The club apologizes for what happened. It also plans to have an external party investigate the events.
Sports director of Veikkausliiga team Vaasa Palloseura Janne Lindberg has been released from his position due to harassment.
In its press release, the club says that in light of the new information that has come to light in recent days and the investigations made based on it, there are no longer any conditions for continuing the task.
VPS also apologizes especially to those who have been subjected to inappropriate behavior and to the entire club community.
In addition, the club will investigate the incident and draw up a plan of action to avoid something similar.
– In the last few days, we found out about new cases of harassment in addition to these previous ones. This is extremely unfortunate. This kind of thing cannot happen in any organization, commented the chairman of the board Timo Harry.
The story took a new turn when Helsingin Sanomat reportsthat Lindberg’s disturbing behavior has been going on for years.
According to the magazine, Lindberg sent disturbing messages to women as early as 2020. In them, the club boss praised the women’s appearance and also sent suggestive messages in which he hoped for example for sexual intercourse.
In the spring, Lindberg received a warning from the club for improper behavior. He had sent sexually tinged messages and comments to the club’s female employees.
The warning was not made public for months
The warning became public this week, when the provincial newspaper Ilkka-Pohjalainen had received a tip about the case and was making an article about it. So the club decided to inform about it.
Chairman of the board of VPS Timo Harry told this week that there would not have been a separate announcement about the matter, because the case had already been dealt with and the Palloliito had been informed of what had happened.
Suomen Palloliitto commented to that the club took sufficient measures in the case based on the information received in the reporting channel’s countermeasures procedure.
Club service director of the ball association Timo Huttunen specifies, however, that the association has instructed the club to be open in the case and preferably to come out themselves.
Vaasa’s Palloseura won the bronze medal in the season that ended in the league.