Rolf-Inge Andersson was honored during the Sports Gala’s “In memoriam” segment.
However, the Mjällby icon is very much alive.
– We are of course very sad that it has happened, says the sports gala’s CEO Stephan Rimér.
On Monday evening, SVT’s annual gala was broadcast and during “In memoriam”, when athletes who have died during the year are recognized, the idea was to honor Rolf “Kocken” Andersson, one of the most well-known players of football club Jönköping Södra of all time.
But instead of showing a picture of “The Chef” Andersson, the TV viewers got to see a picture of Rolf-Inge Andersson, who played in Mjällby during the 1980s.
– Rolf-Inge is very much alive. It’s not good at all, says Mjällby’s sports director Hasse Larsson The Express.
Apologize
Stephan Rimér, CEO of the Sports Gala, regrets the loss.
– We are of course very sorry that it has happened and above all if it is the case that someone takes offense, we apologize profusely for that, he says and continues:
– There is a lot of pride and a lot of hard work that goes into the work on the gala and for us it is very important that it gets right.
At the moment, it is not known what has gone wrong. Stephan Rimér cannot say whether it is at SVT or at the picture agency that the confusion has occurred.
Wrong trot profile 2022
The sports festival has committed the same mistake in the past. In 2022, the trotting driver Bo William Takter was to be honored, but instead a picture of a living Thomas Nilsson, former trotting expert on TV4, was shown.
– We probably thought that we had created such routines that it would not occur again. It’s nothing we don’t take lightly. It’s an element of the gala that we think is important and that we think the viewers also appreciate, says Stephan Rimér.
What routines have you adopted since the last miss?
– As we have had that history, we have tried to double and triple check. And since we don’t know what went wrong in this situation, I can’t really answer why.