Rosenborg midfielder Ole Selnæs was sent off during a chaotic Video Assistant Referee episode at Lerkendal on Saturday, as the Trondheim club was held to a draw by Sandefjord in the Norwegian top flight.
The 32-year-old appeared baffled by the referee's decision and left the pitch visibly furious, according to Dagbladet, which described the sequence as confusing. The outlet's coverage carried the headline "Hva faen er det her?" — roughly, "What the hell is this?" — reflecting the sense of bewilderment around the incident.
The match ended level after Sandefjord's Vetle Walle Egeli cancelled out an early opener from Amin Chiackha, who struck his 14th goal of the season in the first half.
Why it matters
The dropped points are the first under Freyr Alexandersson since he took over the head coach role from Alfred Johansson. Before Saturday, Alexandersson had guided Rosenborg to three consecutive victories, a run that had steadied a club with heavy expectations attached to it.
Losing that momentum — and doing so in a game shaped by a disputed officiating call — hands the team a different kind of test. The result also gave Sandefjord a valuable point away at one of Norwegian football's biggest venues, and it arrived in a match that several outlets framed around the refereeing rather than the football.
A match defined by the whistle
The dismissal of Selnæs sat at the centre of the confusion. According to Dagbladet, the Rosenborg player could not make sense of the decision that removed him from the game, and his anger was plain as he walked off.
TV 2's coverage of the same passage summed up the mood with the line "For en farse" — "what a farce" — in a report about Selnæs being sent to the showers. The fvn.no headline noted that two red cards were shown as Rosenborg stumbled against Sandefjord, indicating the Selnæs dismissal was not the only sending-off in the fixture.
Sandefjords Blad characterised the afternoon as "vanvittig dommerdrama" — wild refereeing drama — as the visitors picked up a point against the division's in-form side. Adressa.no, meanwhile, captured the moment the equaliser landed with the exclamation "Der kommer fader meg 1–1" — "there it is, 1–1."
Taken together, the Norwegian press accounts describe an afternoon in which the officiating, and the VAR process in particular, drew as much attention as the play itself.
What the result leaves behind
For Rosenborg, the draw interrupts a positive stretch under Alexandersson but does not erase it. Three wins followed by a single point is a different trajectory than three wins followed by a defeat, and the club's response in the coming rounds will show whether Saturday was a blip or the start of a wobble.
For Sandefjord, the point carries weight precisely because of where it was earned. Holding a Rosenborg side that had been winning regularly, and doing so on the road, is the kind of result that can lift a squad's confidence.
Chiackha's early goal — his 14th of the campaign — had put the hosts in front and looked, briefly, like the foundation for a fourth straight win. Egeli's reply changed that calculation and ensured the points were shared.
The red-card count adds a further wrinkle. With two players dismissed across the match, according to fvn.no, both clubs may face questions about discipline and about how the game was managed once the temperature rose.
The wider conversation about VAR
Norwegian football has seen recurring debate about how video review is applied, and Saturday's events at Lerkendal will feed directly into it. When a senior player reacts with open disbelief and multiple outlets lead with the officiating rather than the goals, the pressure on the league's refereeing apparatus tends to grow.
Dagbladet's framing — a blunt question rather than a description — signals how little the decision communicated to observers in the moment. TV 2's "farce" language points in the same direction. For supporters, the frustration is compounded when the explanation for a call is not immediately clear.
None of that changes the scoreline. The record will show a draw, a goal for each side and a dismissal for Selnæs. But the manner of it will keep the discussion alive well beyond the weekend.
What happens next will be watched closely: how Rosenborg regroup after their first setback under Alexandersson, whether Selnæs faces further consequences, and whether the league addresses the VAR sequence that left a 32-year-old veteran walking off in disbelief.
