[ad_1]
The general secretary of the Swedish Football Association, Håkan Sjöstrand, responds to the accusations against Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the management of the national team.
– The black paint that now makes Sweden’s greatest and most outstanding soccer player of all time, I do not defend it, he tells Aftonbladet.
The general secretary of the Football Federation, Håkan Sjöstrand. Stock Photography.
Ibrahimovic is singled out as a bully in Olof Lundh’s new book, The National Team According to Lundh. The information that the soccer journalist presents in the book was confirmed Tuesday by a veteran leader of the national team who spoke anonymously with the newspaper.
Former national team coach Lars Richt is also criticized for having seen Ibrahimovic’s behavior towards certain players and leaders through his fingers.
Sjöstrand says that he has not read Olof Lundh’s book.
– So, honestly, I find it difficult to comment on several separate statements. I’m in Iceland with the women’s team and I focus entirely on other things besides the stories in a book which, if I got it right, also leans towards a lot of anonymous sources and what someone has heard or thinks they have heard. The book is called the National Team according to Lundh, not the National Team according to the truth. That’s a significant difference for me, says Sjöstrand.
The serious information brought by the anonymous leader of the national team with comments Håkan Sjöstrand, general secretary since 2014, is as follows:
– I think like this: That you can warm up at the highest level where everything is about winning, it is part of these contexts. You cannot have a higher set of requirements than when you are part of the national soccer team. Of course, frustration sometimes arises in combination with adrenaline and other strong wills. But the black paint that is now made by Sweden’s greatest and foremost soccer player of all time, I do not defend. It seems completely strange and unfair to me. In addition, the players who were identified as victims have spoken out and denied and attenuated what is alleged.
Sjöstrand does not think about going to the bottom with the accusations against Ibrahimovic.
– Because someone has said something anonymously and someone has written a book alleging things? No. The women’s national team is playing an extremely important European Championship knockout tonight and I wish the focus was on that match rather than something anonymous people claim happened several years ago, Håkan Sjöstrand tells Aftonbladet.
