Football in Norway
Norwegian football has a pyramid structure, featuring 9 tiers in total. The top 4 are organised by the national football association whilst the bottom 5 are organised and therefore organised by local authorities. The top 4 are, Eliteserien, 1. Divisjon, 2. Divisjon, and 3. Divisjon.
The national knockout competition of Norway is the Norwegian Football Cup which occurs annually and there is also the Mesterfinalen that takes place between the winners of the Eliteserien and the Cup.
Promotion and Relegation – Eliteserien and 1. Divisjon
In the Eliteserien there are 16 teams, and each team plays everyone home and away, giving a total season length of 30 games. The ‘League Winners’ are the team who finish top of the table, but rather uniquely they are not crowned ‘Norwegian Champions’ which is a title reserved for the winners of the Cup.
The teams who finish 16th and 15th are automatically relegated to 1. Divisjon whilst the team in 14th must enter a relegation playoff against a team from the second tier in order to retain their Eliteserien status.
The top 2 teams from the 16 in 1. Divisjon are automatically promoted to the Eliteserien whilst the team’s 3rd to 6th enter the playoffs. The winner of these playoffs will play one more game against the 14th placed top tier team with the winner securing their place at the top of Norwegian football.
European Qualification
Norway are ranked 24th in the EUFA coefficient rankings so they have 1 Champions League spots available as well as 3 spots in the inaugural Europa Conference League. There are no spots available in the Europa League.
The winners of the league will enter the second qualifying round of the Champions League whilst the winners of the Cup and the 2nd and 3rd (or 4th depending on who wins the cup) placed teams all enter the Europa Conference League.
Norwegian Football Cup
All teams from the top tier all the way down to the 5th tier can enter the cup. Some teams from tiers 4 and 5 will have to qualify through preliminary rounds whilst the top teams from tier 4 usually qualify automatically. All teams from the top 3 tiers enter in the first round proper.
Odd currently hold the record for the most wins with 12 but haven’t won it since 2000. Second are Rosenborg on 12 and 3rd are Fredrikstad on 11. The current champions are Viking who won their 6th title in 2019.
Eliteserien
The team with by far the most league wins is Rosenborg with 28 in total, and they have also finished runners up on 7 other occasion. Second placed team Fredrikstad are way behind on 9 and Viking round out the top 3 with 8.