Drillo Wanted Stars To Lie About Drunkenness Scandal – NRK Sport – Sports News, Results and Broadcast Schedule

Henning Berg and Erik “Myggen” Mykland’s trip to the pub and nightclub during the 1998 World Cup created quite a stir during the championships in France.

In the new biography of Egil Olsen, written by author Alfred Fidjestøl, the episode is again thoroughly discussed. And new information is emerging about one of the most talked about city tours in Norwegian sporting history.

Flame on the carpet

Henning Berg felt he needed a break from the players’ field and asked Erik Mykland if he would join the bar to watch the World Cup match between France and South Africa. When the Mini Jakobsen driver went home alone to camp at midnight, the journey continued to a nightclub. And by nightfall, the two stars of the national team had between seven and eight pints of beer on board, according to the book.

In the end, the two of them managed to get transportation back to the player camp.

Dagbladet was the first to come out with the spicy case at the time, and then the rest of the Norwegian media caught on to the news.

During a first meeting with Drillo, Myggen and Berg denied drinking alcohol. But when new revelations appeared in the newspapers and caused a stir in the Norwegian media, the director of the national team called the two players to a new meeting.

Doubtful about the lie

In the book it appears that Drillo wanted both of them to lie about drinking when they were called to the carpet for the second time.

And both Berg and Myggen doubted his lies. When Egil Olsen asked if they had drunk alcohol, they said no. And when Drillo repeated the same question, they both did not respond once more, according to the bio.

Berg had the strange feeling that Egil wanted them to lie. Berg felt good. Egil understood, but decided to play naive. If they confessed now, he would have to send them home. The rest of the group of players also realized that Egil knew, but played along so as not to disturb more before the Scotland game. It was the card player Egil who was working. It was a matter of putting up with personal disappointment and playing with the cards in his hand. Thus, the case was formally closed internally “, writes the author.

Rekdal was furious

22 years later, Egil Olsen admits that he knew that the players had consumed alcohol.

– Both I and other people involved in this knew that they had been drinking beer, and I had no doubts about it either. But there I’m a little too friendly and a little too laid back I wasn’t interested in sending them home and I didn’t think it was as bad as many wanted, Egil Olsen tells NRK.

– The biggest problem with the episode was that the group of players was divided. There were players who thought they should be sent home, but I wasn’t there, says Drillo.

One of the players was Kjetil Rekdal. The book reveals that the midfielder was furious with Berg and Myggen, and would have preferred to send them both home with the first plane. Rekdal was so focused and ready to perform in the championship that it boiled him.

– Going to a bar and complaining about the barracks and boredom when you qualified for a world soccer championship was unprofessional in the world of Rekdal, writes Alfred Fidjestøl.

– It was a difficult case to handle. I tried to address it at the press conference the next day, but it wasn’t entirely successful, says Olsen, who recalls trying a humorous variant.

– I said “they are here to deliver more pages of material every day, and nothing happens here, so to help a little I sent two players to the city” I was expecting people to laugh a little, but no one laughed, Egil Olsen tells NRK.