David Preece: Ostersunds' demotion, politics and Sunderland AFC leave me swimming against the tide

You don’t need glasses to see the world indeed looks to be hurtling head first towards Satan’s home in a handcart.

Secluded some 1600 miles away in the middle of Jamtland, it was enough distance to not feel too embroiled in the mess that UK politics has become but now I’m back in the thick of the pre-election build-up it feels like I’m swimming against the tide, no matter which direction I turn.

With every interview of a politician, the eye-rolls and sighs of frustration grow ever more exaggerated. You watch them all spin their lies and half-truths and wonder when they all became so brazen with it.

There’s not even any attempt to hide their deceit. Politicians have always lied and twisted reality but at least they had the decency to do it with a straight face. The maxim now seems to be “If I repeat the lie enough times, it will become the truth”.

Politics aside, some people’s world revolves around football, as mine has always done and continues to do so, and it’s not difficult to despair.

As I write this, my club are looking at being relegated from the Allsvenskan having not been granted the elite licence to operate in the top division. It’s a process that every Allsvenskan club has to go through to show, amongst other criteria, they are healthy enough, financially, to make it through to the end of the upcoming season.

It is, of course, a sensible procedure to follow and given the same thorough scrutiny here in the EFL, perhaps Bury Football Club would still be alive as an entity in League 1 today.

So given the confidence with which our board left their hearing to put forward their case after the players had fulfilled their end of the bargain by securing what would be the fifth season at the top of Swedish football since the club’s inception in 1996, it came as somewhat of a shock to everyone.

Naturally, the club has appealed and is still hopeful of changing the decision of the federation as they complied with eight of the nine criteria required, the one outstanding one is their confidence in the club being able to be a financially viable business throughout 2020 not being met, but as it stands the club will be playing in Superetten next season, a fact that seems to have drawn a fair bit of glee around Sweden.

As loath as I am to do this, it does draw parallels with the Rangers situation of some years ago and the irony is certainly not lost on my pontificating over their plight at the time, but I’ll hold my hands up and take this one on the chin.

There actually is no justification in taking satisfaction from people potentially losing their jobs, perhaps even their club, particularly when the “justice” being meted out takes in the collateral damage of the innocent.

So unlike Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson, sorry isn’t that hard for me to say.

Every day just seems to come with a demoralising event. So much so that whenever I locked the office door as I left for the day, I’m sure I could hear the drum intro to the Eastenders theme tune as the lock clicked shut.

For now though, it’s another Wednesday and another day wondering whether you’ll get paid your full wages, 60%, or perhaps nothing at all. I wish it was a more fun game to play.

Back here, the situation isn’t quite so stark off the pitch at the Stadium of Light as it is at The Jamtkraft Arena but on it, it’s more than equally desperate.

I know Swedish football may not hold the same importance for most of you as it does for me but I couldn’t let the opportunity to chronicle the soap opera I’m living in go by but with a free weekend coming up for Sunderland and the chance for me to dissect Tuesday night’s game here, I’ll get back to talking about the debacle happening closer to home.

Because it’s one that certainly needs addressing.