History
Fredrikstad Fotballklubb was founded on April 7, 1903. While football in many older clubs was an addition to other established forms of sport, such as skiing or athletics, FFK was the first club in Norway to focus uniquely on playing football, and as such may be labelled the first true football club in the country. A lack of opposition meant this was in fact the third attempt at establishing a football club in Fredrikstad (tradition has it that the second attempt died out when the only football landed on a freight train bound for Moss). Finding someone in the vicinity to play against was still a problem when FFK was founded.
It so happened that the Englishman H. W. Kenworthy, who lived in the neighboring town of Sarpsborg, wanted to practise his native country's sport and travelled to Fredrikstad to take part in one of FFK's training sessions. Upon his return to Sarpsborg it was suggested that he arrange for a new club to be established. The idea was well received in Sarpsborg, and Sarpsborg F.C. was founded on May 8, 1903. The first match between the teams was played the following year in Sarpsborg in front of 600 spectators. FFK won the historical match 4–0. Sarpsborg and Fredrikstad went on to establish the first regional series, and inspired the founding of many new clubs in the region in the years to come.
FFK didn't have the red and white colours when the club was founded in 1903. In fact, they changed suits seven times from 1903 to 1927, when they finally found the one they are using now.
FFK reached the Norwegian Cup final for the first time in 1932. The semifinal against Mjøndalen was played at home in front of a record 9,000 spectators, and FFK won the match 3–0. Fredrikstad met Ørn Horten in the final, winning 6–1, and were thus Norwegian Champions. This signalled the start of Fredrikstad's first successful era, in which the club claimed four more cup titles before the start of World War II. FFK became the first club to win the new nationwide league, in 1937–38, and they won The Double the following season.
During the German occupation no organised football took place, as a result of all athletes going on strike in support of the resistance. After the war football was more popular than ever, and Fredrikstad set another attendance record against Sarpsborg in the semifinal of the 1945 Norwegian Cup. There was, however, little success on the pitch. FFK reached three cup finals in four years, but lost all of them. The break came in 1949, when FFK won their third league title.
The 1950s and 1960s were highly successful years for FFK. The club secured the league title six times — back to back in 1950–51 and 1951–52 — and finished in second place seven times. The Norwegian Cup was won four times. In 1957, a new milestone was achieved when FFK won their second double. As league champions in 1960, Fredrikstad entered the European Cup as the first team from Norway, sensationally defeating Ajax 4–3 at home and drawing 0–0 in Amsterdam, in the first round.
The town of Fredrikstad was in many ways an economic powerhouse in Norway in the previous century, first as a major supplier of machinery to the timber industry and then as a center of shipbuilding activities. At one point the shipyard in Fredrikstad was the largest in Scandinavia. It has been said that there was always an air of optimism surrounding the town and its inhabitants, and it was certainly reflected in FFK's playful and relaxed style of football, by many regarded as the most entertaining in the country. The club's first cup triumph in ’32 even made Jørgen Juve, a legend in Norwegian football, state:
- "This is how football is supposed to be played."
Perhaps it was because of this relaxed atmosphere that the club was so successful, and also why it eventually fell into decline. After years of glory the club was becoming conservative, although they would not admit it themselves. Other clubs were increasingly turning to professionalism, while players from FFK still played football in addition to having normal jobs. Training regimes were becoming more rigorous than before, but in Fredrikstad they felt that training more than twice a week would ruin the joy of playing football. There is also the sentiment that, in light of the club's formidable history, newer generations of FFK-players were given too much responsibility, folding to the pressure again and again whenever things were starting to look brighter.
Fredrikstad was to struggle throughout the 1970s. They reached the cup final in 1971, but lost to Rosenborg, who were by now firmly on route to becoming a giant in Norwegian football. Two years later and for the first time in the club's history, FFK were relegated. In 1975, they were back in the highest division, where they stayed for two seasons before facing relegation yet again.
The elevator ride between divisions continued until 1984. The Norwegian Cup went to Fredrikstad that year, but it must have been a bittersweet success. The club was once again relegated, and this time they were unable to make it back to the top flight. In 1992, FFK were relegated to the third highest division, where they would languish until 2002.
Fredrikstad's comeback from obscurity is largely attributed to manager Knut Torbjørn Eggen, who introduced a degree of professionalism the club had previously lacked. During his tenure, from 2001 until the end of 2006, the son of Rosenborg's successful former coach led the team to their first title in more than two decades. In 2002, they were promoted from the 2nd Division to the 1st Division, and in 2003, their centenary year, Fredrikstad finished second, earning promotion to the Premier League. Although struggling to maintain their form through an entire season, Fredrikstad have managed to retain their spot three times, and in 2006 they won the Norwegian Cup for the eleventh time in their history. They came 2nd and won silver in the 2008 season, but relegated after a poor season in 2009 to Adeccoligaen. They eventually got promoted back to Tippeligaen through playoffs in November 2010 by first beating Løv-Ham 2–0, then Hønefoss BK with a stunning 8–1 goal difference over two matches.
On 13 December 2011 the offices of the club were raided by Norwegian police in connection with the Raio Piiroja contract investigations
Read more about this topic: Fredrikstad FK
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)