Brann must pay a fine after “Uefa mafia” chants in the Champions League. Chairman believes freedom of expression is being weakened – NRK Vestland

In an open letter in the British newspaper The Guardian on Tuesday, the chairman of SK Brann, Aslak Sverdrup, writes that the club is “deeply concerned” that freedom of expression is being challenged and punished from the highest levels in European football.

He is referring to the fine that Brann received Uefafollowing the Champions League match against St. Pölten at Åsane Arena earlier this year.

– Restricting freedom of expression – it takes very special reasons to do so in a democratic society, says Aslak Sverdrup to NRK.

In addition, he believes the fine of almost NOK 60,000 is disproportionately large for a women’s team.

Appealed the fine – but was refused

A month ago it became clear that Brann was fined because of shouts from the home fans during the match. The fine is 5,000 euros.

Uefa has previously justified the fine with the fact that during the match “provocative statements that are offensive in nature” were made.

Specifically, it was about the Brann fans shouting “Uefa mafia” for around 20 seconds, after the team received a free kick against them around 29 minutes into the match.

Brann chose to appeal the fine, which cost them another 1,000 euros.

But today the appeal has been rejected by Uefa. That means that SK Brann and Sverdrup have to pay out. It was BT who reported this first.

– We have asked for a written justification for that, says Sverdrup.

– Huge difference

In the article in The Guardian, Sverdrup points out that the football world has too much racism, homophobia, misogyny and discrimination.

He believes it is vital to protect vulnerable groups from discriminatory shouts, and that everyone should feel safe in the stands.

– There, one must protect the groups that are being harassed, but not sanction innocent songs that come at the expense of a powerful sports association.

He believes that freedom of speech in football is an important and international debate, and emphasizes that although there have been sanctions against similar shouts in the past, a lot has happened on the freedom of speech front.

– There are several fairly new cases from the European Court of Human Rights that point in the direction that Uefa should accept this. In collaboration with the foremost expert on this in Norway, John Wessel Aas, we have raised this to Uefa, and believe the time has come for them to accept that it is a legitimate statement.

Sverdrup points out that 5,000 euros is a lot of money in women’s football. The fine corresponds to around 10 percent of the prize money Brann received for winning the match against St. Pölten, 50,000 euros.

– The difference between the finances in women’s football and men’s football is enormous, says Sverdrup. He points out that a men’s team receives 2.8 million euros for winning a match in the group stage of the Champions League.

They would be fined 10,000 euros.

– The fine has been halved, but no account has been taken of the fact that there is a very large difference in budgets and finances between women’s football and men’s football, as it is in today’s society. This huge difference, but disproportionate fines, we believe is an additional point here.

Assessing new possible rule violations

Despite the hefty fine from Uefa, fans could again be heard shouting “Uefa mafia” when Brann was visited by Barcelona at Åsane Arena around two weeks ago.

In addition, several banners were held up with the same words, and one banner with what looked like a fine.

– We have received a notification that they are considering whether there may be a breach of the regulations, says chairman Sverdrup.

The notice states that several banners have been observed at the beginning of the second half.

– What we have replied to Uefa is that it was a protest that the supporters made against the first fine and restricted freedom of expression, says Sverdrup, who indicates that they are waiting for feedback on this.

Sverdrup compares the shouts to the supporters to “hate NFF” being shouted in elite league matches.

– It is a fairly similar statement, because it comes up in exactly the same situations in a match, he says, and points out that shouts often come after referee decisions.

He points out that even if the NFF does not like that there are shouts, they do not punish the clubs for these shouts.

– Fantastic

Chairman of the supporters club Bataljonen, Erlend Vågane praises both the appeal and the post from Sverdrup.

– I think it is absolutely fantastic and very, very good that the club so clearly takes our side and really fights for freedom of expression in the football stands.

That the club gets a fine in the first place, he believes, is “completely on the nose”.

– The fact that Uefa gives fines for perfectly legitimate and ordinary statements, probably also says something about the fact that there may be something in the message itself. Then it is well known that Uefa is an extremely hair-raising and rowdy organisation.

He says the banners used during the Barcelona match were not organized by the supporters’ club.

– But it is probably a counter-reaction to freedom of expression being threatened. I have no problems defending those banners coming up, even though it is of course a huge challenge and squeeze for the club.

Strong supporter culture around the women’s team

– What is very exciting about our club now is that we are one of the few in Europe who have managed to crack a difficult code by creating a strong supporter culture around our women’s team. There are singing, standing supporters, says a proud Sverdrup.

He points out that extensive work has been done in the supporters’ circles, which has resulted, among other things, in 600 supporters turning up for the away game in Barcelona, ​​and that Åsane arena was sold out in eight minutes when Barcelona came to visit.

– We are concerned that the sanctions based on legitimate expressions from the stands could backfire on that work.