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Photograph: SIMON HASTEGÅRD / BILDBYRÅN
This diabolical virus has already affected several of Juniorkronorna’s key players.
And now a large part of the board of directors with the captain of the selection Tomas Montén at the head.
So: do the only right thing and stay home.
We take it immediately: I both know and understand that there are television agreements and international agreements to take into account, but right now nothing is more important than putting this pandemic in order.
And that the health of players and leaders means more than anything else.
So I don’t think a Swedish team with teenagers should go to the other side of the Atlantic, to badly infected Alberta, to play a hockey tournament.
It doesn’t matter how much the tournament is decided in a supposed bubble and it doesn’t matter how much we thirst for joy and entertainment.
There is also a moral and symbolic responsibility in this.
Unless the International Ice Hockey Federation does the only right thing and cancels, or possibly postpones, the tournament, Sweden must act on its own. President Anders Larsson and Secretary General Johan Stark must show leadership and waste what is happening.
“We did everything we could, but we have realized that this is bigger than we can handle and in the current ways he does not feel responsible for sending a Swedish team.” Something like that.
What a nightmare this has become.
Four leaders have been detained for corona
Already in the days before the JVM team met, rejections came from William Eklund and Karl Henriksson. Yesterday William Wallinder passed away and today Albin Grewe. Everything, although Grewe is not confirmed, after testing positive for crown. The last two cannot be replaced because they got sick too late.
The players are one thing, they can be replaced by the great brute team, but now the management staff is also wrecked.
Federal captain Tomas Montén has tested positive and the rules are clear: Montén cannot accompany Edmonton. The pastor has to leave the pack and that is of course the worst that can happen to a leadership staff that has already suffered several setbacks.
Video coach Adam Almqvist retired earlier this week for the same reason. Montén’s new assistant coach, Anders Lundberg, also tested positive on a rapid test.
Add that Montén’s partner of several years, Henrik Stridh, previously refused due to the crown suites. The fact that three members of the management staff test positive in relation to the entrance to the so-called bubble is also remarkable and something that needs to be analyzed.
It feels anything but reasonable
What’s left is Joel Rönnmark, largely untested, and loaned Canadian Todd Woodcroft, who is supposed to join in Edmonton.
And then the JVM loading just started. We don’t know anything about how the infection will develop, even if the Junior crowns go into a bubble. In Alberta, Canada is waiting for the go-ahead from the local public health agency to start its training camp. A camp that was put on hiatus two weeks ago due to the spread of infection.
In this situation, sending a group of Swedish teenagers to play a hockey tournament seems like everything else is reasonable.
I belong to those who really think that the junior WC is one of the best moments of the season. A season without a JVM tournament doesn’t look like a real season.
But this is not an actual season, this season is something that is mostly happening as large parts of the world are paralyzed by the continuing spread of infection.
In that perspective, a youth World Cup feels pretty insignificant.
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