The friendly match between Norway and Israel did not take place on Wednesday, because the infection was in the frame rivals. On Friday, the day before his departure to meet Romania in the League of Nations, the coronavirus was found in Norwegian captain Omar Elabdellaui. Galatasaray’s right-back was thrown into isolation, and the federation sought permission to depart to Romania. She argued that there is no risk, the group will fly by charter, travel by private buses, and minimize the risk of infecting anyone. But the Norwegian government was reluctant from the start, as was going to the next game in Austria. Authorities preferred Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard and colleagues to spend 10 days in quarantine in Norway. – It’s the football association that decides, not us. We only said that these matches would be banned in Norway. Leaving Norway in this situation was entering the shadow economy – said Minister of Health Bent Hoie in an interview for “Verdens Gang”.
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“If they do, they will challenge our most important resolutions fighting with a pandemic. We are clear: it’s better not to do this. Soccer players are role models for others. Today, many young people in Norway are quarantined in hotels. And they’d like to mix with other quarantined people too. But no one can predict whether the virus will pass lightly or hard, warned the minister.
“A terrible blow. Now we go home on cruise planes and the government does not mind. And he did not agree to the charter flight.”
– We are very disappointed that the government is forcing us to give up traveling to the game. 54 UEFA associations play their games, only Norway does not. This is a terrible blow to the ambition of the staff in the short and long term. And now we go home on scheduled flights, and our government has no problem with it, but it did not agree that we were together in quarantine and charter to Romania – the footballers wrote in a statement, signed by Odegaard, Stefan Johansen and Joshua King.
The Norwegian union, however, decided not to mess with the government. Though he knew it would cause trouble for UEFA. – A nightmare night – said Pal Bjerketvedt, the secretary general of the union, about negotiations with the authorities. According to the rules of the European federation, the Norwegians could play with Romania as much as possible. It was national law that imposed the obligation to quarantine after close contact with the infected person. And there was not enough time to organize a team of previously undesirable players, or to send a youth team. Perhaps it will be possible to use this variant in the match against Austria on Wednesday. – It is impossible to postpone the match with Romania, because there are no more available dates. It will probably end in a walkover, we can also bear the costs of the organization already incurred by the host. We are also threatened with lower subsidies from UEFA if it is necessary to cut the budget of the European federation – said Nils Fisketjonn, head of the NFF competition department. But it won’t necessarily be as it fears. Such cases are assessed by the UEFA disciplinary committee and it is they who decide whether one of the teams was guilty of not playing the match or not. If no one is at fault, then instead of adjudicating a forfeit, the result can be drawn: 1: 0, 0: 0 or 0: 1.
Everything indicates that the match between Austria and Norway on Wednesday will not take place either. But this time the responsibility will probably not fall only on the Norwegians. Austria is implementing a strict lockdown on Tuesday and plans to close the borders.
“We are doing it to save Christmas.”
There is no repeat of the spring lockdown in Norway, but the government has recently introduced further restrictions in response to rising infections and hospitalizations. The authorities recommend staying at home to anyone who does not have to leave it, they advise against traveling, including business trips, and there are also difficulties when entering Norway for people who do not have local citizenship. Private meetings were limited to five people outside the household and public gatherings were limited to 600 people. The government of Prime Minister Erna Solberg announced that such restrictions will probably be maintained until the beginning of December, and then it will be necessary to assess the situation and decide what to do next. – We hope that by then the number of infections will decrease and we will be able to celebrate Christmas as we are used to – said the prime minister, announcing new ordinances. And all this in a situation which, compared to the drama unfolding in many countries, is almost idyllic. Although the number of infections is growing rapidly, in the last three months, in Norway, over 5 million, only 30 people have died from COVID-19. There are 294 victims in total, In Poland, only on Saturday, more than 540 people died from the coronavirus. The number of infected in Norway has exceeded 28,000, and in Sweden, which has twice as many inhabitants, there are 180,000, and as many as 6,164 victims.
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