At the end of March, unexpectedly, Rikard Grip quit as national team manager, a position he had held - although the title changed with the years - since 2010.

He himself said that he had chosen to resign, but later it was rumored that he had in fact been fired. Now Mathias Fredriksson, who has insight into the national team, announces that this was the case.

- Several decisions were made about the national team organization which was not fully accepted by Grip. This led to collaboration problems while there were different perspectives on how the business should be conducted going forward, says Fredriksson.

What was the problem of collaboration and with whom?

- That I feel that those involved themselves can tell about. Do not know exactly all the details and do not want to speculate.

Why not say the union and Grip as it is?

- Do not know, but it is quite common for you to communicate a picture of ending self-employment. Which would not have been anything strange as Grip reaped fantastic success with the national team. Grip has family and the job requires many days away from the children.

Grip: "I've moved on"

When SVT Sport reaches Rikard Grip for a comment, he declines an interview, out of "respect for all active and leaders working around the cross country team today"

- I want them to have peace and quiet, and to focus fully on the upcoming ski season. Skiing is extremely warm to my heart and I wish them the best of luck. I have moved on and am enjoying my new job at the Swedish Olympic Committee, says Rikard Grip.

But the story doesn't end there. Grip was just the first of several to leave their post in the cross country team in the spring of 2019.

The turbulence continued with Sares

Johan Sares, who has worked at the union for ten years, seven of whom are in charge of the longitudinal activities, joined the union in early May. According to information, he was involved in the decision to kick Rikard Grip.

- Grip was very popular with the staff and Sares was heavily indebted to Grip for leaving. But the decision to remove Grip was not made by the federal leadership by Sares himself, says Fredriksson.

Did Sares really leave on his own or was he fired?

- My picture is that Sares thought the situation became unsustainable in the workplace and, in consultation with Ola (Strömberg, longitudinal manager) chose to quit. Sares has worked for a long time so he quits is no wonder, but having just recruited Jonas Peterson, it is a strange time to leave completely self-employed.

"Making uncomfortable decisions he believes in"

The next person to disappear was the election manager Urban Nilsson, who ended May 23. At the same time, new longitudinal manager Jonas Peterson decided to kick two runners, as a result of an evaluation of last year's season which showed that the riders were dissatisfied with above all the classic piece.

What do you say about this decision from Peterson?

- With the drive from business, he acts as a manager should make and makes uncomfortable decisions that he believes in. But his power of action here will also be his downfall. It turns out that making changes in a whaling team without having a new whaling manager was wrong.

Jonas Peterson - the next length manager to get fired

The Vallata team now turned to the new national team manager Jonas Peterson. Suddenly, the union faced the election of losing the entire team or kicking Jonas Peterson after only four months as national team manager.

The choice was to get rid of Peterson.

- Unfortunate of course and a great failure to end up in that situation, but at the same time impossible to compete without a functioning whaling team. My picture is that Jonas became too lonely and was too green in the environment, but at the same time was a bit "overcharged" to bring about a change that the riders called for in the evaluation, says Mathias Fredriksson.

The search for a new permanent length manager is still ongoing.