Four million kronor to the Swedish Basketball Federation last week. A "million amount" to skiing stars Jonna Sundling, Edvin Anger, and Emma Ribom this week.
But it won't stop there for Christer Gardell. He was himself active at elite level in basketball as a young man, in the Stockholm club KFUM Central, and also engaged in athletics, football, and ice hockey – and describes himself as "broadly sports-interested".
This should be seen more as a first step. I will continue to sponsor sports and elite athletes, and I hope that companies in Sweden that have withdrawn sponsorship from sports in general – and elite athletes specifically – will rethink and make a complete turnaround, and start increasing their efforts towards sports and elite athletes, says Christer Gardell.
Important for integration
He highlights several aspects of why he believes it is important to support sports financially.
As public health ("where sports is a fundamental component"). But also integration ("where I believe sports will play a very important role").
He also thinks it's fun for Sweden as a nation to have "skilled athletes competing successfully in major contexts". But incentives and conditions must be created for men and women to pursue elite sports, he believes.
Here, everyone must help out who has the ability to help out. Like companies, definitely, and also private individuals with financial capabilities like myself.
"Flashy influencers"
His criticism of why many companies have withdrawn from sports is scathing.
It's not fancy enough for many. It has ended up in an undeserved straitjacket at many companies, where you spend money on a lot of flashy influencers and the like.
He continues:
Here, one should not be counting the cost in kronor and öre of how much one earns – this is a social effort. And companies and private individuals should feel a social responsibility to ensure that this works. This social responsibility, I think most companies have abdicated from over the past 10-15 years.
According to Christer Gardell, we invest in Sweden "half of what Denmark and Norway do in sports".
I want to see companies now stepping up and going back to the role they had a long time ago.
What the next investment will be, he won't reveal.
Of course, I'll get some proposals, I may have already gotten some too... I'll go in where I think it's sensible, and it can be any sport whatsoever.
