IFK Norrköping has issued a statement where the club marks against what they describe as "pressure and threats". It is all supposed to have happened in connection with a dialogue between the sports manager Magni Fannberg and an agent regarding a player transfer.
According to Norrköping, the agent is said to have threatened that, if he does not get his will, he will deliberately counteract the club getting any compensation for the current player. In addition, the club claims that the agent has threatened to slander Fannberg before both board members and important cooperation partners.
Norrköping also means that the agent has made personal attacks and questioned the sports manager's competence and experience in a way they consider to be directly inappropriate.
Acts unprofessionally at times
The sports manager of Swedish elite football (Sef), Svante Samuelsson, confirms that he has been in contact with the club and straightened out what has happened.
I have talked to Norrköping and got a clear understanding of what has occurred, says Samuelsson and continues:
I will not go into it further. I can only make general statements at this stage.
Sef's manager has clear opinions about clubs receiving pressure and threats from agents.
The agent role is needed, both at the highest level and nationally. Most things are handled correctly by the agents, but sometimes agents act in an unprofessional manner. This time it went over the line.
According to Samuelsson, it is not unusual for Sef to discuss agent threats with Swedish clubs.
Unfortunately, it is often a point that we discuss, this issue is not entirely simple but can be solved if the agents are just professional.
Wanted to mark
Samuelsson does not know if IFK Norrköping chooses to take the incident further legally, but thinks that the club mostly wanted to show a standpoint.
I think it's all about the club wanting to mark its position properly, he says.
IFK Norrköping announces on its website that representatives from the club will not comment on the matter further.
