The big story in Danish football right now revolves around Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. Following a questionable performance against Portugal, a column in major Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet suggested it should be the end of the Celtic player’s time as a nailed on starter for his country.
Criticising his efforts to clear the ball away, it was also stated Schmeichel punched the ball ‘like a polio-stricken child’, to explain it was simply too weak. That annoyed some within Danish football, including the player’s association who demanded an apology.
The journalist involved then completely refused to apologise to the Celtic player, although did say he was sorry if the polio reference upset anyone. Polio has been eradicated in Denmark so there’s probably not a huge audience for that apology.
Multiple press conferences which aren’t even related to the national team or the Celtic player are now seeing questions asked about the perceived attack.
FC Copenhagen midfielder Rasmus Falk was asked to give his opinion, and is quoted by Tipsbladet as saying: “I think it’s too degrading. I’d be sick of it if that became the norm for how we talk about each other. I generally feel like everything in life is about behaving properly.
“I give out a lot of criticism, and I get a lot of criticism, and we gladly accept that. We are not thin-skinned, because that is not how you can be in this industry, but there are limits to what you have to put up with and what is okay.
“You can criticise someone, and you can say that their performance was way too bad without starting to use all sorts of metaphors. It’s just unnecessary. I feel a bit… why?”
It’s not unusual in Scandinavia for national team camps to expect their media to be on-side, Sweden have had some major problems with that down the years when even mild criticism saw players flouncing off and refusing to speak.
As far as Kasper Schmeichel is concerned, it appears to be a lot of upset on behalf of the Celtic player rather than him directly driving it.
