The Swedish Sports Confederation's (RF) chairman gives a gloomy situation report.

During the current electricity crisis with sky-high prices – which are likely to be even higher this winter – many fear that sports halls may be forced to close.

- I experience a very strong concern among our 19,000 sports associations that own halls.

How will this go?

says Björn Eriksson and continues.

- The picture I get is that very, very many people seriously ask themselves the question: "Do we dare to keep the hall open?".

And things don't get any easier for those who have extra costs with, for example, ice.

Despite that, sports have been forgotten in the discussion about state aid, Björn Eriksson believes.

- What the sports federations and I note is that the policy so far talks about introducing high-cost protection, and preferably that it should apply to consumers and companies.

But where is the association life?

Want to get political promise

Björn Eriksson wants to get a promise from the political board at national level.

But considering that no one knows who will be in a government after the election on Sunday, it is not enough for one or a few parties to extend a helping hand, believes the RF chairman.

- It doesn't help that there is an election in progress, no one knows what a government will look like after the election - and one would like to see politics a little more united stating that these different variants of high-cost protection should also apply to associational life so that the discussion can be avoided about closing halls, he says.

Eriksson emphasizes that it can differ a lot depending on whether the association in question owns or rents the hall, how willing the municipality is to step in and support and what type of sport is played in the hall.

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The SHL team Växjö is one of the associations that owns its own arena.

In an interview with Smålandsposten this week, the CEO Johan Markusson said that the ice hockey club will manage financially in the coming season as the prevailing electricity agreement has largely fixed prices and that they are in the process of installing solar panels in the arena.

It is worse for another association in Växjö municipality, the bandy club Åby/Tjureda.

There, according to the newspaper, the municipality has promised to support the association financially to avoid bankruptcy.

The two Småland clubs give a fairly accurate picture of what it looks like in the country as a whole, believes Björn Eriksson.