It was on Wednesday evening, after the team had traveled from Gothenburg to Malmö earlier in the day, that Gottfridsson had dinner with teammates Andreas Nilsson, Kim Ekdahl du Rietz and Lukas Nilsson. In connection with the dinner, players are said to have drank one to two units of alcohol each. Aftonbladet was the first to report on the pub visit and later the quartet appeared with their names on the national team's own website.
"We apologize to everyone in the team and also apologize to our supporters and everyone who works to make this European Championship a highlight," says Jim Gottfridsson.
Wednesday was the first of two game-free days ahead of Friday night's match against Portugal, which begins Blågult's game in the middle round in Malmö.
Federation captain Kristján Andrésson comments on the event to handbollslandslaget.se:
"I feel disappointed with what has happened, but the players have stood up straight for the entire squad, apologized and declared that it will not happen again. Immediately after we learned about the event, we have acted with both individual and group discussions and have thus closed the event and focus fully on upcoming matches in Malmö ”.