A goalkeeping coach from Liverpool is the attraction when a sports team east of Oslo demands 3350 kroner for two days at football school. The Sports Agency in Oslo reacts strongly.
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“The coach of Alisson Becker from Liverpool FC is coming to Abildsø”.
This is how the post from Rustad Abildsø Sportsklubb (RASK) starts. The club will entice up to 120 children and young people to pay 3350 kroner for a two-day goalkeeping school in early June.
Sports Agency Councilor Omar Samy Gamal (SV) reacts strongly:
– Most of all, I get sad to hear about this. It’s like poison in sports. This is an offer that excludes more than it includes, he says to VG.
The instructors at the two-day goalkeeper school come from the private company Oslo Keeperskole AS – in addition to John Achterberg from Liverpool. Food and drink must be paid for by participants aged 10 to 17:
«RASK IL wants sales of food and drink both days. We as organizers do not plan serving, so each goalkeeper must bring their own food and drink for the breaks » is it called.
– It’s cool with a football coach from Liverpool, but the bill can not be sent to the parents. This destroys Norwegian sports and the community. Imagine that you have two children and both want to participate: Should you choose between them? There are many who can not afford almost 7000 kroner for something that lasts for two days. I am very critical of this, says sports agency councilor Gamal.
He goes from being sad to angry when he hears that a private company is involved in the goalkeeping school.
–– Is it not natural that a sports team is creative in the way they make money?
– No, not when we finance sports to the same extent as we do. We spend large sums of money on affordable summer activities in many sports teams. If you want to do something extraordinary, there are pots you can apply for, or foundations that can line up. It’s great to sell waffles to save for a trip, but sending the bill to the parents, as you do here, is completely wrong, says the SV politician.
«NFF critical
Nor does the Norwegian Football Association get excited. Director of Development and Activity, Alf Hansen, emphasizes that he speaks on a general basis:
– Commercial football schools of short duration are not something we want. NFF believes that clubs can organize such types of offers on their own, at a significantly lower cost, he says to VG.
Hansen understands that many Norwegian football parents have great purchasing power and want the best for their children. But he believes clubs that need assistance or want to do something extra can get help for this – including through their football circle.
– Here, there is also a commercial player that will benefit. That’s not right, says the NFF top.
–If 120 children and young people pay NOK 3,350, it gives an income of more than NOK 400,000. VG is not aware of the expenses associated with the goalkeeper school.
– A club could employ a person in a part-time position for a whole year, only to work with goalkeepers, for the same sum, says Alf Hansen.
This answers the club
RASK leader Jarle Birkeli says that this year’s goalkeeping school is an attempt to create buzz around the merging of two sports teams in Oslo.
“The focus here was to find something that would be both cool and not least attractive to the local community with a focus on goalkeepers. Here we believe that there is far too little offer from the district and NFF for us in wide football, and therefore we have had a collaboration with Oslo goalkeeper school » he writes in an email to VG.
Birkeli believes that the club operates at a lower training fee during the rest of the year, and points out how RASK also arranges other and cheaper football schools.
He does not have an overview of how much the club will earn at the goalkeeper school before the number of registrations is clear. Birkeli claims that he does not know how much Liverpool coach John Achterberg pays for two days with Norwegian children.
“This will be a goalkeeping school for everyone who wants to participate. For our own members, we will subsidize the cost so that it shows that it is an advantage to be part of a club that thinks broadly and to develop goalkeepers » he writes.
– How much do you want to subsidize your own players? They also pay 3350 kroner digitally when registering?
“This is something we communicate internally with the members who sign up, and here we have our own arrangements for registration” writes the RASK leader, who says that «the event must be for everyone».
Private company silent about numbers
Confronted with the outcome of this case, Lars Hoel in Oslo Keeperskole AS refers to RASK, as the initiator.
However, Hoel emphasizes that the goalkeeping school over two days this summer is not something the company makes a lot of money on and that the company mainly offers activities that are far cheaper.
– This is meant to be a positive offer for goalkeepers from all clubs who often do not experience a good offer in everyday training. This is mainly meant to be an event that will create the necessary buzz about goalkeeper training in Norwegian football, says Hoel to VG.
He does not want to inform about what it costs to get the Liverpool coach to Norway or other costs associated with the event.
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