Sport Round-Up: Danish FA eyeing cross-city move

The Danish Football Association (DBU) is planning to shift its headquarters from Brøndby Stadium in Copenhagen’s western suburbs to the national stadium, Parken.

The association, which has been headquartered in Brøndby for the past 16 years, wants to establish a “new, modern head office” closer to the city centre where it will be closer to the offices of other sports organisations.

As well as being the home stadium of the national football team, Parken is also home to Brøndby’s arch-rivals FC Copenhagen.

Parken capacity to increase
The planned move comes as plans were unveiled to expand Parken’s capacity from 38,000 to 50,000.

According to the DBU, the expansion would allow Denmark to bid to host more major finals.

Parken is already one of the host stadiums for the 2020 European Championship, which is due to be held next year at different venues across the continent.


Wozniacki’s new media role
Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki will be part of ESPN’s commentary team during the US Open, which takes place in New York next month. The former world number one, who retired from competition earlier this year, was a US Open finalist in 2009 and 2014 but has never won the competition. This year’s tournament will take place behind closed doors.

Bank ends football shirt sponsorship
The logo of Arbejdernes Landsbank will not be visible on the shirts of the national football team following the introduction of a new gambling law. The legislation prohibits logos of consumer loan providers from appearing on shirts alongside those of gambling companies. As the national team is also sponsored by state-sponsored gaming company Oddset, the bank’s name cannot now be legally displayed. The Danish FA has agreed to pay compensation to the bank for its lack of exposure in the forthcoming games against Belgium and England.

Hareide honoured with Danish knighthood
Former national football coach Åge Hareide has been given a knighthood. The  66-year-old Norwegian, who managed the national team between 2016 and 2020, was handed the ceremonial award at a reception in Oslo on Thursday. In his four years as coach, Denmark suffered just three defeats. He managed to steer the national team to the final 16 of the World Cup in  2018, before subsequently guiding his team to qualification for the postponed 2020 European Championship. Hareide is currently the head coach of  Trondheim club Rosenborg.

Copenhagen RLFC admitted into new European competition
The Copenhagen Rugby League Football Club will compete in a new European club competition, the Euro XIII, which the organisers believe will help fulfil the “huge international potential” of the sport. A knockout competition will take place in 2021 before a full league is introduced a year later. Next year’s  competition will feature 16 teams from across the continent. Copenhagen RLFC was the first rugby league club to be formed in Denmark

Vejle sign Iranian international
Danish Superliga club Vejle have agreed terms with Iranian international Saeid Ezatolahi. The midfielder, who will make the switch from Russian’s Rostov, has represented the Iranian national team on 28 occasions including two World Cup final appearances. Ezatolahi has penned a three-year deal with the Jutland club, which kick off the new season on September 14 against AGF Aarhus.

Zohore no longer youngest CL player
Kenneth Zohore is no longer the youngest player to appear in the knockout stages of the Champions League. The Danish striker’s record was broken on Wednesday when Lyon’s Rayan Cherki took to the field for the final 20 minutes of his team’s  0-3 defeat to Bayern Munich. Zohore set the previous record in 2011 when he appeared for FC Copenhagen  against Chelsea aged 17 years and 22 days. Cherki was aged 17 years and two days when he was brought on as a substitute.