Midnight sun match between TIL and KFUM marred by VAR protests and crowd disruptions

During the special midnight sun match between TIL and KFUM, the VAR protests garnered a lot of attention. Tennis balls were thrown onto the field and a radio car with a smoke box was tossed near the corner flag. KFUM player Momodou Lion Njie had a bottle thrown at him. The referee warned that the match would be halted if anything else was thrown onto the field.

The Norwegian Football Federation has stated that they will request an explanation from TIL. Once they have received the statement, the case will likely be presented to the prosecution committee, who will make a decision on whether to pursue the case as a sanction case.

In the game between Brann and Haugesund, a radio car was also sent onto the field.

Øyvind Alapnes, CEO of TIL, hopes that in dialogue with the fans, they can come up with solutions to prevent such incidents from happening again. He said, “We hope that this will not happen in the future and that the fans find other ways to demonstrate without disturbing what is happening on the field.”

However, Alapnes praised some fans for taking immediate action. They had a meeting with the club on Sunday night. The meeting specifically addressed the bottle incident and the fact that the demonstration didn’t go as planned.

Sivert Sørgård, a board member of Forza, one of TIL’s supporter groups, said that more than planned was thrown onto the field. “We had planned to throw tennis balls and some bouncy balls on the field to protest against VAR. The action escalated a bit and people started throwing other items that were not planned,” Sørgård said.

After the bottle was thrown at Njie, Sørgård and Forza leader Morten Killingberg left their usual place in the cheerleading tower, something they had never done before. The day after the match, the board of the supporter club issued a clear message and apology.