PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Cross-country skiing has serious problems.
That is the opinion of SVT expert Björn Ferry, who covers the entire sport.
– It’s like everything is about to implode, says Ferry in an interview with TT.
This weekend, a new biathlon season began with the Swedish premiere in Idre. The SVT expert was of course present Bjorn Ferry which now opens up a dark future for another sport – namely cross-country skiing.
Ferry’s harsh criticism
Ferry sees two completely different worlds for biathlon and cross-country skiing, two sports that he himself mastered well during his sports career. The SVT expert praises the family atmosphere that prevails in biathlon, where everyone wants to help each other across national borders, while cross-country skiing appears as a cold world.
– Biathlon has no problems apart from the war and Russia, which is not allowed to participate. But not as an organization. That there are 20 relay teams in each relay. In length, there are seven teams and three from Norway. There is conscious politics behind this. It doesn’t happen like this, says Ferry in an interview with TT.
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Björn Ferry is really worried about the future of cross-country skiing and directs harsh criticism at the International Ski Federation, Fis, which focuses too much on making more money.
– It’s like the whole sport is about to implode. Now the long-distance cup might as well take over. They can also have sprint competitions, uphill races and the like, Ferry told the news agency.
READ MORE: Björn Ferry’s scathing against the whole of Norway – now completely fails the proposal: “Norway is always bad at it”
“Is worthless”
The former biathlete, who did cross-country skiing until 2001, refers to the fact that the Ski Classics long-distance cup has already arranged stages with sprint competitions. Criticism of Fis continues and Ferry compares the association to football’s criticized counterpart in Fifa.
– It’s a tyranny and that there are so many people who are going to do a lot without having anything for it. The riders are not happy. The organizers are not happy. Who are the ones who are satisfied? Competition disciplines are changed criss-cross, here and there. There is no audience at the competitions, says the Swede in his criticism.
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Björn Ferry also questions the decision that the Swedish TV rights for cross-country skiing have left SVT for the commercial company Viaplay.
– They (Fis) choose to go for the money instead of ensuring what is best for the sport. It must be useless to go to any channel where only a third of the viewers remain. How can it be good for cross-country skiing? That is a big mistake.
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