Reserve teams in Norwegian football

Reserve teams in Norwegian association football play in the ordinary league system. They are always attached to their first teams with a "2" suffix, must play in a lower league than the first team, and cannot play in the Premier League or First Division. Furthermore, if a club's first team plays in the First Division, the reserves team cannot play in the Second Division either.

Controversy

Reserve teams have in general been criticized for fielding uneven teams from week to week, with many first-team players one week and more youth players the next. They have also been criticized for keeping smaller clubs out of the Second Division, meaning a more centralized football culture. In 2009 manager Ivar Morten Normark proposed to throw the reserve teams out of the ordinary league pyramid, and other managers like Dag Eilev Fagermo agreed. In a survey, 19 of 31 responding Second Division clubs wanted the reserve teams out, as did 30 of the 49 responding Third Division clubs.

Fredrikstad FK

Fredrikstad Fotballklubb (also known as Fredrikstad or FFK) is a Norwegian football club from the town of Fredrikstad. With nine league championships and eleven Norwegian Cup wins, FFK is one of the most successful clubs in Norwegian football. The club was founded in 1903.

After suffering relegation from the then first division in 1984, Fredrikstad spent 18 years outside the top flight, before returning to the Premier League in 2003 after two successive promotions.

Fredrikstad stadion was FFK's home ground between 1914 and 2006. However, its facilities where outdated and the club moved to a new stadium on the other side of river Glomma. Their new ground is located in a former shipyard, incorporating parts of the old buildings in the two sidestands. FFK draw great support from their area and the official supporter club's name is Plankehaugen. More than 100 coaches filled with fans followed FFK to the cup final of 2006. The club's supporters also includes an Ultras section, Superas Fredrikstad.

Fredrikstad

Fredrikstad ( listen ; previously Frederiksstad; literally Fredrik's Town) is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad.

The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 1567 by King Frederick II, and established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Glemmen was merged with Fredrikstad on 1 January 1964. The rural municipalities of Borge, Onsøy, Kråkerøy, and Rolvsøy were merged with Fredrikstad on 1 January 1994.

The city straddles the river Glomma where it meets the Skagerrak. Along with neighboring Sarpsborg, Fredrikstad forms the fifth largest city in Norway: Fredrikstad/Sarpsborg. As of 1 January 2013, according to Statistics Norway, these two municipalities have a total population of 128,916 with 75,583 in Fredrikstad and 53,333 in Sarpsborg.

Fredrikstad was built at the mouth of Glomma as a replacement after Sarpsborg (15 kilometres (9 miles) upstream) was burned down by the Swedes. Almost half the population of Sarpsborg stayed behind, and rebuilt their old town at its original site.