ÖFK on forced degradation: "There is no risk"

It was in mid-September that Östersunds FK assumed that they were in a major financial crisis and that it was uncertain whether the Jutland football club would be able to continue operating at all.

Now, however, it sounds different.

According to Östersund press officer Niclas Lidström, there is still a great need ac to raise money - but there is no concern about the club's all-Swedish existence, either in economic or sporting terms.

- There's no talk about it. There has never been anything else. All planning revolves around the fact that we will play there (in the Swedish league) next season, says Lidström.

The distance down to Gif Sundsvall, in the qualifying spot in the table, is five points. In sport, Östersund can secure the contract already this weekend when Hammarby visits the Jämtkraft arena.

- There are two games left and it looks really good. And we handle the financial as well. We see that there is tremendous support from companies and individuals, but we are not there yet. We need more money to secure all-round gaming, but we are well on our way.

Lidström confirms that the club has withdrawn SEK 7.1 million and that there is no longer a tax liability to pay. In total, the aim is to receive SEK 20 million before the turn of the year so that the club can prepare for the next season in financial balance.

However, should Östersund's nightmare scenario become a reality, that is, the club goes bankrupt and forcibly degraded by the Allsvenskan, a vacancy appointment principle will probably be applied. This means that the vacancy will then go to the losing team in qualifying for the Allsvenskan, which will be decided on November 6 and 10.

Such a decision is made sometime before the turn of the year by the board of the Swedish Football Association. Another possible scenario is that a forcibly degraded law is not replaced at all.

- If a vacancy occurs in the federal series after March 1, it will not, as a general rule, be added unless there are special reasons. So there is a valve there, says Tobias Tibell, federal lawyer at the Swedish Football Association.

- It will be a test that the competition committee, alternatively the board, may do. Whether to add the vacant place or not. It is quite a short notice for an association, to be set at the beginning of March not to play in the Swedish and then to know that it can certainly be so when the series starts the next month's change.

However, the likelihood that any of the above scenarios will become reality, Östersund sees it as non-existent.

- We don't see that risk. We have spent so much time on this over the past two months and have worked on so many different fronts. There is not, we do not reason so. We will be in Allsvenskan next season and remain as an association, says Niclas Lidström.