VG receives criticism from the Norwegian Football Association:

– Are soccer players and top athletes free to play? Can VG devastate them however they please? Bjerketvedt writes in a post on Facebook.

The backdrop to Bjerketvedt’s frustration is the cover of VG Sport on Saturday, November 21.

There, the cover is titled “The Crown National Team” and shows the five national team players Patrick Berg, Marius Lode, Markus Henriksen, Omar Elabdellaoui, Markus Henriksen and Joshua King, who were diagnosed with covid-19, with a coronavirus illustration.

– tasty

– A disease that so far this year has affected 32,000 Norwegians and caused more than 300 deaths. Only in the last week there have been 4,000 new cases of infection.

– Information about people’s disease is not public information. The disclosure in this case is made to avoid speculation. Wise. But that is not valid for VG. They must be hanging. Bullying. Have they done something wrong? Should they be ashamed? Remember that the Prime Minister has personally warned against inciting infected people, he writes in a longer post.

Bjerketvedt believes that VG has gone blind in his own creativity and has taken on the role of the bully.

– The result is unpleasant, he believes and adds that they isolate themselves from family, friends and their daily work for ten days.

– Players are not responsible

There are several who react to the cover of VG on social networks.

Lise Klaveness, NFF’s premier soccer director, writes that her heart skipped a beat when she saw the cover.

– At NFF we have made our mistakes and we will learn from them. The players have no responsibility for this. 2020 has hit society hard. I hope we can treat infected people with greater respect, he says.

Twitter user Forsberg has nearly 22,000 followers. He thinks it is inappropriate for VG Sporten.

– The players are not to blame. If anything, there should have been NFF and UEFA covers on the virus, he writes.

I’m sorry

VG sporting director Eirik Borud understands the criticism.

– We miss here. Our sports cover should be sensational, often interspersed with satire and humor, but this was not successful. I apologize to the five infected national team players that this put additional pressure on them. The most important thing now is that they recover quickly, says Borud in a post on VG.

Editor-in-chief and CEO Gard Steiro responds to Bjerketvedt’s criticism in the comment field on Facebook, writing that VG missed today.

– I understand and acknowledge the reaction. VG should not use illustrations that could be perceived as an attempt to make us fun at the expense of people affected by serious illness, he writes.