OSLO, Jan 14 (SW) – Norway has introduced a new licensing system this year in the Toppserien. The Norwegian Football Association and the women’s clubs have been working for the system quite some time. This story tells the result of the first process of granting the teams a license or not.

The result was

Amazon and Arna-Bjørnar, as newly promoted teams, has been automatically granted license even if they don't fulfill many of the demands yet. Of the other teams, only Team Strømmen has been granted license as a result of this first round of granting.
The other teams: Røa, Fløya, Kolbotn, Trondheims-Ørn, Sandviken and Klepp, have not been granted license, but are allowed to play in Toppserien anyway. All these clubs have some shortcomings when it comes to organizational demands. The NFF will discuss the details of the licensing demands with each club in order to settle all the details before the league starts in May. Licensing topics were economy of the club, high standard coaches, infrastructure of the organization and accommodation. Demands on accommodation were harsh and have probably been reduced, because most clubs could not meet the demands.

Only Asker has been - preliminary - denied play in Toppserien in 2006 because they have quite big economic problems. At the end of last season, it turned out that Asker had been spending a lot more money than they actually had, with an accumulated deficit of about 100.000 euros. Since then, they have been working hard to raise money, and most of this deficit now seems to have been covered up. The decision not to allow Asker to play in Toppserien this year, has been appealed, and a final decision in this matter will be taken later. But Asker among the best Norwegian teams for the last 25 years will probably fulfill the necessary demands before the final decision about playing in the Toppserien is taken.