The world's largest football tournament, Gothia Cup, was canceled last summer due to the corona pandemic.
This is likely to be the case this summer as well, said state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell when he visited "Sportspegeln special: A year with corona" today.
- We all realize that competitions and matching are an important part of sports, and it loses some of its edge when it no longer exists.
We probably think you can start thinking about it by the summer, as long as you talk about smaller, local events.
Gothia Cup and that kind of big things, I do not think we dare to start with, but these smaller locals - there I think there is plenty of hope that it can start in the summer, said Tegnell.
Have budgeted for the cup
SVT Sport has unsuccessfully sought representatives for the Gothia Cup.
Last week, however, Dan Martinsson, treasurer of organizing BK Häcken, told Göteborgs-Posten that the club budgeted for a Gothia Cup that "is not a normal Gothia Cup":
- We have budgeted for 1,200 teams, which is currently quite offensive.
We know that many long-distance teams will not be able to fly into Sweden during the summer either.
It is a limited budget of course.
Then we estimate to be able to run a Gothia Cup even if there are not 1,200 teams.
We will do everything in our power to complete the tournament, he said, and continued:
- Then it is actually not in our hands, it depends on what the spread of the infection looks like.
If we can not complete the tournament, we have a readiness for it.