Why Norwich? I have lost count over just how many times I have been asked that question from my mum and dad. When I was a kid most of my friends had their favourite team in England, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that I found my own team to support too.
So, back to my parents’ often asked question, why Norwich when my friends chose to support one of the bigger teams such as Manchester United, Liverpool or Tottenham? Well it all started October 20, 1990 – I was 13 years old and sat at home watching the sports news on the TV. Suddenly pictures from Liverpool’s match against a team wearing cool yellow and green shirts, with Asics on the chest, rolled across the screen. Liverpool had started the season in spectacular fashion, but I remember the Norwegian commentator saying that Liverpool struggled a lot in this match, especially with the pace of Ruel Fox. Suddenly I saw this Ruel Fox guy, wearing this unbelievably cool yellow and green shirt, score a fantastic goal to make it 1-1. Ruel Fox, what a cool name! What a cool kit! What a goal! What a team! I was totally sold; Norwich City would be my team!
During all this years as a Norwich supporter, it has certainly been a lot of up and downs, and I have to admit that one of my all time lows probably was the relegation last May. It has taken many of us Scandinavian Canaries some time to get used to the fact that we will now once again have to visit stadiums like Griffin Park, the New York Stadium and Dean Court instead of Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and the Emirates. The big question is of course if Neil Adams’ army can return to the Premiership on their very first attempt?
I am thrilled by the fact that we have a Norwegian player in the yellow shirt, not least because I am living just a few yards from Lerkendal Stadium in Trondheim, the home ground of Rosenborg, the club Alex used to play for in Norway a few years ago. Tettey is only the third Norwegian player ever to put on the Norwich shirt, and just like Aage Hareide and Erik Fuglestad, I think he has been excellent for us.
During my 14 years as editor of The Canary Magazine, the fanzine of Norwich City Supporters’ Club of Scandinavia, we have worked hard to promote trips over to “The Fine City” for matches and Saturday September 20th will see around 10 of us come over to attend the Birmingham match, so watch out for another Norwegian Viking invasion at Carrow Road! Those of us who unfortunately will not be able to come over for the Birmingham match, including me, will have to watch the match on TV or a live stream. English football is enormously popular in Norway, and we have access to every single match in the Premier League and many of the matches from the Sky Bet Championship. But if you think the Norwegian people are just supporting the big teams, then think again. Today there are in fact nearly 106,000 Norwegian members of Norwegian supporter groups for British teams, supporting not only teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham, but also teams like Woking, Aldershot, Brentford, Cheltenham, Exeter City, Rochdale and Macclesfield Town just to mention a few. Believe it or not, there even exists a supporter group for Ipswich Town…would you believe it?
Every year many of these supporter groups participate in an annual football tournament in Oslo. Last May 40 teams played against each other. Unfortunately The Scandinavian Canaries lost all their matches against Manchester United, Bolton and Tottenham in the group stages. This tournament is a fantastic gathering of football fans from all over Norway, all sharing the same enthusiasm for English football. Last season, our own supporter group set a new member record. There are now 127 Norwich supporters supporting Neil Adams’ side here in Norway. Not bad I will say, but I hope this number will be even higher during this season.
I wish all of you Norwich supporters around the globe all the best and big thanks to Jack Reeve for providing all of us with such brilliant updates on his YouTube channel TalkNorwichCity and also everybody who is involved with TheCarrowCrowd. Fingers crossed for a great season!
If you want to know more about the Norwich City Supporters’ Club of Scandinavia, you can visit us at www.scancanaries.com.
