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Alexander Sørloth spoke to NTB on Thursday evening about the dispute with the national team leadership.
Lars Lagerbäck explained his side of the case in a press release through the Football Association early Thursday, and Sørloth retaliated against the national team coach’s remarks.
Sørloth refutes ‘incompetence’ claim: still yes to Norway
Sørloth says he has never called anyone on the coaching staff incompetent, as Lagerbäck claims. Also, Sørloth says that it is not true that he did not want to comment on the case, but that he wanted to see the press release before it was published, so that he could add something. He claims that he did not succeed.
– We have had a dialogue with Alexander since Sunday and he always had the opportunity to comment on the matter. He knew that Lars would tell his version and that, at the same time, he would regret the statement from Cyprus. Today we informed in advance that we would publish the case without comment from Alexander, writes media manager Svein Graff in an SMS to TV 2 after Sørloth’s remarks on Thursday evening.
– We are responsible for the description.
Lars Lagerbäck, Per Joar Hansen and Frode Grodås speak through Graff in an SMS to TV 2:
– Due to Alexander’s statement and that it is a national team, we feel compelled to comment on what his agent says. This is not elite football for us. We further assume that what the agent says is Alexander’s opinion. For four days, we have given Alexander the opportunity to comment on what happened and confirm that we agreed to drop the case after he apologized for the behavior.
– If it had, we would not have commented further on the matter. Unfortunately, Alexander does not have the same opinion as us about what happened at the meeting. We can and will say very clearly that the statement of the agent does not agree with that of the coaching staff. We still maintain the description we gave today. Otherwise we will not comment further on this, but will handle it internally. If something new comes up we will of course report on this.
– Now there is a discussion in the media
TV 2 soccer expert Jesper Mathisen thinks the situation is just sad and reacts to how the situation was handled after the leaked players’ meeting.
– This has become a sham. It’s sad for the entire national team and the entire NFF that you should be fooling yourself like that. I don’t know what is true and we probably never will. They may both be right about something, but there are at least two completely different perceptions of the situation, says Mathisen, adding:
– It sounds very strange that Sørloth says one thing and then NFF says another. There are those who miss here. This naturally creates a lot of noise, and he is probably the last selection you need right now after what was delivered against Serbia and the pressure that has surrounded them lately.
– The fact that things are leaked from a player meeting is not good for such a group. But after it was leaked, I’m amazed that it was let out and that no one in management took responsibility and called a conference call or something to cover up the case. Now there is a discussion in the media, and it is reasonably unusual to see from the side of the NFF against their players, Mathisen emphasizes.
