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| Norwegian soccer under fire |
| [30.08.2007, 11:57pm, Thu. GMT] |
The coach of Norway's national soccer squad fired off a wad of his own verbal abuse this week after a top agent and a talent scout claimed that the quality of Norwegian soccer (football) players has deteriorated in recent years. Per A Flod, who's been the agent for players including John Carew, had said that soccer officials in other countries have told him that they think the quality of Norwegian soccer isn't as high today as it once was. "It's almost impossible to sell Norwegian players to foreign clubs, with the exception of poor clubs in marginal countries," Flod told newspaper Aftenposten.He noted that the Norwegian national squad qualified for two World Championships and one European Championship in the 1990s and that Trondheim club Rosenborg made it to the Champions League four times. The squad isn't matching that performance now.
Football investor and talent scout Terje Liverød agrees. "I don't know of anyone overseas who's using any time following the Norwegian (top leagues) the rest of the year," he said. "There just aren't enough good players here."
The comments didn't sit well at all with Åge Hareide, the current coach of the national squad who formerly coached Rosenborg. "What have they done for Norwegian football? Nothing!" he exclaimed, referring to Flod and Liverød, charging that Liverød, "who's lived outside the country for years... can't possibly know enough about Norwegian football. "
Hareide called the men's comments "disresepectful," and said he "didn't give a damn about them, and you can write that."
Liverød, confronted with Hareide's reaction, started to laugh. "I think that if Åge thinks about it awhile, he'll realize what he said was stupid. The level is so low that it's almost not worth a comment."
Norway's national team will play Argentina in the next national match on Wednesday, on home turf at Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo.
Aftenposten English Web Desk |
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