Big bang in Norway: Handball club Vipers Kristiansand can no longer continue to play and is withdrawing from the first league with immediate effect. All of the series champions’ players were released on Monday morning.
Despite numerous rescue attempts, the worst case scenario has occurred for the Vipers Kristiansand: As the league leader of the first Norwegian women’s handball league officially announced on Monday, play will be stopped with immediate effect.
“It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce that the Vipers board has decided to stop playing and dissolve the club. The board made this decision after a thorough examination of the financial situation and the hardly any possibility of continuing operations,” it says the statement from the club, which recently won the championship seven times in a row.
All players were released
According to the local newspaper “KRS”, the club’s players were informed on Monday shortly before the official announcement of the dissolution. Club CEO Magnus Aglen told the newspaper “Fædrelandsvennen” that all contracts were terminated as a result and that the players are now unemployed or without a club. “They’re desperate,” Aglen said.
The threat of bankruptcy was already hanging over the Norwegian series champions just a few months ago. In October the club was on the verge of dissolution before a turnaround occurred.
“The miracle has happened, we are saved,” said CEO Peter Gitmark in a club statement at the time. “There is a basis for the further operation of the sports club,” he announced a continuation of the game operations.
Less than 100 days later, it is clear that the miracle was short-lived.