Norwegian Football

[Kjello]

Wanted to start my own thread again, rather than to spam the small leagues thread.

The Norwegian season was scheduled to start on April 4th. But was obviously postponed when Norway went into lockdown in March.
As of now, events that attracts more than 500 people are banned until September 1st. Bu today, at 18:00, we will get a decision on whether events with up to 200 people can start agian. And most likely, one can start playing football behind closed doors from mid June. With normal training over the weekend. Though with extra messures to avoid spread of the virus. Pretty much putting all players into a quarantine outside of training and matches. Because of this, it's likely that only the top division for men will start. As most teams on the second level are part time. And pretty much all players on the top level for women are part time.

Norway will reopen the transfer window for two weeks before the league officially starts. Though I doubt there will be that many transfers given the economic challanges most clubs experience at the moment.

The NFF will launch a complete new fixture list once they know which dates they might use. This depends a lot on what happens with European matches of course. However, if neccesary, they've said that they will play into 2021. It's also a possibility that they scrap the Cup this year. Though they've stated a wish to play at least the last 5 rounds. Meaning only the teams from the top two leagues will enter it.

Molde are of course favourites again. After a pretty superior league title last season. Their squad is pretty much unchanged from last year as well. Though Rosenborg looked to be in a good form during pre season before the lockdown. And will be considered the prime challenger to Molde. The rest of the table is a wild guess as always. Bodø/Glimt can end up fighting relegation. Start and Sandefjord might suddenly take a medal. Somehow the beaty of the Norwegian league.

[seso]

I hope everything will go well! Of course we support Brann and Vålerenga!

[Kjello]

Brann and Vålerenga!?
Do you like hurting yourself?

Btw, it's just been announced that the league might start from June 16th. Unknown if they will start with matches right away in the midweek, or if they wait till the weekend.
Normal training for the top level clubs might start right away.

[seso]

Brann and Vålerenga!?
Do you like hurting yourself?

Brann because they are from beautiful Bergen! Vålerenga because they are seso's friend favourite Norwegia club!

[matt]

Brann and Vålerenga!?
Do you like hurting yourself?

I support Tromso, so if seso likes hurting himself, i should be on suicide watch directly

[seso]

Tromsø IL is nice, but attending matches is a challenge 350 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle! Tromsø is the third-largest urban area north of the Arctic Circle in the world (following Murmansk and Norilsk)!
The two times they were relegated during the last 20 years (2001 and 2013), they were promoted the season after (2002 and 2014). Let's hope they can do it again!

Lillestrøm SK will also compete in 2020 1. divisjon. They had played regularly in european cups between 1978-2009! Their biggest success was eliminating Shakhtar Donetsk in 1994-95 EL and Dinamo Minsk in 1997–98 EL!

[Greyn]

Only Rosenborg in Norway

Good memories from the 90's when they qualified for the CLGS year after year. First Scandinavian club that I recognized. And they had funny goalkeeper in that period of time, who often made hilarious bloopers, but I don't remember his name.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgADCCVANmM

EDIT: Just found his name - Jørn Jamtfall.

[Kjello]

Yes, he could make the most amazing bloopers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bie704eXoU
His knickname in Norway is Gjør Jamtfeil.
Gjør means "do" and is pronounced almost exactly as Jørn. Only missing the n.
Jamt means evenly or regularly in Norwegian.
While feil is Norwegian for wrong, error, mistake.

Hence Gjør Jamtfeil = "Do evenly mistakes"
Somehow he managed to keep his position as Rosenborg's main goalkeeper through Rosenborg's golden period.

News about the fixture list announced today.

The first six rounds will be played as "group stage".
Where they split the league into four groups. And those teams will play home and away to eachother the first six rounds. This to reduce unnecessary travels in the first phase of the season.

According to the media, the groups will be as followed.
Group A: Rosenborg, Molde, Kristiansund, Aalesund
Group B: Brann, Haugesund, Viking, Bodø/Glimt
Group C: Start, Odd, Sandefjord, Strømsgodset
Group D: Mjøndalen, Stabæk, Vålerenga, Sarpsborg 08

I find it a bit wierd that Bodø/Glimt is placed in a group with the three teams from Western Norway. A such group will involve changing flights in Oslo for all teams to and from Bodø. The most logical thing would have been to place them in a group with the teams from Eastern Norway. As the flight connections there are so much better. And then move Start over to the western group. Start can take the bus to Stavanger and Haugesund. And there's a daily direct flight between Kristiansand and Bergen. But these groups aren't confirmed yet. And the CEO in Bodø/Glimt said that they haven't gotten this information yet.
The fixture list for the first six rounds will be announced on May 16th. I guess a part of the reason for doing it this way, is also the fact that they don't know what UEFA and FIFA will do with their competitions over the summer and autumn. And UEFA is expected to make some decisions in late May.

Personally I feel a bit sadden that both matches between Rosenborg and Molde will be played behind closed doors. Though most people say we shouldn't have our hopes up when it comes to allowing crowds from September 1st. At least we should have planned as if it's allowed. Also feel that in an already abnormal season, we shouldn't make it even more. It's like, this season is so close to getting so abnormal that it shouldn't really count.

[Kjello]

Because of changes in the guidelines for domestic travels, the NFF decided to go away from the proposed group stage. However, matches will still be somewhat local in the beginning.

Also, because it's still unknown what happens with European club matches, and national team matches. Only round 1-3 were presented today. The remaining will be presented after the UEFA meeting on May 27th.

Round 1
Tuesday June 16th
18:00 Rosenborg - Kristiansund
18:00 Odd - Sandefjord
18:00 Viking - Bodø/Glimt
18:00 Stabæk - Mjøndalen
18:00 Aalesund - Molde
20:30 Sarpsborg 08 - Vålerenga

Wednesday June 17th
18:00 Start - Strømsgodset
20:30 Haugesund - Brann

Round 2
Saturday June 20th
18:00 Kristiansund - Aalesund
20:30 Molde - Rosenborg

Sunday June 21st
18:00 Bodø/Glimt - Haugesund
18:00 Vålerenga - Stabæk
18:00 Strømsgodset - Odd
18:00 Mjøndalen - Sarpsborg 08
18:00 Sandefjord - Start
20:30 Brann - Viking

Round 3
Wednesday June 24th
18:00 Viking - Mjøndalen
18:00 Haugesund - Kristiansund
18:00 Stabæk - Sandefjord
18:00 Aalesund - Brann
18:00 Start - Molde
20:30 Odd - Vålerenga

Thursday June 25th
18:00 Sarpsborg 08 - Strømsgodset
20:30 Rosenborg - Bodø/Glimt

Feels damn good to have a date and time to look forward to. Hopefully nothing change for the worse the next month.

[Firnen]

Is Norway thinking to have fans on the stand like the Faroe Islands already do and Sweden is thinking to do?

[Kjello]

It's only opened for events with 200 people from June 16th.
A number the NFF have estimated that they need to host matches.
And events with more than 500 people are banned until September 1st.
So full crowds won't be allowed before that date no matter what.

However, several clubs are now saying they only need 150. Hence there's 50 left.
And the NFF had a meeting with the supporter's alliance yesterday. Who say that they want to contribute to making the match experience as good as possible. And we might see the cap being raised from 200 up to 500 during the summer. So the NFF didn't rule out a small number of fans on the stands. But stated that the protocol they're working on, is based on no fans.

Personally I feel it should be no fans, or all fans. There's 15-20 000 going to Rosenborg matches. Who decides who the lucky 50-350 ones are going to be?

[Firnen]

It's only opened for events with 200 people from June 16th.
A number the NFF have estimated that they need to host matches.
And events with more than 500 people are banned until September 1st.
So full crowds won't be allowed before that date no matter what.

However, several clubs are now saying they only need 150. Hence there's 50 left.
And the NFF had a meeting with the supporter's alliance yesterday. Who say that they want to contribute to making the match experience as good as possible. And we might see the cap being raised from 200 up to 500 during the summer. So the NFF didn't rule out a small number of fans on the stands. But stated that the protocol they're working on, is based on no fans.

Personally I feel it should be no fans, or all fans. There's 15-20 000 going to Rosenborg matches. Who decides who the lucky 50-350 ones are going to be?

For Rosenborg you are right, but for a small team or a 2nd division team, maybe 500 fans are 30-50-70% of their normal attendance, so it could be important.

[Kjello]

FIFA has allowed the NFF to reopen the transfer window for 20 days from June 10th. This as a replacement for the time the transfer window was open (March 12th - April 1st), during national lockdown. The normal summer window will be open for four weeks at the same time as the window is open elsewhere in Europe.

For Rosenborg this is very good news. If the Bundesliga finish in time that is. Because that will allow them to register Per Ciljan Skjelbred from Hertha Berlin in that window. And he'll only miss the three first matches.

Because UEFA postponed the meeting that was scheduled today, to June 17th. The NFF is also likely the present some more matches the upcoming week.

[Kjello]

Vegard Forren, former Southampton and Brighton, has parted with Molde with immediate effect.
This after it was discovered that he had taken money from the players joint bank account for collected fines.
He also admitted to doing this to cover gambling debt. Saying that he have strugled with gambling for more than 15 years.

Aged 32, he still have some years left on a top level in Norway. And Brann or Vålerenga looks like the most logical new club for him. Both looking for a defender. Question is whether his gambling issues and theft from teammates discourages clubs from signing him.

[Kjello]

Friendlies started again today.

Strømsgodset - Mjøndalen 2-1
Rosenborg - Bodø/Glimt 1-0
Odd - Sarpsborg 08 1-2
Haugesund - Brann 3-0

Looks like Brann really could use a defender of higher class.