Now begins Gardell's million rain over Swedish tennis

There have been many rumors surrounding Christer Gardell's contribution to Swedish tennis.

Gardell promised SEK 100 million to the association if the entire board resigned and Ulf Rosberg was elected chairman - and if the new board could present a clear idea and what it wants to achieve in the future.

The board coup succeeded, but Gardell and Rosberg were reported to the National Sports Committee (Rin) by the Sports Ombudsman, who believed that Gardell's conditional promise of money had an undue influence on the vote at the association's annual general meeting.

In September, both Gardell and Rosberg were released from Rin - and now the tennis association announces that Gardell's contribution will become a reality. In October, a first payment of SEK 20 million will be made.

- I was never worried about the process in terms of reporting, but we took it seriously. This is like an end to all that, I have been waiting a long time to be able to look ahead and move on, says Rosberg.

The new direction, approved by Gardell, focuses on three areas.

- The first is that we want to work more broadly with players of younger ages. The second is the transition from junior to senior, where we have to be much better. And the third is club development. We had 1,000 clubs 20 years ago. Now we have 350. We must seriously support our associations outside the country, says Rosberg.

He continues:

- There are various initiatives in these areas. For example, when we talk about working more broadly, we will hire age managers so that we can have the opportunity to take care of more players. As for the transition to senior, we will load up with more tournaments at home so that our players can be at home in Sweden and still score ATP points.

Ulf Rosberg says that the tennis association today has revenues of approximately SEK 40 million and that Gardell's contribution is very welcome. But that money will not be enough all the way.

- We have lots of meetings with private individuals and other companies to further strengthen the financing. I dare not give a forecast, but I hope we can have additional sponsors ready by the end of the year, he says.