Due to the prevailing corona pandemic, there is no decision yet on when audiences are welcome in the arenas again. Hence, the Blacksmiths have chosen to drop out of this year's edition of Elitserien.

Although you choose not to get started, you avoid punishment.

- In normal cases, you can't do this. You cannot jump off and you cannot set up an SM competition. But the situation we have right now is special. There are many organizers and drivers who cannot live up to what one could normally live up to, says Westling at the Swedish Motorcyclists and Snowmobile Association, Svemo.

The three-time reigning champion, the Blacksmiths, declared early on that you will not start without a crowd. This means that the elite series in the speedway this year will consist of eight clubs instead of nine.

- It's boring for the other clubs. It's plague or cholera, but what to do? To think in such a situation that the covenant would go into every single arrangement and punish people as if it were a normal situation, there is not. It's not possible, you can't do that.

CLIP: The blacksmiths don't line up without an audience

Javascript is turned off

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Learn more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser. We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.

Learn more about browser support