Football is the most popular sport in

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 ...

in terms of active membership (by television viewership football comes third, behind winter sports

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not time ...

and cross-country skiing).

The Football Association of Norway The Norwegian Football Federation ( nb, Norges Fotballforbund, nn, Noregs Fotballforbund; NFF) is the governing body of football in Norway. It was formed in 1902 and organises the men's and women's national teams, as well as the league systems ...

was founded in 1902 and the first international match was played in 1908. There are 1,822 registered football clubs and about 25,000 teams. There are 393,801 (104,597 of them are girls/women) registered football players, which means that 8.5% of the population play organized football.

History

The first football team in Norway was probably started by a buekorps in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

, ''Nygaards Bataljon'', in 1883.Sletten, 1972, p.58. In 1885 the first Norwegian club however, Idrætsforeningen Odd, was founded in

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the ...

. The footballing interest was very low, and was put on ice after a few months. However, the club

Odd Grenland Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

started up with football again in 1894, and are now Norway's oldest football club. The Football Association of Norway (the NFF), was founded in 1902, and quickly established a cup competition. After the NFF joined FIFA in 1908,

had its first ever international match, away against Sweden in Gothenburg; despite Norway taking the lead after a mere 45 seconds, Sweden went on to win 11-3. In 1911 Norway hosted its first international in Oslo, again against Sweden; this time Norway lost 4-0. In 1912 the Norway national team attended the Olympic Games, and were knocked out after losing to

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

7-0 and 1-0 respectively. The NFF hosted the FIFA congress in Oslo in 1914, where a national league was established with six teams competed for the title Drafn, Frigg, Kvik/Halden,

Larvik Turn Larvik Turn & Idrettsforening is a Norwegian sports club that does football, handball, athletics, wrestling, and gymnastics. The club was founded as early as 1865, and has been playing football since 1906. The football team was at its best ...

, Mercantile and

Odd Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

. Drafn from Drammen went on to be the first league winners. At the 1936 Summer Olympics, the Norway national men's team won their only medal (bronze). In the relatively successful tournament Norway beat

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

and hosts

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

4-0 and 2-0 respectively, losing to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in the semi-final, then beating

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

3-2 in the third-place play-off to take the bronze medal. The team is known in Norway as "Bronselaget" meaning the Bronze team. The Norwegian football team won 2-1 to Brazil in 1998. Norway is also the only national team in history to have an undefeated record vs Brazil, Playing 4 matches and winning 2 and drawing the other 2.

League system

The current national league system administered by the Norges Fotballforbund is organised as, from 2017 season, 1-1-2-6, where

Eliteserien 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 promotio ...

is the highest Norwegian level and OBOS-ligaen the second highest, followed by two third level ( PostNord-ligaen) and six fourth level ( Norsk Tipping-ligaen).

Cup system

Seasons

The

national cup The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League. For most of the competition's history, the draw has ...

(Norwegian Championship) has been contested since 1902 and is the oldest football tournament in the country. Norwegian football began to have regular seasons from 1937, when Norgesserien started with the inaugural 1937–38 season. Before that, tournaments and leagues were played irregularly. In 1963, Norwegian football changed from autumn-spring to spring-autumn seasons. The league football was suspended during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

European competitions

UEFA Champions League

The following teams have qualified for elimination rounds in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. * Rosenborg BK ( 1996-97 - Quarter-finals) *

Molde FK Molde Fotballklubb () is a professional football club based in Molde, Norway, that competes in Eliteserien, the top flight of Norwegian football. Founded on 19 June 1911, the club was originally known as International and changed its name t ...

( 1999-00 - Group stage) Rosenborg played in the Champions League on 10 further occasions.

History

League system

Cup system

Seasons

European competitions

UEFA Champions League

National team

Men

Women

See also

Bibliography

References