Anders Tegnell: "The regulations are very clear - players and leaders must be counted"

The Swedish Football Association has updated its guidelines for Swedish football during the corona epidemic on Friday. New is that SvFF recommends all associations to invite interested audiences not to come to the matches.

In a "sharp recommendation", the organizing associations urge to "limit the number of people" and "completely exclude the audience, such as parents" in terms of both matches and training activities.

The government has previously decided that a maximum of 50 participants may be gathered in a general gathering or public event, but are players, leaders and officials included in the figure of 50 participants?

At this point, the Public Health Authority (FHM) and the Swedish Football Association, which refers to the Police, do not agree. Something that can make it unclear for organizing organizations around the country.

In an interview with SVT, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says that players and leaders should be included.

- Yes, it is very clear in the regulations. There is no difference between anyone, but 50 people are there, neither more nor less.

He continues:

- The organizers have a great responsibility to ensure that this limit is kept. The views on them are getting underway well this weekend and we see that there are more and more people and that it really contributes to the spread of infection, we have to have a discussion with the government if you can regulate this harder, says Tegnell.

But in the Swedish Football Association's new guidelines, players and leaders are not included in the 50 participants. This with reference to the Police, which makes the same assessment, and only has legal support to act against a gathering if the number of participants exceeds 50.

Has it been unclear to you whether you should listen to the Police or the FHM in that they express themselves differently about which to include?

- The best thing would have been if there was clear message from all authorities as to what applies. But we are based on the regulation that the government has decided on and which the Police apply, so from that perspective I do not think it has been a problem to formulate our guidelines, says Anders Hübinette, chief lawyer at SvFF.

Jonas Beltrame-Linnaeus at the police's national media center does not think there is a conflict between the different assessments regarding whether players and leaders should be included in the number of participants.

- There is a law or regulation to follow and there is a narrower recommendation from the Public Health Authority. We believe you should follow both. If you follow their recommendation, you also follow the regulation, he says.

The entire interview with Anders Tegnell can be seen in SVT's Weekend Studio tomorrow, Saturday.