Niklas Jihde ended up in the middle of one of the most noticed TV fights in Sweden of all time.
Now he reveals the strong reactions from the Swedish people.
– I think it’s a bit of humor too, he says.
It was after a seemingly sleepy event for the Swedish national team in the World Cup qualifiers that the television brawl of the ages broke out. Janne Andersson had not expected any criticism after 5-0 against Azerbaijan, but when Bojan Djordjic asked about Jesper Karlsson’s minimal playing time, the national captain saw red.
Strong reactions
The expert and the trainer ended up in a heated exchange of words, which lasted for several minutes. It culminated in Djordjic raging against Janne Andersson asking “whom he represents”, and shortly afterwards an enraged Andersson stormed off. And in the middle was the presenter Niklas Jihde.
Jihde tried, somewhat awkwardly perhaps, to make the timeout sign to stop the fight, which led to strong reactions. Almost a month has passed since the fight, and now he reveals that the timeout sign has been used against him pretty much every time he moves outside. Not least in floorball, where he has been an enormously successful player, but today is a coach.
– The weekend after, the referee came up to me and said that “if you are going to call a timeout, the sign should look like this” and showed how to make the sign the right way. I think it’s a bit of humor too, he says to Aftonbladet.
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Nice words about Janne
Niklas Jihde received criticism from some quarters for not stopping the fight more clearly. Now he responds to that criticism.
– It’s clear that I could have gone in, but I didn’t want to be rude to anyone and stop Janne or Bojan. Then someone will get annoyed and think “why does that fair-haired scout come in and stop everything?”. I’m a little surprised that people analyzed just all of that so thoroughly. Maybe people thought I did a bad job and was a lousy presenter. I didn’t really feel that way when I went home that night. What happened, happened. It’s live TV, he says.
Jihde also believes that Janne Andersson does not deserve the criticism that has been directed at him when it comes to racist complaints.
– Janne asked what Bojan would represent. I think it is obvious that he represents Viaplay in this case. Then I can really understand how it feels when there are several people standing there. It’s something we have to talk through, but we’ve always done that and there haven’t been any problems before, says Jihde, and continues:
– Janne Andersson is one of the most popular people we have in the country and he is really fantastic with the media. It was an evening when it just went wrong, all people must be allowed to make mistakes.
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