SVEMO has dealt two hammer blows in just two days to the prospects on seeing live speedway in Sweden this season.
Yesterday the organization announced that all riders from foreign countries, particularly naming Denmark, were not allow to participate in tournaments in Sweden. At the same Swedes are forbidden to take part in events outside the country.
SVEMO is the governing body for all Swedish motorsports and in practice the only speedway league that would be affected by an international ban is the top division, the Bauhaus Elitserien. This has already been rescheduled to start on 2 June.
As reported earlier by Five One Racing, the Allsvenskan could probably still have worked with only Swedish riders.
However, today SVEMO made another announcement which puts pay to any idea that Allsvenskan could start as planned on 14 May. They dropped the bombshell that all motorsports in Sweden are on hold until further notice.
With growing concern in the country about the Coronavirus as deaths go up to 239, the changes come as no real surprise as Sweden slowly follow the other European nations towards a total lockdown of society.
It is the change in regulations that the Swedish health department brought in last Friday that has meant that SVEMO has taken drastic action, as public gatherings are reduced from 500 people to just 50 - in practice making all sporting events economically nonviable.
The organisation has even offered to pay back riders their entry fees back for events that they were due to participate in.
Training rides, however, are still allowed. But if you were thinking of attending to get your live speedway fix, think again. Only the rider and immediate support team are permitted to attend. Not even family members are allowed, as I found out when I spoke to the partner of Johan Jensen, 23 year old Swedish rider who raced with Vetlanda in Elitserien and Team Småland in Allsvenskan in 2019.
