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On Saturday morning, the soccer boys were scheduled to travel to Romania to play a Nations League game on Sunday. The trip was postponed after the Norwegian Health Directorate kicked off.
In a statement on Saturday night, the European Football Association writes that the Norwegian national team will not travel to Romania. It was decided after a meeting between the football association and the Norwegian authorities, the statement said.
Considering a national emergency team against Austria
UEFA states that the match cannot be played. Now it is up to the disciplinary committee of the association to decide the outcome. Norway will probably be doomed to lose.
The exception is if they conclude that the Norwegian Football Association is not responsible.
– Do you think there is any way to avoid it?
– Unfortunately not. The normal procedure will be for us to lose the match 0-3, wrote the NFF competition director Nils Fisketjønn in an SMS to TV 2 on Saturday night.
The reason Norwegian health leaders have decided to take the journey is that the players are in quarantine because Omar Elabdellaoui has tested positive for coronavirus.
What happens to the game against Austria is unclear at the time of writing this article. It is scheduled to be played on Wednesday in Vienna. There it may be relevant to send a national emergency team.
The captain’s team with sticks to the authorities
In a press release, the NFF, which qualifies it as a travel denial, writes that they believe that the covid-19 regulation has not taken into account the situation that has arisen in the national team squad.
Should national team players be quarantined in Norway?
– NFF believes that we can travel within the regulations. The Norwegian government says no to this. We do not agree with that, but of course we cannot challenge the government, says football president Terje Svendsen.
– We are very disappointed that the authorities force us to stay at home. The other 54 UEFA nations will play international matches this week, except for Norway, says Stefan Johansen, Martin Ødegaard and Joshua King, the captain of the national team.
– We will now travel home on the scheduled flight tomorrow. The Norwegian authorities accept this, while saying no to us traveling in quarantine separately from everyone else on charter flights to Romania.
Can players travel home on a scheduled flight? Yes, if we are to believe Deputy Health Director Espen Nakstad, who said this to TV 2 on Saturday:
– What you can do is move to your own place of residence to complete the quarantine there. This can be done if the municipal doctor approves a safe trip. You can also do this abroad, but to continue the quarantine there, not to go to work.
But attorney John Christian Elden disagrees. Read more here.
The Norwegian Sports Confederation says in a press release that it supports the decision to cancel the international match against Romania.
Height: – Legal gray area
According to strict UEFA protocol, the game against Romania could have been played, as the other players later tested negative. For example, Sweden-Croatia will be played on Saturday, even though both teams have had coronary heart disease during their meetings this week.
Outraged national team legends heading for health peaks
Health leaders, on the other hand, believe that a trip would break with Norwegian covid-19 regulations and would not make an exception for players on the national team.
– The matches to be played in Romania and Austria would be illegal in Norway. With the travel plan presented by world football tonight, the trip outside of Norway would be in a legal gray area, Bent Høie told TV 2 on Saturday night.
– What one really wants here is not to relate to any of the most important things that one has in the fight against the pandemic, that is, that people who have been in close contact with an infected person should be quarantined for ten days . I hope that high-level football takes into account that if they do not relate to it, it will help to detract from some of the most important things we have in the fight against the pandemic, the Minister of Health continued.
