president of the International Handball Federation, Egyptian Hassan Moustafa. Photo: Halvor Ekeland / news The art of the impossible Norway has chosen a tacit acceptance that both disappoints and amazes many. It shouldn’t. For handball president Kåre Geir Lio, who has currently only been in office for 8 years, has obviously chosen to stay as close as possible to power and try to use the favor this gives to bring about the small changes that are possible. PRESIDENTS: The Egyptian (left) and the Norwegian (right). Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB An edition of the art of the possible, which here nevertheless appears quite impossible. Because there is nothing to suggest that Norwegian or European handball has anything to gain, other than perhaps personal presidential favor, from this strategy. But enough about that for this time. This is actually most of all about the world’s best women’s handball nation being named. And that it will be a worthy winner, regardless of the turbulence on the way there. And that the mentioned Noah in Snowfall is very annoying. For those who haven’t caught on. “After all, it’s a long time until Christmas Eve, so maybe we can take it one day at a time”, as the nurse says to Noah’s worried mother in Friday’s episode of Snøfall 2. This is also done in the WC, where it is ready for medal matches in WC – where nothing is decided in advance. In Snøfall 2, the suspense is about the dark and frightening – and to some extent symbolic – cloud being shut up again in the Dunkelsteinen. Because in the Norwegian Advent season, everything has an inner connection. When the Norwegian favorites play in the World Cup final, it is well framed by 13,500 committed Danish spectators in Herning – in an arena which of course bears the obscure name Boxen.
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