"One should never let Glenn Hysén review art"

In Expressen, the author Stefan Lindberg writes about his emotional roller coaster when he follows Sweden's European Championship journey.

In Dagens Nyheter, the author and literary critic Jesper Högström likes to take a greater grip on the essence of football.

Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet have also dedicated several cultural articles to the European Championships.

- Basically, it is good that football has a place on the cultural pages, it has not always had that, says Gabriel Zetterström, cultural writer at Sydsvenskan.

At the same time, he is critical of the level of the lyrics, something he previously addressed in his own article.

- Either it should be very pretentious, you should compare it with "finer" cultural expressions.

Or you do not consider it with the seriousness it deserves, it should be a bit silly.

Lacks football skills

Gabriel Zetterström often lacks football knowledge among the writers, something that testifies to a laziness towards the subject.

- One would never let Glenn Hysén go and review an art exhibition.

But writing about football on the premises of literary criticism is apparently going well.

What do you want to see instead?

- Knausgård's and Fredrik Ekelund's correspondence during the World Cup 2014 (the book Hemma - Borta) was a successful example of when culture and football meet.

They really took football seriously.

But otherwise I lack basic football skills, there are so many knowledgeable football journalists.

"Great if they are pretentious"

But Expressen's cultural editor Victor Malm does not agree.

He himself has written about football on the cultural side and appreciates the genre.

- That they would be uninitiated ... I do not know.

And if they are pretentious, that's great.

It does absolutely nothing to infect the football coverage with a little literary pretension.

Victor Malm believes that a cultural writer can very well contribute with valuable perspectives on the European Football Championship, even if you are not quite as football-savvy as a sports reporter.

- Swedish literature has quite a few football, handball or ice hockey novels. For those of us who like literature, art and sports, these dividing lines are always exciting to read about and break down. There are always stories in a football championship. You can clarify, outline and convey interesting stories.