Odd – Sandefjord is postponed after positive coronate test – VG

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He says that the team was initially on schedule for the start of the series and had been looking forward to getting started against Sandefjord already tomorrow, Sunday.

Andersen says that they have talked to the Norwegian Football Association, and they have agreed to postpone the talk of a new date until early next week.

– Now we have to make the best of it. We can only hope that no more infection has entered the club.

Ødegaard must make changes

Hans Erik Ødegaard should have led his first elite league match as Sandefjord coach on Sunday night. He tells the following to VG after the news that the match has been postponed:

– What can you say? It’s very boring in every way, but that’s the way it is, unfortunately. We will not find any other opponent at such short notice. We have lost a lot in this run-up here. Now we lose the battle too. It is very boring. Everyone was looking forward to the start of the series, says Ødegaard to VG.

He describes the season run-up as very demanding. Sandefjord has been through a period of several weeks where they could not train as normal, due to infection also in their squad.

– The season run-up has been incredibly special. We started late and had a break in the middle of it which made us unable to train. We had planned 10 league games, but we have only played four. Now there will be no match tomorrow either.

– Tragicomic

Sandefjord’s general manager Espen Bugge Pettersen himself had just received the message when he spoke to VG.

– It’s a bit tragicomic, unfortunately. But thats how it is. We can not do anything about it. The entrance through the winter has been special and challenging. Especially for those of us who have been shut down for a while. Then it was all man to the pumps the last few weeks, so we do not get carried out anyway. It’s boring, says Pettersen to VG.

He says that they, during this time, have been aware that something like this could happen, and points out that they must also be prepared for similar things in the future. He believes that the route of transmission into the clubs is not watertight despite what he describes as “very good protocols”.

Despite the discouraging message, he also pulls a little on the smiley face. That Tore Andersen calls him for this message has happened before.

– The last two phones from the sports manager in Odd have contained the same content. You do not know whether to laugh or laugh, laughs Bugge Pettersen.

He then thinks of the autumn of last year where it was infection in the Odd camp and the match against Sandefjord had to be postponed.

Sandefjord will now play an internal match on Sunday as a “new” dress rehearsal, before they will now open the season against Mjøndalen on 16 May.

NFF notified quickly

Nils Fisketjønn is competition director in the Norwegian Football Association. He says that the association first and foremost thinks of the player who has tested positive.

– We hope it goes well with the boy, that he is not seriously ill. It is sad that this is happening, but we are not unprepared. It is not directly unexpected that something like this occurs. When it comes to re-framing the match, we have to get back to it, says Fisketjønn to VG.

– How are Odd and the match program affected by this?

– I understood it that it is the 10-day quarantine on Odd, but it is the municipal doctor who decides. Now it was important to postpone this match. We have alert routines on this and they work.

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