– These claims fall on their own absurdity.

That’s what Berit Kjøll told NRK after reading Johann Olav Koss’ harsh criticism of the top management of Norwegian sport.

The former figure skating hero didn’t skimp on gunpowder in an article published Friday night. His main message was the many challenges in Norway’s grassroots and children’s sport, but he also pointed out the problems within the top management of Norwegian sport.

– It’s time to shift the focus from results, internal strife and power struggles, to inculcating important values ​​such as fair play, joy and development, read passages of text.

The 54-year-old himself sits on the sports council under the chairmanship of the current president. However, in March 2021, it became known that he was stepping down. Family reasons were given as reasons.

In the chronicles, he writes about “a management sport that makes newspaper headlines for power struggles, public dirty laundry and other behavior that does not build trust”, but he clarified to NRK that the criticism was not personal towards Kjøll.

– The criticism in the chronicles is not directed at individuals, and it is important for me that this is not perceived as a personal conflict.

Strongly disagree with Koss

However, Kjøll has completely distanced himself from the way sports management is described.

– Throughout my parliamentary term, the focus of the sports council has been on steps that will contribute to fulfilling our vision of “the joy of sport for all”, answered Kjøll, referring to the speech he gave when he opened the ongoing Sports Council on Friday morning.

There he said, among other things, that management is also about standing firm in difficult times, and this is something the sports board has come to know especially in recent months.

– It’s very challenging to handle demanding notification cases which have taken time, caused unrest and disagreements in the sports council. I apologize for the scale of the costs and the damage to reputation caused by Norwegian sport, said Kjøll from the podium.

Due to a lot of commotion and a lot of negative reports about the Norwegian Sports Confederation ahead of the Sports Council.

Millions of expenses due to “misunderstandings”, conflicts within the board, war of words between Kjøll and NRK commentators and admissions of speaking incorrectly have made headlines continuously.

– There is some reasons

Despite multiple reports, Kjøll strongly disagrees with Koss that the negative attention is a sign of a worrying development for Norwegian sport.

– The negative media attention I have received as chairman of the board, and more recently the sports council, has several reasons which I have also commented on several times in recent weeks, Kjøll replied.

– At the same time, it is my job to convey all the good work that goes into Norwegian sport every day, to ensure that all children and young people who wish to participate in sport have the opportunity to do so – regardless of finances or otherwise. participation threshold, he added.

Koss believes that parts of Norwegian sports management spend their time on completely different things than sport should be for everyone.

– Many are mostly focused on who gets to decide, power struggles, revenue increases. That should not be the most important thing for Norway’s sporting leaders, he said.

– It seems that Norwegian sport management has a philosophy of protection, not a philosophy of development. They wanted to protect their position and territory, and if someone took a slightly different path, their wings would be clipped, explained the former skater.

Want to bring a lot

This weekend, representatives from the special Norwegian federations, sports circles, athlete committees and sports councils are in Bergen to participate in the Sports Council.

Some of the points raised by Koss in his chronicle are discussed there, especially the financial aspect.

– The aim is to highlight the challenges of sport, and explain how things are connected. Increased focus on results contributes to more tools. Prices go up, voluntarily goes down, and that has major consequences. We lost a lot of talent by focusing too early, and we made the sport not for everyone. That not everyone gets a place, he explained about the background of the chronicle.

Koss said that commitment stems not only from the fact that he is an Olympic champion, but also from the fact that he is a father.

– It must be more important to get a lot of people involved, than just a few coming to the national team, the former ice skater believes.

PS: On Sunday, the sports president will be elected for the next four years. Both Kjøll and Zaineb Al-Samarai are running for election.