Winter warmer for Nordic clubs

By Jan Juhlin

Successes for Scandinavian clubs in the big European club competitions have been few and far between in recent years. Norway's Rosenborg BK have been the only real exception as they continue to compete in the UEFA Champions League.

Familiar problems
Football teams in the Nordic nations face a familiar set of obstacles when it comes to competing in Europe. First and foremost is money. The best footballers in Norway, Sweden and Denmark move abroad to advance their careers, and their clubs have often had little choice but to sell to survive.

New competition
It was as a means of raising some funds for the clubs, as well as giving the best teams in Scandinavia the chance to get experience at a higher level, that the Swedish Football Association (SvFF), Norwegian Football Association (NFF) and Danish Football Association (DBU) decided to band together to create a new competition.

Royal League
The Royal League will effectively be a Scandinavian Champions League played during the winter closed season. The top four teams at the end of the Norwegian, Danish and Swedish seasons will be divided into three groups of four. They will play a round-robin tournament, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the next phase. The remaining six teams will then be divided into two groups of three, playing against each other again, before the top teams in each group face off for the final.

Prize money
However, there will be more than silverware at stake. A €125,000 fee is on offer for all the clubs who enter, with additional money up for grabs for points won. In addition to income from gate receipts, the most successful clubs could net as much as €1m from the competition - a small fortune by Nordic footballing standards.

Swedish support
"Personally I think it's going to be a huge success," said Jan Andersson, coach of Sweden's Halmstads BK. "We have five months without competitive football [after the end of the season] here in Sweden which is a very long time. This a perfect chance to get valuable experience and improve the quality of football in Scandinavia."

Extra pressure
However, Andersson's enthusiasm has not been shared everywhere. For some, the new competition, which starts on 11 November, is a bridge too far for players. With games being played up until December and resuming after the winter break in February some fear that the players will be tired and the pitches, because of the harsh Scandinavian winter, will be unplayable.

Cold climate
"For Danish clubs there will be conflict," said FC København coach Hans Backe. "Since we play an autumn-spring season with a short winter break there will be a number of extra games that could mean that players will get jaded. Another thing is the timing. Who wants to go to a football game in December when it's -10C? I just don't think it will work."

Slow uptake
Sponsors have been a little slow to embrace the new competition too. Up until a month ago, not a single sponsor had signed up, but the NFF's Boye Skistad insisted that this was not a problem. "We've got the prize money secured by the TV deals that we've signed," he said. "The money from other sponsors would just be an extra bonus."

Clubs happy
While some in the media are predicting a massive belly-flop for the new competition, the clubs seem happy with the arrangement. And if the Royal League can help Nordic teams to compete with Europe's best, few supporters will have any complaints.