one of the many tiny little ´fotballbaner´that you find eveywhere. this one is right outside of my apartment
Vålerenga vs. Lyn at Ullevål Stadion
As in the rest of the world (U.S. lags behind), fotball (soccer) is very popular in Norway. The Norwegian Premier League, the professional soccer league (professional since 1992) in Norway is called Tippeligaen. Norsk tipping, the Norwegian state lottery is the primary sponsor of the league, hence it’s name. To give you a brief history, the league was called Norgesserien (The Norwegian League) from 1937 to 1948, Hovedserien (The Main League) from 1948 to 1962, 1. divisjon (First Division) from 1963 to 1990, and finally Tippeligaen.
The following 16 lag are (teams) participating in the 2010 sesong (season):
Ålesund, Brann, Haugesund, Hønefoss, Kongsvinger, Lillestrøm, Molde, Odd Grenland, Rosenborg, Sandefjord, Stabæk, Start, Strømsgodset, Tromsø, Viking, og Vålerenga.
Each lag plays each other twice during the sesong (mars til november), one home and one away. The vinnere (winners) of the previous year´s sesong enter the UEFA, the UEFA, European Champions League, while the the lag in 2nd and 3rd place enter the Europa League. Based on performances in the last 5 years, Tippeligaen ranks 19th in the UEFA.
Since the league´s beginning in 1938, these teams have performed best: Rosenborg of Trondheim (with 13 consecutive tittler from 1992-2004) has won the championship 21 times, Fredrikstad 9 times, Viking of Stavanger 8 times, Lillestrøm and Vålerenga of Oslo both 5 times. Northern Norwegian teams were not allowed to enter the league until 1972, so who knows what the numbers would look like if they had been participants. During the years leading up to 1992, there was a separate Northern Norwegian Cup. Rosengborg and Tromsø are tied with 30 poeng (points) so far this sesong.
Unfortunately, Norway doesn´t really hold a candle to the teams that are regular VM (World Cup) participants, so you won´t hear any cheering for nordmenn during this VM Championship in South (which got underway today, by the way, in case you live under a rock), but if you live in Norway, you will certainly hear a lot of cheering. I was living in Oslo during the last VM in 2006 and it was hard to avoid watching the game if you had more than 3 friends and/or wanted to go to a bar during a game. It was so much fun to be in Europe during the games. Check out the Aftenposten and you will see countless artikkler about this years VM in South Africa.
Those women reading this are probably wondering if I´m going to even mention women´s fotball in Norway. While it is nowhere near as popular as men´s fotball, there are 12 lag, which is just a few shy of the number of men´s lag. The league began on a county basis in 1977.
Kom igjen Norge! Go Norway!
John Arne Riise
Norwegian fans at Ullevål Stadion-Norge vs. Paraguay
