Whinging and Trash-Talk

There are a lot of angry people in Norway these days. Most of the anger is directed at the fact that the dishiest contestant in this year's Norwegian edition of Strictly Come Dancing was somewhat surprisingly voted out last week, but within the football-community there are rather more trivial squabbles. 

Daniel Nannskog, a man who handles defeat about as well as Raymond Kvisvik handles his personal economy, was predictably miffed at the weekend when things didn't quite go his way. "Generally the referees in Norway are very good, but today Terje Hauge was terribly bad, just horrible. It was like playing against 14 men out there, which was tough," the not at all sore loser told Dagbladet. 

..which in turn prompted president of the Norwegian Football Federation to have a bit of a pop at Nannskog and whinging players in general. The increasingly creepy-looking "Football-president" Sondre Kåfjord wrote in a press-release that "We must avoid a culture of whinging in Norwegian football, nobody wants that". Which is a bit ironic, because whinging is exactly what said press-release sounded like. 

Kåfjord: Creepy-looking fellow

But, like fjordball at a disco, Kåfjord's appeal was either ignored or met by a mixture of amusement and contempt, and Fredrikstad-manager Anders Grönhagen was next in line to have a moan. "Mommy mommy, when our player said the ref was against us last season he was banned for a game but when Daniel Nannskog says it he gets away with it. No fair mommy, no fair!" he said, or something like that.

Poet and occasional Skeid-manager Arild Stavrum also had a bit of a whinge about Vålerenga stealing his young talents, but really, nobody cares.

The most entertaining story by far this weekend came from the wonderful world of the Adeccoliga, where Start inexplicably lost to a seemingly reborn Bryne. Start-manager Arne Standstø was less than impressed: "Bryne are quite simply a garbage team that we're not supposed to lose to,"  he said, rather magnificently insulting both his own players and their victors. 

The fantastic reply from Bryne's Esben Ertzeid when asked about it was "So that's what he says. Then I think he is a garbage manager."

Now that's what fjordball calls trash-talking. Keep it up.