Latest news with #Eliteserien
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Tottenham Hotspur vs Bodo/Glimt – Predicted lineup and team news
Tottenham Hotspur host Bodo/Glimt in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final tonight. Ange Postecoglou's side's season rests on success in Europe, following a dismal domestic campaign. Spurs are aiming to win the club's first silverware since 2008, while success would also secure Champions League qualification for next season. Advertisement The North Londoners impressed to edge past Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals and next face Norway's first-ever European semi-finals. Bodo/Glimt have made a habit of upsetting the odds in recent years. The Eliteserien champions eliminated Lazio on penalties to reach the last four. Tottenham Hotspur vs Bodo/Glimt – Predicted lineup and team news Spurs have a near full-strength squad to choose from, a contrast to the injury issues that have decimated their campaign. Son Heung-min is the major absentee with the Spurs skipper still dealing with a foot issue. Elsewhere, Radu Dragusin is a long-term absentee with an ACL injury, while January signing Antonin Kinsky was not registered in the European squad. Advertisement Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro are expected to return after being handed rests at Liverpool on Sunday. Tottenham Hotspur predicted lineup Tottenham predicted XI: Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bentancur, Bergvall, Maddison; Kulusevski, Solanke, Tel. When is Tottenham vs Bodo/Glimt? Tottenham host Bodo/Glimt in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final on Thursday 1st May 2025. Kick-off in North London is 20:00 BST. What TV channel is Tottenham vs Bodo/Glimt? In the UK, the game will be broadcast on TNT Sports 2. Subscribers can view the game on the Discovery+ app and website. Advertisement Read – Champions League Awards: Yamal the star in six-goal thriller See more – Remembering when a 21-year-old Ronaldo Nazario won the Ballon d'Or Follow The Football Faithful on Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | TikTok
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Bodo/Glimt: How a team from a small Norwegian coastal town became European semi-finalists
Assessing the Europa League semi-finalists, there is a clear outlier in relation to European success. Manchester United are one of Europe's most decorated clubs and won this competition in 2016-17. Athletic Club had spent six seasons outside European competition before this term, but they had been a fixture in Europe through the 2010s and reached the Europa League final in 2011-12, beating United en route. Tottenham Hotspur have not won a European trophy since 1984, but reached the Champions League final in 2019. Advertisement Like United and Athletic Club, Spurs were grouped among the favourites to lift the trophy in Bilbao on May 21. For their semi-final opponents Bodo/Glimt, who knocked out Lazio in the quarter-final to reach the final four, the prospect of European glory is relatively new. As recently as 2017, Glimt were in Norway's second tier — a footballing galaxy away from Old Trafford, the Stadio Olimpico or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. After a season consolidating their position in Norway's top flight, the club, based north of the Arctic Circle, finished second in 2019 to begin a rapid rise that has seen them become the nation's undisputed top dogs. On their way, they collected four out of five Eliteserien titles between 2020 and 2024 and established themselves as a force in Europe, beating a Jose Mourinho-led Roma 6-1 in the 2021-22 Europa Conference League group stage, before thrashing Ange Postecoglou's Celtic 5-1 over two legs in the play-off round. This year, they've taken another leap, becoming the first Norwegian team to reach the semi-finals of a major European competition. It's the club's greatest accomplishment and the outstanding achievement of any Scandinavian side this century. 'Bodo is a small coastal town in the north,' says Lars Magnus Roys, a football journalist for Norwegian broadcaster TV2, based in Bergen. 'There's not really much happening in Bodo other than football. What they've done in the past few years has been just remarkable.' Now they have their sights on Tottenham Hotspur, and what would be their most remarkable feat yet — earning a place in the Europa League final. Unlike most of football's recent risers, Glimt's ascent has not coincided with a takeover from a billionaire or sovereign wealth fund. After yo-yoing between Norway's second and first divisions for the decade prior, Glimt won promotion in 2017 and implemented a plan to revolutionise their culture and playing style — catching Norway's biggest clubs with solid practise, not cash injections. Advertisement Led by Kjetil Knutsen, promoted to head coach in 2018 after serving as an assistant, Glimt left a counter-attacking style behind and began dominating in the opposition's half. 'The history of Bodo/Glimt until 2018 is that they were a counter-attacking team,' former assistant coach Morten Kalvenes told The Athletic in 2022. 'So what we had to change at the beginning of 2019, to adapt but use that (counter-attacking history), firstly was to press higher as a team. Move the whole team much higher up the field, when the situation required it. When we were forced to defend low, then we defended low, but every week we were constantly looking for the signal where we can go from low to high.' Inspired by the principles of Uruguay head coach Marcelo Bielsa, Knutsen is renowned in Norway for his 'murderball' training sessions, preparing his players physically to carry out the energetic style that has provided the foundations for their success. 'Kjetil and I had a few meetings working on the preparation before pre-season,' said Kalvenes. 'He told me, 'No 1: when we do pre-season, I want you to highlight especially one thing, and that is the training culture, the training culture, the training culture'. That meant we raised expectations. We raised the bar in structure, discipline, consistency, everything. 'What I noticed immediately was how the players were in training. I felt that I really liked the attitude of the players, how they were reacting to our coaching, how open-minded they were about the feedback, how — if we are training for one hour — then all 60 minutes are of the same level of intensity. What I mean is that if you do some simple passing drills at the beginning of the sessions, then you get the players as focused even when you're working on simple details.' Knutsen's success did not come overnight, despite these principles in place. After winning promotion from the second tier, Glimt lost four of their first five games in charge, and outside pressure began to grow. Still, the club did not flinch, believing in the style and culture he was building. Advertisement 'It was never, ever a discussion internally,' says sporting director Havard Sakariassen. 'The way I see it, if you know something about football, you saw the team was on a really good path. The way we played was much more dominant than the years before. We didn't manage to score a lot of goals, but we drew a lot of games. It was more, 'If you go, we all go'. That was the internal thing. 'This is not a big club with a lot of decision-makers. There is no owner here. Nothing like that. In core, during that period, we were 100 per cent certain Kjetil was the right man — and he knew it.' A joined-up focus between the coaching team and the recruitment strategy was crucial to the eventual success. Without hordes of cash to hoover up Scandinavian talent set for stardom, Glimt have typically recruited locally. Only one senior player, goalkeeper Nikita Haikin, who was born in Israel and represents Russia, hails from outside Norway and Denmark. Patrick Berg, their midfield fulcrum and star player, is homegrown and part of a family dynasty. Berg's grandfather Harald played 12 seasons for his hometown club and won 43 caps for Norway, and his three sons, Runar, Arild and Patrick's father Orjan, also played for Glimt. There's never a guarantee of success when signing a player, but recruiting almost exclusively from Scandinavia brings unique challenges. Of the eight permanent signings Glimt have made in the last 12 months, only Jens Petter Hauge has featured for their national team in the past five years. Like Berg, who left for Lens in 2022 and returned six months later, Hauge was re-signed from Eintracht Frankfurt after leaving Norway for a top-five European league and struggling to adjust. Placed within an environment that allows incoming players to settle, it's no coincidence that Glimt players tend to maximise their talent. 'The logistics are really, really hard,' says Sakariassen. 'But the main thing is how you work with people because I know that we recruit good players. We have seen the potential. If they come here and don't perform well for the first or second month, or everything is new, we still spend the time, and we try to get the potential out of them. We work hard with the people we have, and we believe that when we bring people in, we can help them release their potential. But it's hard, and everyone is trying to do the same. 'We have a clear way of playing, which makes it easier to recruit players. We play 4-3-3. The demands of each role are really easy to identify, so we look for players with an X factor, players who can make a difference for us in Europe. We truly believe we can develop players and those players can get to their full potential. We need a blend of older players with experience, younger players and those peaking in performance, but they all have to be able to handle the intensity we demand, and that can be hard for older players. Advertisement 'I think it has a value in itself, in your life, to be able to play at this level in your home town, also with your friends. So I think the culture in the club here is something they really enjoy. Also of course, over the years, we have become competitive in Scandinavia regarding salaries and the business part of it. But I think it has to be rare to be able to play football with your mates at this level anywhere in Europe, and that has a value.' Time, which allowed Knutsen to thrive in his first job in Norway's top tier and brought the best out of players who had difficulty with the initial adjustment, is a privilege not often afforded to big clubs in elite leagues. There is some parallel with Athletic Club, whose Basque-only policy emphasises long-term player development, but Ruben Amorim and Postecoglou are under pressure to deliver in Europe after disappointing league seasons at United and Spurs, respectively. As the leading light of Scandinavian football, there is regional pressure to maintain their relative overperformance, but the freedom to operate outside the intense microscope their semi-final counterparts are subjected to has helped their evolution. 'There is pressure around us, but not in the way you see in other clubs,' says Sakariassen. 'That pressure is not just something for the club, but also with the players. If you get a lot of criticism, it's maybe hard to perform. Bodo is 55,000 people, and it's on another level. So it's probably easier to get out their potential and have some time here, too.' 'For us, it's to ride the momentum, and that means that we have to be a performing club all the time. We have to work on that and try to be patient with the players that we have, to have the time to grow. Normally, it takes even the best players that we brought in… like Albert Gronbaek, it took him six to nine months. Hugo Vetlesen, it took him one and a half years before he showed his full self in the team. So patience is definitely a part of it. And luckily, we have people with some patience.' Gronbaek later became a Denmark international and was eventually sold for €12million (£10m) to Rennes after two seasons in northern Norway. Vetlesen left for Club Brugge in 2023 and made seven appearances in the Champions League this term. While performance in European competition has propelled them into financial parity with Scandinavia's biggest clubs, there's an acceptance that when players shine, there will be interest from more affluent and prestigious sides. Given this success has been under the watch of Knutsen, clubs around Europe have their eyes on the coach, too. He was reportedly on Brighton and Hove Albion's list before they appointed Roberto De Zerbi in 2022 and had interest from Ajax and Celtic the following summer. As he has been the guiding light through this period, there's an element of the unknown if he were to leave Glimt, but the club is confident that their culture — akin to Liverpool's famous 'boot room' succession plan — is strong enough to continue rising. 'Of course, Kjetil is one of the key personnel here. But we are very team-driven, also within the coaching room,' says Sakariassen. 'Of course, Kjetil will take the decisions at the end, but it's a kind of a flat structure where everyone is cautious on the pitch. Also, the way we work with the logistics, it's not one person who makes the decisions; it's not me who makes the decisions and 'We do it this way', we do it together. So I hope that if somebody quits or for other reasons can't work in the coming year, we are spreading out the knowledge that could be a good and sustainable path into the future.' Advertisement The future appears to be in safe hands but all immediate focus is on the Europa League semi-final. Three Glimt players are suspended for the first leg, including Berg, and an injury to starting centre-back Odin Bjortuft in their 3-0 win over KFUM in the Eliteserien could weaken their preferred starting XI further. Glimt have learned to be savvy in European matches and have impressed away from home this season, including in a narrow 3-2 defeat away to United in November. But on the artificial pitch at Aspmyra, they truly fancy their chances against anybody. 'I think we will have the same belief that we had against Olympiacos, Lazio, Twente — it is not an easy way to play Tottenham,' says Sakariassen. 'I hope we don't focus on the occasion, play the game, and dare to be ourselves. Of course, it is a massive game, the interest around the club and the games are massive here in Bodo too, but I hope we have and I truly believe we have all the tools to be brave enough to go out in London and just be Bodo/Glimt. 'The experience that we have gained over the last few years makes us more confident in situations like this. I truly believe in the team and hope we make two great performances against Tottenham. Starting away.'
BBC News
10-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Hearts make right-back Borchgrevink first summer signing
Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink will join Heart of Midlothian once the summer transfer window opens in Edinburgh club has agreed an undisclosed fee for the 25-year-old Valarenga captain, who has signed a three-year capped at under-21 level, has been a regular at the Oslo side since 2020 and led them to promotion back to the Eliteserien last year."He has all the attributes I associate with being a Hearts player; he's strong, athletic, talented and a leader on the pitch," said head coach Neil Critchley."He's got a good pedigree, having played at a high level in Norway, and while he will bring his qualities to the team, we feel that we can provide an environment where he can get even better."Christian will, I'm sure, continue to give his all for Valerenga where he is very highly regarded, and come the summer I'm looking forward to welcoming him to Hearts."Critchley had been alternating between Adam Forrester and Gerald Taylor at right-back this season until the latter suffered a knee injury on duty with Costa Rica last month.
New York Times
01-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Inside Scandinavia's VAR revolt – featuring walkouts, silences and fishcakes
'We won't give up,' says Kristian, a bearded Valerenga fan standing defiantly outside the Intility Arena. 'We want to be the first country to remove this disease. Then other countries will realise VAR can be defeated.' It is the first weekend of Norway's football season and, inside the stadium of Oslo's biggest club, the stand where Valerenga's most boisterous supporters congregate is completely empty as the game kicks off. Advertisement Thousands remain outside, refusing to enter until the 15-minute mark as part of a series of co-ordinated protests involving fans from every club in Norway's top flight, the Eliteserien, as well as others from the division below. It is a different scene in the away end, where the supporters of Viking are using another tactic to signal their hostility towards the video assistant referee system (VAR), which uses an official watching television replays away from the stadium to review significant on-field decisions. Viking fans take their seats but remain completely silent for the first 15 minutes. All that can be heard are the shouts of the players, an occasional blow of the referee's whistle or the thud of boot against ball. 'Nei Til VAR!' reads the banner in Valerenga's deserted Ostblokka stand. Translation: 'No To VAR!'. The previous day, with the snowy peaks of Drammen visible in the distance, Stromsgodset's match against Rosenborg got the new season underway with a silent protest of their own. Both sets of fans took part. No songs, no cheering, just virtual silence until the signal arrived after 15 minutes. Rosenborg's fans gathered behind a banner — 'NFF Mafia' — that made it clear what they thought about the Norwegian Football Federation. Lampposts outside the stadium were decorated with stickers showing the 'Hater VAR' ('hate VAR') message. A banner held up by Stromsgodset fans spelt it out another way: 'FCK VAR'. 'Our supporters who are against VAR have the right to express their feelings,' Alfred Johansson, Rosenborg's head coach, tells The Athletic. 'It's much better this way — a quiet 15 minutes — than other forms of action. Because we also know what it's like when a game has to be stopped, or even cancelled, because of protests.' In July last year, Rosenborg's game against Lillestrom was abandoned when fans threw smoke bombs, tennis balls and — no kidding — fishcakes on the pitch. Other games in Norway's 16-team Eliteserien have been targeted in similar ways. This season, the fan groups have decided they will not actively disrupt games but the anger is real in a country where members run the football clubs and many feel VARs were brought in without a proper consultation process. Advertisement In January, the 32 clubs in Norway's top two divisions voted 19-13 in favour of a motion for 'the discontinuation of VAR as soon as possible'. Critics accuse the review system of being unreliable and prone to human error, causing unnecessary delays, disrupting the flow of matches and, perhaps worst of all, often ruining the spontaneous joy that football's most beautiful moment — a goal — is supposed to bring. What seemed like a landmark victory, however, has not led to any changes. Instead, the NFF held a national assembly on March 1 for all 450 of its member clubs, all the way down to grassroots level, and they voted 321 to 129 against abolishing the technology. Anger has peaked since. 'We were hopeful we could get rid of VAR,' says Sebastian Hytten, leader of Valerenga's Klanen fan group. 'But it wasn't a surprise the NFF worked so hard to keep it because, for them, it was a matter of honour. If they had lost the battle, they would have lost honour. They would have faced accusations that the supporters had taken over.' The backlash against the VAR system can be felt in many ways in this part of Scandinavia. One reminder for Lise Klaveness, president of the NFF, came outside her house in Nordstrand, a suburb south of Oslo. 'Maybe I had parked my car a little too far out,' she says. 'Someone put a note on my windscreen to joke about how my car was parked and 'it needs to go to VAR' to decide what to do about it. Really funny.' Klaveness, a lawyer and a former Norway international footballer, can laugh as she admits she has no idea who it was. But it hasn't always been so amusing since it became clear her attitude to VARs had changed. 'I didn't like VAR when it came in. I was a pundit in Russia at the 2018 World Cup and it was the first time VAR was used in an international championship. It was disturbing. We didn't understand it, why we had to wait such a long time for decisions. It felt like disruption. People said it worked well but that was not the feeling the footballers and pundits had.' Australia's A-League became the first professional league to introduce VARs in 2017, followed by MLS in the United States later that year. Since then, almost every major league and competition in world football has adopted the technology. Yet, rather than removing controversy, it has led to anger, disillusionment and fierce criticism. Advertisement What nobody would have imagined, however, was that the most militant and organised mobilisation of VAR's opponents would involve a nation not usually associated with dissent or dissatisfaction (the World Population Review ranked Norway as the seventh-happiest country in the world). The story, for example, about the Stromsgodset player who had to take a VAR-awarded penalty while his club's supporters, directly behind the goal, were singing, 'F*** VAR'. There was the walkout by Stabaek fans against Viking, directly after kick-off, and the tragicomedy that they missed a goal that was, after a VAR review, ruled out for handball. 'Vi var her,' read the banner they left behind in a deserted stand ('We were here'). Valerenga fans disrupted one match by throwing a selection of pastries on the pitch to signify the alleged culture of coffee and croissants in NFF's planning meetings. Or how about Lillestrom's trip to Rosenborg in 2023 when they were awarded a VAR-assisted, stoppage-time penalty to win 2-1 in the most dramatic circumstances? 'Our fans had travelled an hour's flight or an eight-hour drive to go to that game,' says Hogner Trym, a Lillestrom fan and podcaster who campaigns against the VAR system through his Harde Mottak group ('Hard Reception'). 'Usually, we would go crazy, especially if you know the history between the two clubs. Here, we didn't even celebrate. The attitude was, 'This isn't football'. The winning goal went in and we sat down.' Lillestrom, relegated last season to Norway's second tier, have taken a prominent role in the anti-VAR movement as the only club to vote against its introduction for the start of the 2023 season. The club have a sizeable number of what Klaveness calls 'hardliners' and were also involved in the infamous fishcake game. 'That was the Rosenborg fans,' Trym clarifies. 'Their idea was to throw fishcakes on the pitch so a flock of seagulls would come down and create a big scene. It didn't go quite to plan but, in the end, the referee abandoned the match anyway.' A match between Rosenborg and Lillestrom was abandoned in Norway after tennis balls, smoke bombs, and fishcakes were thrown onto the pitch 😳Both sets of fans are currently protesting against the use of VAR in the Norwegian top flight. Critics of the NFF accuse the federation of being rocked by the 19-13 vote and engineering a way around it by involving teams further down the pyramid who would never play in a match using VARs. Those clubs, it is widely accepted, were encouraged to vote in line with the NFF's preference to keep the technology. Advertisement 'A lot of people are angry and disappointed,' says Ole Kristian Sandvik, spokesman for the Norwegian Supporter Alliance. 'People are disappointed with the decision itself. But we are angry about the process, too. Norwegian people don't usually protest too often but this has sparked something to say, 'Hey, this isn't right, it isn't working and — excuse my French — we f*****g hate VAR'.' The nationwide protests, according to their organisers, were to 'raise awareness that member democracy is under attack by anti-democratic forces who want to take control of Norwegian football'. Klaveness has built her reputation as a principled and progressive leader who was willing to ask difficult questions of FIFA and UEFA, regardless of the consequences for herself, if it meant speaking up for what she believed was right, particularly when it came to the Qatar World Cup and the bidding process for the 2030 and 2034 tournaments. Now, though, some of Norway's leading anti-VAR groups and campaigners are questioning whether UEFA influenced the decision to continue with the technology. The accusation is that European football's governing body might have leaned on Klaveness at a time she is being added to UEFA's executive committee. Klaveness, whose playing career included 73 appearances for her country, is stung by the suggestion. 'Rumours will get roots,' she tells The Athletic. 'But it has no roots in truth. We went to UEFA to ask them what arguments they had for or against VAR and they were clear they didn't want to affect us. That conspiracy is not true and it's very important this is not set as poison.' Her argument is that it has been 'a very fair, open and transparent process' and, though she doesn't put it exactly in these terms, her supporters say the issue is more that the protestors have (a) lost the argument, (b) need someone to blame, and (c) have a different idea about what democracy means. A working group, led by former Oslo mayor and ex-Valerenga board member Raymond Johansen, carried out a four-month review of VAR's good and bad points. Many coaches and players confided they wanted to keep the technology but had not dared say it publicly. Many fans articulated the same. And the referees made it clear, in Klaveness' words, that 'it was the point of no return' as far as they were concerned. Advertisement 'We talked to so many people,' she says. 'I've heard this accusation that 'we simply didn't want to lose the argument'. It's not even close to the truth. It's about democracy and, in the end, it was clear the silent majority wanted to keep VAR.' That is not going to wash with some of the protestors, who are planning another wave of coordinated action next weekend and unveiled protest banners when Norway's national team played a World Cup 2026 qualifier in Moldova last week. Yet Klaveness, unlike many football administrators, is a passionate advocate for freedom of speech. She also believes in the right to protest and makes the point that VAR-haters 'are still allowed to think it's bulls**t… we cannot turn against our supporters, we cannot hate the fact they are yelling. They have a very relevant argument'. She is also determined to meet the relevant people head-on. Two days before the national assembly, Klaveness was at Carls, a pub in Oslo, to meet 200 anti-VAR campaigners from across the country. It was a beery audience and some frank views were exchanged. Did she win over everyone? No, but she maintains it was important to 'show respect and demand respect back'. It was, she says, 'Very intense.' Three hours south of Oslo, heading across the border into Sweden, there is a vision of what might have been. GAIS, one of three Gothenburg clubs in the Swedish top division, are playing AIK in a Monday night fixture at the Gamla Ullevi. It is the first week of the Allsvenskan season and VARs are not even an afterthought. Sweden's top flight is the only men's league among Europe's top 30 that refuses to use the technology. When a goal is scored, such as AIK's 92nd-minute winner, it remains a goal. Nobody's joy is short-lived. Players — and fans — can celebrate without worrying they will be made to look silly. Advertisement 'It's so beautiful (without VAR),' says Mikkjal Thomassen, the AIK head coach and former Faroe Islands international, reflecting on his team's late and dramatic 1-0 victory. 'It's so unspoilt. I'm just a guest in Sweden, but I think it's a magical decision by Swedish football, even though it's a little contradictory to where the central organisations are heading in football. Our supporters are really clear that they don't want VAR and we, as a club, stand 100 per cent behind that.' In England, when Wolverhampton Wanderers proposed a motion to abolish the VAR system, there was not a single vote of support from the other Premier League teams, even those who had been more vociferous. Yet the clubs in Sweden, like those in Norway, are run by members, which emboldens fans to take a stand because they have the power to effect change. 'It (VAR) has become a symbol of everything we don't like about modern football,' says Isak Eden, president of the Swedish Football Supporters' Union. 'My team, Elfsborg, played in Europe last season (with mandatory VAR) and there's always that feeling when your team scores that you have to hesitate, wait a minute, look three times, or that you might have to celebrate twice. It was completely weird.' In the first of Elfsborg's Europa League qualifiers, against Cypriot side Pafos, they were awarded a penalty when the VAR sent the referee to the pitchside monitor. 'We needed to win this game to get through,' says Eden. 'Yet the whole stadium was chanting, 'We hate VAR'. So I can sympathise with the Norwegian supporters. It was a lively debate here, too, but it's completely dead now and nothing will change in Sweden for the foreseeable future.' Compare and contrast with the scenes in Norway where anti-VAR slogans are not just displayed on T-shirts and hoodies but also on other items, such as air fresheners and bottle openers. Advertisement 'It can be strange sometimes,' Ole Selnaes, a Rosenborg player with 32 Norway caps, tells The Athletic. 'We are getting used to it, though. We know it's a hot topic and, if the fans want to stay silent for the first 15 minutes, we have to focus and be professional.' Do the players want VAR abolished? 'Opinion is very mixed,' says Selnaes. 'Some do, but some don't. I can see both sides. Yes, it hasn't worked perfectly, but we have to remember these are still early days. To me, it would be strange for us to remove VAR if almost everyone else in Europe has it.' 'Forsvar Medlemsdemokratiet' ('Defend Member Democracy') was the message displayed on banners at several grounds over the weekend. Yet there is also a backlash against the backlash and, in the land of Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard, the pro-VAR campaigners are becoming increasingly voluble, too. In November, Fredrikstad chairman Jostein Lunde put a statement on the club's website asking for feedback and explaining that 'the board was in favour of VAR. 'I hate f******g VAR' has echoed throughout the stadium, but what does the entire membership really think?' Fredrikstad's members voted 70-65 in favour of the VAR system and Lunde sounds quite proud when he says they were one of only five top-division clubs, with Kristiansund, Sarpsborg 08, KFUM and Bodo/Glimt, to take that stand. 'I have been quite clear that VAR must continue,' says Lunde. 'I have tried to be a strong pro-VAR voice because the people who want change tend to speak the loudest, whereas the people who don't want change are often silent. I got a lot of criticism from different supporters. But the silent majority were too silent for too long.' Amid all this, the NFF is entitled to point out that Eliteserien has moved up from 23rd in 2019 to 12th in UEFA's rolling five-year coefficient rankings. Attendances are up. And, VAR or no VAR, the fans put on some show, not least because Norway's football authorities allow pyrotechnics, which are banned in England and other countries. Fan culture is alive and well here — flags, flares, megaphones, tifos and fashion that Norway's love of English football has clearly influenced. Advertisement But these are unusual times. When the supporters of Bodo/Glimt threw fishcakes on the pitch to disrupt a game against Haugesund, the club banned nine fans for 30 games. 'To continue with such childish streaks is to kill football,' Frode Thomassen, the general manager, told TV2. 'It's not about football, not about VAR. I find it incredibly sad and boring.' Soon afterwards, Bodo/Glimt had an away game against Stromsgodset, whose fans held up two large banners: 'Freedom for Ultras' and 'Have a fishcake, Frode'. The challenge for Klaveness is to navigate a way through all this infighting when, by her own admission, it is almost impossible to align everyone's views. It has not been, she says, a 'happy case'. Ultimately, though, she says it has been 'the most transparent process in the world' and that referees are grateful they can be spared 'sleepless nights and their families getting s**t' because of on-field mistakes that could have been put right. She believes the VAR system has dramatically improved since its inception and that the good will outweigh the bad if people give it time. And it helps, undoubtedly, that there has not been a major VAR controversy in Norway's March-to-November season. Not yet, anyway. 'People all across the world are dissatisfied with VAR,' says Klaveness. 'Nobody is saying it's perfect. But it has improved a lot. In its first season in Norway, it disrupted the game. Since the second half of last season, it has had a very good flow.' It has been 25 years since Norway played in a men's World Cup or European Championship but last year, the national team was promoted to League A, the top level, in the Nations League. Klaveness says she is delighted by their upwards trajectory. And she has not forgotten one key detail. 'Erling Haaland scored a late goal that was very important,' she says of their 2-1 win against Austria in September. 'At first, it was annulled (for offside). Then VAR came along and the goal was allowed. We ended up winning our group. And, oh, what a feeling. Euphoria!'
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Norwegian fans announce protests after professional clubs' vote to scrap VAR overruled
Norwegian football fans have announced a series of protests across the opening two matchdays of the top two divisions after its governing body voted to keep using Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) despite its professional clubs voting to discontinue the system. The 2025 Eliteserien, Norway's top division, begins on Saturday March 28 and fans will stay out of stadiums for the first 15 minutes of each match before entering en masse as a protest against the recent decision to continue using VAR. Advertisement The Norwegian Supporter Alliance (NSA) drew up the initiative as a 'silent demonstration and walk-in', while a joint statement from supporters' groups at Oslo-based Valerenga say the action 'is intended to raise awareness that member democracy is under attack by anti-democratic forces who want to take control of Norwegian football'. In January, the 32 teams in Norsk Toppfotball (NTF), which represents clubs across Norway's top two divisions — the Eliteserien and First Division — passed a motion by 19 votes to 13 to request the Norway Football Federation (NFF) 'adopt the discontinuation of VAR as soon as possible'. However, the NFF responded by asking all 450 of its member clubs — the vast majority of whom are amateur and grassroots clubs who do not use the officiating technology — to vote on whether they wished to maintain VAR, with 321 voting in favour of keeping the system and 129 voting against. The Valerenga fan groups say the demonstration will 'symbolise what the abolition of member democracy can do to the supporter culture around Norwegian teams', with their view that the will of the NTF professional clubs has been ignored by the NFF. 'For this celebration to be successful, it will require everyone to make a sacrifice,' the joint statement added. 'We understand that everyone is looking forward to seeing our beloved Valerenga back in the league again, but we encourage everyone to find other solutions to watch the first 15 minutes. For example, venues will show the match on a big screen. 'As a last resort, there are still tickets available elsewhere in the stadium. We would like to emphasize that no attempts will be made to stop the matches. 'Defend member democracy!' VAR was introduced into Eliteserien in 2023 but has frequently been the subject of supporter protests. One incident in July 2024 saw the top-flight match between Rosenborg and Lillestrom abandoned after supporters threw tennis balls, fishcakes and smokebombs onto the pitch in protest against the technology. Advertisement A VAR report from the NFF in November stated the federation was being criticised for 'its communication style regarding VAR', adding: 'Players acknowledge that VAR has enhanced the fairness of refereeing decisions, but call for improvements in time management and more predictable procedures.' Elsewhere in Europe, Sweden became the first country to reject implementing VAR after fan backlash in May. In June Premier League clubs rejected proposals to scrap VAR following a motion from Wolverhampton Wanderers at the league's AGM. ()
