– I thought: “What is this? I don’t want us to train here.” This is amateurish at the highest level. A very annoyed Andries Jonker says that to Reuters. He is national team manager for the Netherlands and doesn’t like the fact that they have to train on a cricket pitch ahead of the World Cup match against Portugal on Sunday. He fears the players will be injured on the demanding surface. – If you fall on your knees or shoulders, you may have problems. It is not good for the muscles to run on that surface, he says and adds: – We had raised our concern with the cricket pitch earlier, and we had been promised some things. Now we are disappointed and angry. We are not satisfied. PROVIDED: Andries Jonker. Photo: MOLLY DARLINGTON / Reuters After the Dutch FA raised concerns with FIFA, they were offered training on a grass pitch in Hamilton – an hour and a half west of Tauranga, where the Netherlands are based. – It sounds simple, but we cannot leave here at 10 in the morning and be back at 6 p.m. for one session, Jonker told Reuters. Dissatisfied Norwegian players The Norwegian squad also experienced field problems in New Zealand. For Norway, an early departure to the World Cup country helped create trouble. Hege Riise’s team had to play on pitches that were almost “unsafe” in the first days of the two-week warm-up for the WC. According to the New Zealand Herald, the problem must have arisen because the Seddon Fields training ground was not to be opened for Norway until 14 July. This was several days after the Norwegian team arrived in New Zealand, and thus the team had to carry out training sessions on a couple of other courses first. They were far from the standard that Norway had envisioned. In an interview with news, which was conducted before the shock loss against the host nation, Emilie Haavi describes the courts as follows: – It was really almost not safe to play either. It was a poor surface and loose. CRITICAL: Emilie Haavi calls the training pitch almost “not safe”. Photo: Geir Olsen / NTB – I don’t think we could play football on that pitch, adds teammate Guro Reiten. news has contacted Fifa about this matter, but has not yet received a reply. – Did not meet WC standard National team coach Hege Riise describes that the first two training sessions were done on a college pitch, before they then traveled on to an “intermediate station” on the way to the training pitch they are now on. They entered there earlier than first imagined, due to the poor conditions of the options they had explored. – I guess we have to be honest and say that it didn’t live up to WC standard. We also spoke about that. Then after a few days we were able to get in here. Now it’s good. But what we encountered in the first few days, it does not meet the standard for a WC, sums up Haavi. PRESIDENT AND COACH: Lise Klaveness (left) and Hege Riise acknowledge that the first training sessions were not optimal due to the training track. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB Football president Lise Klaveness says that the pitch Norway was supposed to train on in the first days became unavailable after heavy rain. – We have been very concerned with that topic, both because we had some of the same experience in the EC and because the track is of course important. We’ve had people down here twice to check pitches, but it was extreme weather that caused problems. Then we only have to evaluate afterwards how we could have done better in cooperation with Fifa, she says. Will learn from the problems Klaveness does not want to point fingers at anyone, but says they were ready for things to happen along the way, such as with extreme weather. – Then it becomes a question of what is plan B and scenario planning. Then some time passed. We need to figure out how we could do it differently. Not to place blame, but because we want to avoid these things. – We were very concerned about it up front, so it wasn’t something that was rushed at us. Still, it took some time. Now it is in the past and we must look forward. For me as president and for us in the management, it is of course important that we find out and learn from it, says Klaveness.
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– We are disappointed, angry and dissatisfied – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule
