The 2001 1. divisjon, Norway's second-tier football league, began on 21 April 2001 and ended on 28 October 2001. The league was contested by 16 teams, and the top two teams won promotion to

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

, while the third place team played a promotion-playoff against the 12th-placed team in Tippeligaen to win promotion. The bottom four teams were relegated to the

2. divisjon The Norwegian Second Division, also called 2. divisjon and often referred to as PostNord-ligaen for sponsorship reasons, is the third-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. There are 28 teams divided into two groups, and at the ...

Team changes from 2000

2000 1. divisjon champions

FK Lyn Lyn 1896 Fotballklubb () is a Norwegian football club and a department of the sports club Ski- og Fotballklubben Lyn based in Oslo, whose members also participate in Nordic skiing and orienteering. Until 2010, SFK Lyn had two football departm ...

and runners-up Strømsgodset were promoted to the

2001 Tippeligaen The 2001 Tippeligaen was the 57th completed season of top division football in Norway. Each team played 26 games with three points given for wins and one point for a draw. Number thirteen and fourteen were relegated, number twelve has to play ...

. They were replaced by Start and Haugesund, who finished 13th and 14th respectively in the 2000 Tippeligaen season. Due to the enlargement from 14 to 16 teams in 2001, only two teams, Strindheim and Eik-Tønsberg, were relegated to the 2001 2. divisjon following the 2000 season. They were replaced by 2000 2. divisjon

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

winners Mandalskameratene, Ørn-Horten, Hødd and Aalesund. Mandalskameratene made their first appearance at the second tier since 1952–53. One further spots were available through relegation/promotion play-offs.

Sogndal Sogndal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the northern shore of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Hermansverk is the administrative center of Sogndal municipality. Other villages ...

successfully promoted to Tippeligaen by beating Tippeligaen side Vålerenga on away goals (3–3 on aggregate) in the Tippeligaen play-off, sending the team from

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

to the second tier of Norwegian football.

Season summary

Vålerenga and Start won promotion to Tippeligaen, after only one season in the First Division, while

Ham-Kam Hamarkameratene (literally ''the Hamar Comrades''), often abbreviated to HamKam or Ham-Kam, is a Norwegian football club based in the town of Hamar. The club was founded in 1918, originally under the name Freidig. HamKam were most recently pr ...

lost the promotion-playoff against

Bryne Bryne () is a town in Time municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality of Time and it is also one of the 50 largest towns/cities in Norway. Bryne's location in the region of Stavanger/Sand ...

. Mandalskameratene,

Kongsvinger Kongsvinger () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Glåmdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kongsvinger. Other settlements in the municipality include Aus ...

Kjelsås Kjelsås, sometimes called Kjelsaas, is one of the northern neighbourhoods of Oslo situated in Nordre Aker, the northern borough of Oslo, Norway. History Together with Grefsen, Kjelsås was part of the borough ''Grefsen-Kjelsås'' until Ja ...

and

Byåsen Byåsen is a large neighborhood area in the city of Trondheim in Trøndelag county, Norway. It constitutes a large part of the city in the borough of Midtbyen. It encompasses a number of areas southwest of the main city centre. This includes al ...

were relegated to the 2. divisjon. In the decisive match of the season, Ørn-Horten scored twice in the stoppage time in the match against Vålerenga. Ørn-Horten's goalkeeper Helge Fjeld scored the winning goal five minutes into stoppage time, and kept Ørn-Horten clear of relegation, at the expense of Mandalskameratene.

Bala Garba Bala Ahmed Garba (born 9 August 1974 in Lagos) is a Nigerian footballer and coach. He played for FK Haugesund from 1997 to 2002, scoring 61 goals, which is a club record. In the 2005 season he played for Start, winning silver medal in the Tippeli ...

and Marino Rahmberg became top goalscorers with 18 goals each.

League table

Results

Statistics

Top goalscorers

References

{{2001 in Norwegian football Norwegian First Division seasons 2

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...