Eklöf: "Has never been so good"

In a long comment on SVT Sport, speedway driver Fredrik Lindgren strongly criticizes the Smeds, the club he left after the team took their third straight SM gold two weeks ago.

The criticism is mainly about salaries that should not have been paid on time. The blacksmiths in an e-mail to their drivers announced that they have a shortage of liquid funds right now with lagging driver's debts as a consequence, something Eskilstuna-Kuriren was the first to report on.

But Pontus Aspgren, who has been running for the Blacksmiths for the past three years, does not agree that everything has been poorly managed.

- I think it has become very bloated in the media. They have been honest with us and promised a money should be in the near future, not all clubs do so. The club has no debt to me today. They paid for what dragged on me last week.

Has it been a drag during the season?

- No, but we have been told that the last matches will take a few weeks. Too bad it is so, but unfortunately it is the way it looks in sports.

Speedway drivers get paid by invoicing the club per match via their own companies. The sum is performance-based depending on, among other things, how many points the driver has scored.

- Many of us have been in the smiths for many years and have confidence in the board. I think it's far too early to go out and put such big words into it, says Pontus Aspgren.

Another driver with long experience in the speedway world is Linus Eklöf. Nor does he agree with Lindgren's criticism.

- I have been running the speedway for various elite clubs for the last 15 years and as good as it has worked in the smiths for the past three to four years I have never been to before, he says, adding:

- If Fredrik looks back on his two years in the Blacksmiths, I don't think he has much to whine about.

But why do you still think he reacts so strongly?

- His team is an elite team and is investing in winning the World Cup table. They have raised the bar on all levels. So then they think that they should invest hard and want the club to do the same, that is not wrong of them.

- But a little indulgence for the club, you have to have that. There has been a huge crowd loss throughout the sport.