Norway Beats Valencia & Vice-Versa

Valencia CF is probably growing some fierce dislike for the country of Norway.

In the fall of ‘07, back when Valencia were supposed to be good, they were humiliated twice by super Cinderella Rosenborg, who also achieved infamy by morphing The Special One into The Jobless One, with double 2-0 defeats. This put them bottom of the group, eliminating an expected trip to the knockouts and sending them back to Spain to ponder a relegation fight.

Los Che got their revenge last year with a 4-0 thumping of old nemesis Rosenborg in the UEFA Cup group stages, which would lead you to believe Norway had learned their lesson. Not so.

UEFA, ever the devious bastards, sent them back to Norway for the second straight this year for the Europa League playoff round to face Stabaek. But even before Valencia’s feet touched Scandinavian tundra, the Norwegian government drew their ire by petitioning UEFA not to allow the logo Unibet, the betting company which sponsors Valencia, on the shirt within Norwegian borders.

“Despite intense negotiations over the last few days UEFA have taken this decision because of Norwegian restrictions … with regards to publicity (for online gambling),” the Primera Liga club said on their website (www.valenciacf.es).

(I gather there aren’t many Wolves fans who also follow the Norwegian Tippeligaen. Oh wait.)

This meant that Valencia were forced to play in something closely resembling a training kit. Or whitish-gray ringer t-shirts with numbers. Basically it looks like they went down to the local screen printing shop and bought some shirt/short sets.

This probably annoyed Valencia and Unibet, which probably annoyed Valencia more – given their need for cash and all that. Perfecting their art of Norwegian revenge, Valencia walked home with a 3-0 victory and a plethora of bodies in their wake.

One of these days Norway will learn not to mess with Valencia anymore.

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Category: Spain La Liga, World Football