The Norwegian Football Club Returning to Its Former Glory with the Help of Wealthy Fans

When it comes to football, the idea of wealthy owners showing up and buying success is hardly new. Money talks in football and from Real Madrid with the galácticos in the early 2000s, Manchester City’s rise under new ownership, and PSG’s ongoing fight for a Champions League all fairly recent examples.

While those looking to disparage these clubs would criticise them for “buying” success, others could point to other successful clubs having consistently high budgets. Put simply, it’s very rare that a poor club wins very much in football, which is as much a business as it is a sport.

Fredrikstad FK: A Club with a Long and Storied History

While you mightn’t hear about many Norwegian clubs at the international level, the sport is hugely popular and about 8.5% of Norway’s population play organised football. The sport first arrived in the country in the early 1880s and the club in Fredrikstad was founded in 1903.

If you’re not familiar with Norway, the city of Fredrikstad sits just an hour south of the capital city and its football team was once one of the most successful and decorated in the country. With nearly 12 decades of history, the club is not only part of the woodwork when it comes to football in the country, but it was also hugely successful once upon a time.

Rosenborg is by far the most successful club in Norway having won the league 26 times, but  Fredrikstad is a distant second most successful team in the league, having won 9 times and finished runner-up just as many times.

Admittedly, Fredrikstad’s wins were a long time ago and all came in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and early 60s. Since then, the club has had little success other than a cup win in 2006 when they were still in the top flight.

The club has been outside of Norway’s top flight for nearly a decade and even dropped to the third tier in 2018. They were promoted back into the second-tier of Norwegian football in 2021 and even made the promotion play-offs.

In their second-round playoff game, they lost by penalties in a six-goal thriller, coming back from two goals down to lead in extra time before conceding in the dying moments of the game. Missing their first penalty would cost them their chance at a return to Norway’s top league.

Fans Look to Invest in the Club’s Success

While younger fans won’t remember the club’s success, there are certainly people out there that want to see it return to its former glory and also have the means to get the ball rolling.

In the summer of 2018, Fredrikstad Fotball Invest (FFI) was established to help support Fredrikstad FK. This is a company that raises money to invest in the football club to provide it with the means to do better. They don’t own the club and they seem happy to trust in the current stewardship of the club.

The company started with around 50 shareholders and raises its money from them. One such investor is Tor Anders Petterøe, who was born in Sellebakk in 1955 and, along with his son through their production company Golden Touch Media, have the largest number of shares of any single stakeholder.

Petterøe, like many other locals born around this time, will likely remember the club’s successes and the FFI allows for stakeholders who love the club to use their capital to raise funds which can then be used by the football club.

How Does FFI Do It?

The key to how FFI operates is in the “invest” part of its name. Stakeholders invest in FFI, which subsequently invests in Fredrikstad FK. This isn’t a charity so investors buy shares in the company rather than just donating their money. Before investors can enjoy any of the benefits, they have to poney up and put their money where their mouth is.

For FFI, the investors must be passionate about the club and trust in its owners and current management to get the job done. FFI investors have a say in how FFI is run and what it can do, but the focus is on letting the club do its thing.

So far, FFI has an agreement whereby they own a 30% share in the club’s players. FFI doesn’t own the players, but 30% of the sale of players goes to FFI and similarly, FFI is responsible for 30% of player fees. By its third year, FFI was already turning a profit and the current year is also looking great for the company.

FFI isn’t some big branding exercise and in terms of advertising, marketing, etc., the company does very little. There isn’t a big flashy website or anything like that and the company’s ethos of attracting investors who want the club to do well seems to be important to them.

To make sure potential investors like Tor Anders Petterøe find out about the company, they mainly use local and national press to get stories about them out. This way, they find people with an interest in local and national issues rather than those looking for out-and-out investment opportunities to add to their portfolio.

What’s Next for Fredrikstad FK?

With the help of FFI, Fredrikstad is aiming to return to the top flight of Norwegian football. With the support provided by FFI and its stake in the buying and selling of players, the club should have more clout in the transfer market.

With the season approaching the halfway point (seasons in Norway are played across a single calendar year), another appearance in the promotion play-offs isn’t looking likely, but FFI is here for the club they love and are unlikely to turn their backs and walk away when things get tough.

With the right players, support, and further investment from FFI, Fredrikstad FK is getting progressively closer to recapturing the success that, for many fans, was more than a lifetime ago.

Photo by Eivind Hauger on Flickr