No Norman for Norway! – VG
If Norwegian sports are to give content to the hard but necessary line towards Russia, it is impossible to react mildly when a star acts in a startlingly unmusical manner.
There are different opinions in international sports about how the Russian invasion of Ukraine should be handled.
Some believe it is wrong to let athletes suffer. Some argue that sports stars can live in a bubble, spared from seeing their own role in a bigger picture.
But in Norwegian sports, the community is fortunately supported by the fact that there is only one acceptable response to Russia in this crisis: An icy shoulder.
It is necessary, for example, that the winter’s cross-country circus can be far less sportingly interesting than it would have been if officer Aleksandr Bolshunov and the gang had been allowed to participate. Of course, the absence is sad if we only think about what happens in the track, but the big cost/benefit analysis is nevertheless very simple.
Ukraine is suffering enormously from a completely unacceptable attack, and this in turn has consequences for Ukrainian sports.
If we had only allowed Russians to participate as usual, knowing the propaganda value of sport for Vladimir Putin’s regime, Norwegian sport would have missed an important moral choice.
But how should it be handled if the topic is not Russian participation, but a Norwegian athlete who is actively applying to Russia?
In recent days, a case has emerged that could become an exam in value choice for the Norwegian Football Association. It is about Mathias Normann and Dinamo Moscow.
Some details still remain, so we have to make a necessary reservation, but Normann himself has one interview with TV 2 was clear that he chooses Russia and why he does so.
His reasoning is that this is the sporting solution for ham. He tries to legitimize the choice as follows: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career, it’s that you don’t mix politics and football. I’m going there to play football and I’m happy about that.”
That justification is not exactly perspective. One can wonder where Normann thinks he learned this, in a time when it is clear that sport and politics are connected.
Mathias Normann was among the players who took part in markings for human rights, but thoughts of something other than themselves and theirs must have disappeared somewhere along the way.
On Monday it was reported that only details remain for Normann is ready for Dinamo Moscow. He was bought by Rostov in 2019, and has since been loaned to Norwich.
If something comes of him playing in the Russian capital, the pressure on the association increases ahead of upcoming national team selections.
Talks have been announced between Solbakken and president Lise Klaveness. They should neither be long nor particularly difficult.
The conclusion should be obvious. You cannot travel to a Russian club now, and at the same time be relevant in a Norwegian national team selection. Here we can hope that Norwegian leaders look at what the Swedish Ice Hockey Association has chosen to do.
Mathias Normann has said that he has been prepared for criticism, and it has indeed come.
Now we can hope that he is also prepared for the consequences of the election if the transition is carried out as announced: No Normann for Norway.