Discriminated in conflict with the FIS: responded to a protest action in Norway

The head of the arrangement, Terje Lund, of the ski federation, said that the action evoked NRK just before VG this afternoon, came after a long-standing disagreement with the International Ski Federation since the spring. He believes that the FIS does not have the right to profile sponsors in warm jerseys, athletes being required to undergo training.

– Heating figures are not defined in the regulation as commercial law, unlike the FIS. And then we hear that they can not even expose their sponsors, "Lund told VG.

Lund says it would be the same reaction, no matter the sponsor. In cross-country skiing, it is the former sponsor of Petter Northug, Coop, which sponsors the Cross-Country World Cup. Together, the sponsor Viessmann and Lund highlight the same problem.

"This is a case of international principle that has nothing to do with sponsors.The principle is that the organizers and federations must be able to profile their sponsors.It is the main thing now.If we want our organizers host the World Cup in a sustainable way, we must also have exposure opportunities.And when it is not anchored in regulation, as a right of the FIS, we can not give it to them anyway " said Lund.

Respond to the ski federation

Coop, which now sponsors the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup, told VG, through the director of communications, Bjørn Takle Friis:

"We are in contact with the FIS dialogue with the Federal Federation and are not really part of the question, but it is special that they come now after so many years and when the World Cup will be back to Norway, says Takle Friis.

It emphasizes that they have new conflicts with the Swiss Confederation and that they aim when they did not become a new sponsor of the ski federation last spring.

This also applies, among other things, to the long-standing conflict between Northug's private initiative sponsored by Coop and the Ski Federation.

"We feel that about Coop and nothing else, it does not harmonize, they are not exposed by teasing them anymore, and it comes down to their own injustice," says Takle Friis.

– This is another example of extremely bad judgment on the part of the Confederation. It is becoming increasingly clear that it is the agreement of the Norwegian group with the Ski Federation. And it's the Coop logo that hurts here, says Friis.

Norgesgruppen has signed a sponsorship agreement with the Ski Federation and extended its sponsorship this spring, as Coop has also applied for sponsorship. Per Roskifte, executive vice president of communications and social affairs of the Norwegian group, says he does not know.

"We have not been involved in the case, so there is nothing to comment on our side," Roskifte told VG.

The communication officer of the Norwegian Ski Association, Espen Graff, rejects the FIS conflict due to lack of judgment and pressure from the sponsors. He refers to the Lund event manager, but responds:

– The starting point for this is a disagreement on certain market principles and decisions in the FIS. There is nothing to do in Norway. This is why countries such as Sweden, Switzerland and Germany have the same parameters as Norway, says Graff.