Everyday history in borderland
The organized league game in Finnmark started in 1920 when Finnmark Football Club was founded.
In the period up to 1920, the Varanger Championship went off the rails
Nyborgmoen as a tournament game one weekend during the summer. It was too
arranged cup tournaments.
From 1920 to 1933 it was the Finnmark series and from 1934 to 1963 it was its own
series for the clubs in East Finnmark. The top division senior was named SerieA. In the period
1946 to 1954 there were four teams in SerieA (KIF, Vardø, Vadsø turn and Norild). In 1955 became
the series expanded with two teams, IL Polarstjernen and BK Sørild. Both teams did well in
SerieA. From 1964 onwards, Finnmark football was again gathered into a series that
covered the entire county. This is the story of top football in Varanger in a dramatic
time period.
People started playing football in Finnmark sometime after 1900, around 1910.
The inspiration from Europe was great and here the presence of the defense was important. Football has
has been an important source of unity and joy through changing times - prosperity, precious time,
war, crisis and rebuilding until today's modern society. Northern Norway was changing,
in East Finnmark, where they had experienced 5 years of war and occupation, the fighting was in
NNM Cup very important. The audience loved "Nord-Norsken" and showed up in large numbers.
The northern Norwegian national team was also important, it was about acceptance and recognition,
that "our boys" were also among the best.
The teams from Northern Norway had to content themselves with playing in the Northern Norwegian Cup, they stayed
not considered to be good enough to participate in the competition for the Norwegian Championship
(cup). But from 1964 onwards, Northern Norway was also allowed to participate. The rest is history.
Mjølner moved up to the first division in 1972 and Bodø Glimt won the cup in 1975. Bodø
Glimt was also the first from the northern part of the country to win the series (in 2020), not to mention
talk about the matches against AS Roma and Jose Mourinho.
Yes, there is a line from Varanger to Rome, from Russevika to Stadio Olimpico !!!
If you want to read more about the history of football in Varanger, check out: https://www.seriea.info/
Written by: Arnt-Bjarne Aronsen