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On the last day there was great uncertainty about what will happen to Sunday’s international game between Norway and Romania.
The background is that Omar Elabdellaoui (28) was quarantined on Friday after a positive corona test.
The national soccer team went to Gardermoen on Saturday morning, but was detained and returned to the player’s hotel. There they waited for a final message.
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Sier nei
Now, Health Minister Bent Høie says no to allowing the national team to leave. It was NRK who brought up the case for the first time.
– Will the football federation be in Romania tomorrow?
– It is football itself that decides. What we have said is that the fight in Romania and Austria would be illegal in Norway, and the travel plan is a legal gray area, Høie tells Dagbladet.
The travel plan Høie is referring to is a letter that NFF sent on Saturday morning, in which they came up with a revised travel plan.
– I have communicated the response to the letter orally to both the sports president and the football president. If they travel, they do not seize one of the most important means we have in the fight against the pandemic, namely that close contacts with those infected should be quarantined. If they travel, they will undermine this, Høie explains to Dagbladet.
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On Saturday night, Høie spoke to TV 2. There he was behind the health directorate, which means that tomorrow’s settlement will apparently stop.
Høie points out that soccer already has a comprehensive exception to the rules, precisely because they believe they can keep the infection out of the team.
– We see now that they are not successful with that, says Høie.
Big consequences
The NFF, for its part, has stated that they interpret the rules differently, and sent a letter on Saturday in which they proposed new measures. That sentence is not heard, but on Saturday night top soccer coach Lise Klaveness told Dagsrevyen that the NFF is still considering going to Romania:
– We will not violate Norwegian law. I cannot clarify if the plane will take off. You can work in quarantine. If we can avoid close contact when we travel, we are inside. We believe they do not need to change the regulations. Høie said it was a gray area. Nobody has thought about this, that a closed group should travel without having close contact, says Klaveness in Dagsrevyen.
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Earlier today, the NFF declared that it will have important consequences for the Norwegian national soccer team’s chances at the World Cup:
– For four years we have worked very hard to optimize the chances of qualifying for the championship and advancing more than 40 places in the FIFA rankings. We can go to group A in the Nations League and meet the best team in Europe, we can be ranked among the 20 best nations in Europe that give us the second best level of seeds before the World Cup qualifiers. Not playing international matches against Romania and Austria can quickly crush our sporting ambitions both in the short and long term.
