Drillo lands in media glare

Egil “Drillo” Olsen should be basking in the glow of his national football team’s victory over Slovenia on Tuesday, but instead the 70-year-old coach has had to tackle all kinds of problems from badly behaved players to claims of tricks on the field and a half-empty stadium. The respected veteran of the sport seemed, though, [...]

Riise silences critics in late, late show

Wild celebrations erupted at Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo on Tuesday night as record-breaking John Arne Riise, the subject of a media storm in the days preceding the match, scored the winning goal from the penalty spot with virtually the last kick of the game as the Norwegian national football team (landslaget) narrowly overcame Slovenia 2-1. [...]

Riise’s tweets kicked up a fuss

Norwegian football star John Arne Riise is being accused becoming a bit too star-struck, over himself. Now one of Norway’s leading football commentators has branded Riise as the equivalent of a conceited jerk, after Riise used social media to complain just before a critical match for the national team that his hometown of Ålesund hadn’t fully [...]

Iceland nightmare dents Brazil dream

Iceland recorded their first win over the Norwegian national football team (landslaget) in 25 years with a 2-0 home victory on Friday, giving Norway a nightmare start to their own qualifying campaign for the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. Goals from Kari Arnason and Alfred Finnbogason gave the Icelanders their first victory against Norway – [...]

Greek tragedy for disastrous Drillos

A series of defensive errors cost the Norwegian national football team (landslaget) dearly in their friendly match against Greece on Wednesday night, as the so-called “Drillos” led by coach Egil “Drillo” Olsen fell to a 3-2 defeat in front of their home fans in Oslo. The match was both teams’ final chance to warm up [...]

Norway Cup bigger than ever

Around 32,000 young football players from all over the world are in Oslo this week for the annual Norway Cup, which makes it the biggest on record as the tournament celebrates its 40th anniversary. It’s sparked some unwelcome headlines recently over the exclusion of one girls’ team from Kenya, but more than 1,600 others are [...]

Coach admits to tipping gamblers

A burgeoning scandal involving match-fixing and gambling within Norwegian football took a new turn over the weekend, when the coach for one of the clubs involved admitted to profiting from tips to gamblers earlier in his career. Hans-Erik Eriksen, who led the lower-division club Follo to Norway’s Cup Final just two years ago, said he’s [...]

More football players face charges

Police in Oslo charged another player for the Follo football club on Friday, plus a player for the Asker club. Both young men were brought in for questioning on suspicions they were involved in match-fixing and receiving money for results believed to have been manipulated. The arrests follow that of another Follo player earlier this [...]

Player released, football woes roll on

Norwegian football remains caught in the throes of a match-fixing and gambling scandal even though police released a player for a minor-league club whom they’d arrested Wednesday night. The player remains charged with accepting payment for match-fixing, while professional clubs and football bureaucrats remain anxious over the future of their sport. Even the chairman of [...]

Another poor match ended in a tie

A largely toothless performance by the Norwegian national football team (landslaget) saw them draw 1-1 against an under-strength Croatian squad playing well below their best in Oslo on Saturday. Norwegian coaches claimed on Sunday, however, that the match gave some of their young players valuable experience in the run-up to World Championship qualifiers that will [...]

Private jets, rich uncles and Solskjær

COMMENTARY: “Follow the money.” It’s a tired cliche, but that doesn’t make it any less true in today’s world. And it couldn’t be truer in the multi-trillion-dollar worldwide obsession that is football. Even in “Lille Norge.” In fact, if you follow the money, the media circus around Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s “will-he, won’t-he” non-move to the [...]

Norway dominated but fell to England

The Norwegian national football team (landslaget) was narrowly outclassed in a 1-0 loss to England after a friendly international match in Oslo on Saturday. England’s first and only goal came after just nine minutes of action. In front of a sold-out Ullevaal Stadium, a moment of quality from English winger Ashley Young was the key [...]

Fans flock to see Drillo vs England

As many as 25,000 football fans were expected to flock to Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo Saturday night, even though it’s in the middle of Norway’s long pinse weekend. That’s when many locals traditionally head for their summer homes (hytter) by the sea, but a big national football match is keeping a lot of them in [...]

Happy ending to Solskjær drama

Laughter and claims of family values and friendship characterized a highly unusual press conference on Wednesday starring Norwegian football icon Ole Gunnar Solskjær and his “rich uncles” at Molde Football Club. He and club benefactor Kjell Inge Røkke made it clear that they and all involved in the club had come to terms again after [...]

Solskjær drama dominates media

NEWS ANALYSIS: The man who’s now considered to be Norway’s most famous Norwegian had anything but a quiet long weekend following the 17th of May and Ascension Day holidays. Drama surrounding the future of Ole Gunnar Solskjær, the former star football player who now coaches Molde’s football club, topped broadcasts and the front pages of [...]

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