STORMY EXIT FOR BJERRE BROS

Monday 6th August 2012, 23:01

Danish club Grindsted have hit back at claims they released Bjerre brothers Kenneth and Lasse for financial reasons.

The duo released a statement on their official website, claiming that they have parted company with the team “for economic reasons.”

They said: “We have been happy to run for Grindsted Speedway Club and we are saddened by this outcome. This has meant that we are free and that we have run our last match for the club. We wish the club the best.”

Kenneth Bjerre hit out at Danish Super League clubs for opting to use foreign riders in their side instead of home-grown talent.

"I think it's a shame that clubs choose foreign riders rather than Danish."

- Kenneth Bjerre

He added: “I think it's a shame that clubs choose foreign riders rather than Danish. The Danish Grand Prix riders chose some years ago to back the Danish league by making themselves available on reasonable terms. Now it seems to crumble in many clubs.”

Grindsted were far from happy with Team Bjerre’s statement. They were quick to refute claims of any financial problems at the club. They say the pair were dropped due to poor form and friction between the Bjerre camp and GSK officials.

A statement read: “A deal was made with Team Bjerre that we would not announce something to the press or lay off the two brothers officially due to the bad form the two brothers have landed in.

“Then Team Bjerre most surprisingly sent out a press release that we have released them because of financial problems at the club. This is an outright lie. We freed the Bjerre brothers because of poor work together with the management behind the two brothers.

“When we put a team into a Danish league match, we always track the strongest possible team. There was only space three times for Lasse Bjerre, who, like Kenneth, has had a drop in form.

“We wanted to run with Kenneth on the team because we still believed that he was our strongest card. But Team Bjerre repeatedly called the club's management and team leaders anything but nice things every time we chose to leave Lasse out the team we selected.

“It is very regretful that Team Bjerre chose to exhibit GSK as a club with a poor economy. We had not seen that coming and are really sad about this development.

“Kenneth says he sees it as an unfortunate development that clubs choose to run with foreign rather than Danish riders on the team. At GSK we have tried everything in our power to get as many Danes on the team as possible. We have actually amputated our team by laying off Kenneth.

“But we are all volunteers and only riders earn anything in this sport. Since all of us at the club try to keep a good tone with each other and make it a pleasure to use almost all of our spare time on this sport, we just could not condone the tone from Team Bjerre.”

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