‘We are Halland. He is Haaland’: Tiny Swedish coastal province complains its online efforts to improve tourism are being hampered by fans mis-spelling the Man City forward’s name and confusing potential visitors
- A Swedish province has urged fans not to confuse its name with Erling Haaland
- Halland is a region in Sweden with a population of more than 300,000 people
- The province’s tourism profile has taken a hit due to fans misspelling Haaland
- Visit Halland director Jimmy Sandberg has urged supporters to be more careful
A Swedish province has kindly asked fans to stop getting its name confused with Manchester City talisman Erling Haaland.
Halland, a province in Sweden with a population of more than 300,000, has seen its online presence take a major hit since the Norwegian’s summer move to the Etihad, due to supporters misspelling Haaland on social media.
The hashtag #Halland is now sending users to content about the Manchester City forward rather than the province, which has majorly impacted its tourism profile.
Several supporters have been misspelling the name of Manchester City hitman Erling Haaland
The online profile of a Swedish province called Halland has suffered due to Haaland’s rapid rise
Haaland has netted 22 goals in 16 matches across all competitions since arriving in Manchester for £51million this summer, prompting millions of fans to search for the superstar.
Urging social media users to spellcheck their tweets, Visit Halland director Jimmy Sandberg scribed a letter to supporters.
He wrote: ‘We are Halland. He is Haaland. The popularity of the football phenomenon is completely suffocating our online presence.
‘To our despair, we now see that all of our efforts promoting Halland are rapidly being wiped away.
The Norwegian has netted 22 goals in 16 matches across all competitions for Manchester City
‘If nothing is done, we fear our dear region is at risk of becoming a forgotten Atlantis, a place only known in stories and ancient scriptures.’
Sandberg explained further in an interview with BBC News and said: ‘When you write in Halland, looking for the beautiful region where we live in Sweden, you get Haaland all over the place.
‘Since Haaland arrived at Manchester City and scored all those goals, we have been overwhelmed by his presence in our hashtags and in search engines.’
He added: ‘We’d love him to come here. A lot of Norwegians do come here every year, so he would feel right at home. See you next summer in Halland, Haaland?’
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