PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Two Swedes died in the terrorist attack in Brussels.
Now Lasse Granqvist says exactly what all Swedes need to hear.
– I am part of the Kingdom of Sweden and I will always stand up for that, he says in the Sporthuset podcast.
It was on Monday evening that three Swedes were shot in a terrorist attack in Brussels, shortly before Sweden’s European Championship qualifying match against Belgium. Two people died and the third was injured and needed hospital treatment. According to reports from the Belgian media, at least one of those shot was wearing a Swedish national team shirt.
Granqvist’s fine words
The first half of Belgium-Sweden was completed in its entirety. However, after the Swedish players were informed of the deed at half-time, they decided, in consultation with the Belgian players, to suspend the match.
Uefa has this week communicated that the match will not be resumed, after the act that has changed Swedish football forever.
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TV4’s Lasse Granqvist sums it all up nicely.
– It is important to show a great deal of understanding for the close relatives who have been victims of this terrorist act, but also everyone else who was there and was locked in the arena and had to experience a hotel night under police guard and received a police escort. It was a designation of Sweden and Swedes. The reactions are that it’s terrible, and we have to feel that, and we have to learn from it. But it’s also important that on the back end of it, on the other side of it, when some time also passes, we are still proud to be who we are, namely Swedes, says Granqvist in the Sporthuset podcast.
The call to the Olympics
The presenter and commentator do not think that any hasty decisions should be made as a result of the shooting.
– I think it is important that some time passes. This has to sink in somehow. It is extremely difficult to accept that the Swedish athlete would have a harder time abroad as a result of being Swedish. It is difficult to accept that Swedish supporters will be forced to watch an international sporting event because they are designated as a terrorist target. But I think that time must pass, and get the opportunity to get a better and clearer view of the future.
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Next summer the Olympics will be held in Paris. France is a country that has previously suffered from severe acts of terrorism. Granqvist now has an appeal to all Swedes who hesitate to go to Paris to cheer on our Swedish athletes in blue and yellow jerseys.
– I’m Swedish. I am proud to be Swedish. I am part of the Kingdom of Sweden and for that I will always stand up. And I sincerely hope that the supporter marches are done again, in the same way that we have experienced at international championships and that the yellow shirts are there, because it is the free world and it is the free democracy that so many stand behind.
– Not least France, “freedom, equality, fraternity”, a country so prone to terror. I believe and am convinced that many hope that there will be many yellow shirts there. And it is perhaps more important than ever in our time that we stand up for what we are, we are Swedes and we are Sweden, says Lasse Granqvist.
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