Both Fotbollskanalen and the magazine Offside have during the summer come up with reviews of the working environment at the Swedish Football Association. A harsh leadership under general secretary Andrea Möllerberg and new managers has reportedly led to fear, dissatisfaction and a culture of silence.
In an exclusive interview with TV4/Fotbollskanalen after Slovakia-Sweden yesterday, chairman Fredrik Reinfeldt wanted to nuance the picture.
– We are in the process of major change. It’s not in contrast to anything that has gone before, it’s just a response to international football developing and changing. Just as Andrea Möllerberg and Kim Källström (football manager) pointed out, it requires a huge concentration on football development and a partial change in our way of working. We are in the middle of that, says Reinfeldt in the interview.
The union’s work environment representative has received 15 cases in the past six months. One who is now sounding the alarm is Ramin Kiani, 56. He is a coach trainer and has been employed by the association for over ten years.
In an interview with Aftonbladet he tells about how he fainted in the bathroom at home in March. At the Academic Hospital in Uppsala, the EKG was checked and a drip was inserted. He had neither suffered a heart attack nor a stroke, but remained for observation and examinations. It was determined that the collapse in the bathroom was due to worry and stress.
At the hospital, Kiani calls a colleague and asks him to inform Kim Källström that he cannot attend the scheduled meeting about his worsening work situation. Today, Kiani directs criticism at Källström, who he believes has still not heard back.
– He could have gone to Bosön any day and asked how I was doing. But not a call, not an email, he tells Aftonbladet.
Kiani also tells the newspaper what General Secretary Möllerberg said at a staff meeting in March, in the association’s office.
– She said “either you accept the new, or you are against it and quit. Whoever stays without accepting will not have any friends left here”, he says and continues:
– I don’t go to the office anymore. I have basically not been there since February, because I don’t feel welcome, but exposed. I was there for half an hour in April to give a short report but started to feel bad and had to leave. Nothing special happened, it was just my feeling. I needed to escape.
Kiani talks about a mix of “actions and non-actions” permeated by unfair treatment, rooted in the fact that he performed something that was not liked by the managers.
He understands that rapid development means that you need to reorganize, but that’s not where the shoe pinches for him.
– The problem is the way it is done now, where there is a lack of analyzes and consequences descriptions, where proven experience is not valued in any way. You don’t think of those who quit. You don’t care. So all I want is that my cry for help leads to improvements for the employees and Swedish football. We must be allowed to have different opinions but then agree and have an inclusive leadership, because otherwise it will be felt in the future, he tells Aftonbladet.
Kiani has a contract with SvFF until the end of the year.
– And when I now talk about how I experience the situation, I guess I become even less desirable. It will probably be a reason for them to fire me, he tells the newspaper.
Secretary General Möllerberg does not want to go into details about Kiani, but writes, among other things, as follows in an email to Aftonbladet:
“We are aware that our renewal work, where the reorganization is an important part of achieving SvFF’s strategy, requires some new ways of working in our organization. (…) It is of course regrettable if it was perceived as unclear with too fast turnarounds , but when a big ship like Swedish football has to change direction, it takes a lot of effort and big changes.”
