Martin Buquist is highly critical of the Handball Association for the way he was allowed to leave his job and claims that it was Glenn Solberg who wanted him fired.
Here, national team manager Hannah Vogelstrom responds to the criticism.
Martin Boquist He chose to break a two-month silence after he was expelled from the position of assistant captain of the national team in the national handball team.
In a lengthy interview with Sportbladet, he criticized the union for how he was allowed to quit his job.
Here answers the national team manager Hanna Vogelstrom on criticism.
Buquist says he had to leave because Glenn Solberg didn’t want to keep him and that “everything else is bullshit”. Is that correct?
– No, that is not the case. Nothing has changed from our side now because Martin chose to say something. I still talk about it all the time. It’s not the details that led to the decision. We chose to go another route even though Martin did good things. We believe in a different way forward.
According to Boquist, did you never talk to him about the motivation you had in the press release, about “the development of handball for the Swedish national team”, or give it to him as an incentive?
– We’ve had conversations with Martin. Then there might be word choices that are seen in different ways, but the message was that we believe in a different way forward. I won’t highlight details from our meeting here. We’ve talked about all, sure.
In the first draft of the press release, you had, according to Beauquist, language about the difficulties of cooperation but demanded that it be deleted. If it wasn’t for collaboration difficulties – why did you write it in the first place?
– It’s not something I remember at all that we wrote or had an idea to comment on. I don’t know that at all.
“there is a secret”
Fogelström wants to correct Boquist’s view that an additional board meeting was planned the day before the reserved conversation with Boquist (which was then moved).
– We spoke to Martin on Friday and after that there was no board meeting, or if he was on the working committee, it was booked. Booked on Sunday only after we met Martin on Friday. Had we met Martin on Monday as planned, the process and this meeting would have been postponed to a later time, of course.
Did Beauquist have a chance to influence his chances of survival?
– We had conversations with him to hear how everyone saw the situation and his role. So we definitely talked about it.
Here’s what Boquist says about the meeting: “Wedberg says I who work with HR on a daily basis understand very well that if you have an eight-person management team where two don’t click, you have to do something about it.” Then you still seem to know that something “didn’t click” between Boquist and Solberg?
– I cannot recount what someone said in a meeting where we have confidentiality. And I haven’t even been quoted, so I can’t comment on that sentence in any way.
Vogelstrom does not want to go into details.
We support what we said and wanted to do along the way.
Did you know that Beauquist, according to him, was not allowed to participate in the evaluation of the European Championships or make decisions and plans as he was before and that he continued to gather in Poland where, for example, the daily schedule was set without him and where Solberg finally stopped talking to him ?
I cannot comment on what was or was not said in a conversation between Glenn and Martin.
No, but I mean if you go out after that.
We had confidence in both Glenn and Martin to be responsible for the planning and management of the national team’s gatherings.
But Boquist says he feels it was Solberg who wanted to get rid of him and that it became clear to him when Solberg essentially dumped him. But you say the decision has nothing to do with it but about the way forward. Then it might be interesting to know if you are aware of this?
I won’t go into detail about what someone said or didn’t say, or what their day-to-day work looks like.
Why do you think Boquist has such a specific opinion about Solberg’s unwillingness to keep it?
– I don’t know. You can ask him about it. I can’t say against him if this is his experience. This is his “story”. But that was not the realistic basis for our decision. The whole business development has not changed from what we mentioned earlier.
“I understand he’s disappointed.”
Boquist feels there was no will from you to resolve it between Solberg and him. But according to your opinion, there was nothing to solve between them because … everything was peace and joy, mother?
– As I said, I will not go into any details about what was said in any meetings. We stand by our decision. I know people think differently. Some are behind it and some think we shouldn’t have made that decision.
If Solberg had explicitly wanted to keep Boquist, would you have made the same decision afterward or did his opinion on the matter matter absolutely not?
We interviewed both Glenn and Martin through the process and the decision was made from a comprehensive perspective.
Can you understand that Boquist finds it difficult to make sense of the decision when you say he did nothing wrong, that there was no criticism of him in his six years as assistant captain of the league, that he had the confidence of the players, the rest of the management team and the trust of the union, as he sees it?
– I understand and respect the fact that he is disappointed that he did not stay and that there are question marks with him.
And he did not receive any explanation or reason from you?
– Yes, if so.
Do you think he got it?
– We said from our point of view and why we made the decision. We had an interview with him and met him.
And then there wasn’t anything to do with Solberg wanting someone else to be his assistant?
– As I said, I will not go into any details about what was said at the meeting. The decision is made on the whole and the path we believe in moving forward is to develop both people and business.
It is, of course, a desirable task to become an assistant captain of the league, and thus many desire it. But isn’t there a danger to the one who’s going to take charge that you could suddenly be forced to walk away no matter how popular you are, and even though you’ve received no criticism or done anything wrong?
There are always lessons you can take forward. We are not a perfect job. But we try to do everything as best we can, just as Martin tries to do everything to the best of his ability.
Could you have signaled to Boquist earlier that you were going to use this paragraph and that he was way too far?
– Possible.
Fogelström also wants to add:
I have applied to Martin to meet and make a closing call but have not received any comments.
There is no back ready
There was clearly no clear successor to Boquist for “the best way forward for the continued development of both the individual and the team as well as Sweden’s handball team”.
For over two months after Boquist was fired, they had yet to finish anyone new in the position.
And according to Sportbladet sources, Tobias Carlsson, the former head coach of the national team, was very important. But according to our latest information, she doesn’t look like Carlson after all.
We’re still in the process and don’t have anything ready, says Vogelstrom, without wanting to comment on any candidates.
