Norway: Protest "Against TV-controlled football".

Norway: Protest "Against TV-controlled football".

After they were given their eight Monday match this season (Norwegian season start in March and ends in November) SK Brann supporters felt it was time for a protest.

Priority from Football Federation is just totally wrong (Just like in any other countries?), and the average attendance in Norwegian stadiums fall dramatically.

One of SK Brann's recent away matches with a distance of 500km, which were scheduled to be played Sunday 6pm, where suddenly moved to Friday just a week before kick of. With the result lot of fans stood left with useless airplane tickets and train tickets. Reason the match was moved is that the Football Federation did a mistake. The match that was meant to be sent on TV that Friday had to be moved because one of the clubs played in Europa League Thursday. To satisfy TV-company they then moved SK Brann's match from Sunday to Friday.

Here is a picture from that match:

"When are next match going to be played?"

Bit later SK Brann went to semi final in the Norwegian cup. They met a club from 1st division (Level 2). Their stadium lights was not approved for 1st division matches. Because it gets early dark up in north and TV wanted to send this match live, it had to be played 4pm a Thursday!.

Funny thing is that those lights works perfect, and if the club played in 2nd divisions the lights would have the requirements needed to play when it's dark.

Other examples of the federation's priority is the TV list. All matches are before season start normally set to be played Sunday 6pm. But until 3 weeks before kick off they can move matches after what TV-channels want. Normally there is a match Friday 7pm, Saturday 7pm and Sunday 6pm and 8pm.

With only 3 weeks left it's not easy to get cheap airplanes or trains. Also most people need to plan little bit before an away match. Most clubs in Norway are sped all over the country. Longest distance between two clubs in 1st division are 2165 km! None of the roads in Norway are similar to autobahn in Germany, so it take time to drive, even for short distances.

About this protest:

Supporter groups of SK Brann decided to close their middle sectors first 10 minutes of the match. During the protest there was no singing, only several banners held up.

(Logo from national protest earlier in Norway, against Monday matches).

"Football for fans - give us our football back!"

Banner on top: "Against TV-controlled football!"

During the protest a sofa were used in the empty stand. On the banner behind the sofa it's written "Future?"

Do they want people sit behind their TV's every weekend or do they want us to fill stadiums and make noise?

Banner at bottom: "Hate NFF" (Norwegian Football Federation).

After 10 minutes supporters filled their sectors and made noise as normal.

You can see video here from when the sectors are filled up.

Protests give results!

This is far from the first protest in Norway. Last years all groups took part in a National protest known as "Football in weekends".

Silent first 10 minutes, home and away fans chanting together against football federation, and boycott of away games was part of this protest.

You can read more about this protest here!

Here is a video from Lillestrøm when they emptied their sector and filled it again after 10 minutes:

All those protest finally started to give results. Average attendance in Norwegian stadiums has dropped dramatically last seasons when TV-matches started to be first priority.

- From next season (2013) there will be no more Monday matches!

- TV-list need to be set 6-8 weeks before kick off, not 3 weeks like it is now!

- Latest match Sunday will be played 7pm, not 8pm.

AGAINST TV-controlled football!