Eliteserien bottle scandal: NFF received cola advice

In 2022, Coca-Cola changed the design of its soda bottles so that the cork would snag. This has created challenges for Norwegian football clubs. On Monday, eco-design had consequences for the first time.

– We think this is a very unfortunate incident, and something that is not related to football. When we moved to firm cork last year, we gave an explanation of how this would be resolved, but it is therefore up to the NFF and the clubs how they should proceed, says Inger-Marie Ingdahl, Coca-Cola’s director of communications.

The council decided that corks could be cut off when sold at stalls, and sent together for recycling.

Instead, the union chose to allow the sale of soda bottles with cork this season.

The change to the cola cap in August 2022 came as a result of a new EU directive that requires all caps to be attached to the bottle by 2024. It has created and continues to create significant reactions among Norwegian soda drinkers:

This has outlasted Norwegian football clubs in particular, who have been practicing corks at booth sales – to prevent the bottle from being thrown onto the pitch. This, for example, is common practice in the English Premier League.

background:

An alternative is to empty the soda into a cardboard cup. It was something Stabek had done before.

– This was something that took a lot of time and caused a lot of waste by having to pour it in advance, says Kjetil Ekeli, head of security at Stabæk.

The NFF’s Director of Communications, Yngve Haavik, says regulations around the sale of drinks have been amended in recent years and the latest amendment where the sale of bottles with corks is allowed came at the request of clubs.

“It is only natural that the regulations have to be re-evaluated in light of what happened at Nadderud,” Haavik wrote in an email to VG.

He doesn’t realize that the advice to cut corks was a topic in NFF.

VG asked all the teams in the Eliteserien about training in their stadium. The majority of Eliteserien arenas will sell corked soft drinks in 2023:

Vålerenga and Molde have different practices at different stalls, and VIF cites the new cork as the reason they now sell bottles with Corks on the long sides.

– This is new this year due to the new bottles with corks attached. On the cards pages, we only sell drinks in cups. This is precisely because of the increased risk of throwing, says event director Mithilan Ahilan at VIF.

In Tromsø and Alesund, they are considering changing their practices after the Nadröd incident.

“As of today, we’re selling it cork, but we might have to look into that now,” says Ingar Angell Nicolaysen at TIL.

– In light of the incident at Nadrud, it is only natural that it will be discussed before the next round, says AAFK’s Sven Jeske.

Rosenborg, Brann and Strømsgodset are gangs that have rid their bottles of new corks.

– Bottles of all kinds are forbidden in the stands, says Elizabeth Hubradd of Bran.

Stabæk’s director of security, Kjetil Ekeli, on the other hand, wouldn’t blame the cork on Monday.

– I would like to point out that, in our opinion, the new Coca-Cola cap is not an absolute reason to throw bottles. But it was a contributing factor to the new regulations, he says.

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