Jannik Vestergaard is very much involved in the Denmark squad crisis at the moment, speaking out with several others from the national team.
Denmark’s DBU, the country’s FA, is currently in a stand-off with players over a new commercial agreement. It’s related to what the players get out of it but also what sponsorships they can set up personally.
The situation has got so bad that currently the entire Danish squad isn’t available and the country have no players to face Wales and Slovakia.
Some it relates back to an issue Daniel Agger had some years ago. The DBU set up a sponsorship with Danske Bank, and then Agger started a personal sponsorship with competitor Pensam.
Whilst the former Liverpool player couldn’t be prevented from taking the deal up, Danske Bank were unhappy and it’s been claimed the DBU offered to tell Agger to drop his own sponsor or forget the national team.
Vestergaard was quoted yesterday as saying: “It’s shocking to read that DBU was ready to sacrifice Daniel Agger. Ready to throw the Danish leader of the national team because the DBU failed to comply with their obligations to a sponsor, Danske Bank. It is clear that we are thinking: Will they do it again?
“Will the DBU sacrifice the national team’s star players like Christian Eriksen and Simon Kjaer because the DBU has promised their sponsors something that they apparently cannot hold.”
It doesn’t appear those players were picked by accident, with the DBU now launching an action against Nordic Bet, who Kjaer has a personal sponsorship with. The issue is that Kjaer appeared in a pre World Cup advert wearing a red shirt, so the DBU believe their rights were used without permission.
The Southampton player has again spoken out on the matter, quoted by Ekstra Bladet: “It seems that DBU now goes directly for our leaders here in the midst of the negotiations.
“It’s really worrying if the DBU does the same as they did with Daniel Agger when they offered a sponsor to fire the boss. Are they ready to sacrifice the national team’s leaders because DBU cannot live up to what they promised their sponsors.”
