The Toppserien is the top level of

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football played by women. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries, and about 200 national teams partic ...

in Norway. It was founded in 1984.

History

Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in 1979. Regional leagues were in operation until the formation of the First Division

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, when the league was divided into three regions, Group Eastern-Norway (''Østlandet''), Group Western-Norway (''Vestlandet''), and Group Mid-Norway (''Trøndelag''). No teams from Northern-Norway (''Nord-Norge'') played, however. The winners of the three groups met each other for a play-off. Regional leagues for women had been played before 1984, and a championship play-off had been done between the winners of Mid-Norway and Eastern-Norway in 1983 ( Trondheims-Ørn beat Setskog 2-1), but this championship was considered unofficial by the

Football Association of Norway The Norwegian Football Federation (, ; NFF) is the governing body of football (soccer), football in Norway. It was formed in 1902 and organises the Norway national football team, men's and Norway women's national football team, women's national te ...

. In 1986, a group for Northern-Norway was added, and in

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

, the groups and play-off matches were dropped, and one single league with teams from all over the country was played. The league was known as 1. divisjon (Norwegian for ''1st Division'') from 1984 to 1995, the Eliteserien (Norwegian for ''The Elite League'') from 1996 to 1999, and the Toppserien (Norwegian for ''The Top League'') from 2000. Traditionally, Trondheims-Ørn and

Asker Asker (), also called Asker proper (''Askerbygda'' or ''gamle Asker'' in Norwegian), is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway, located approximately 20km southwest of Oslo. From 2020 it is part of the ...

was the two power-houses of Toppserien, with 7 and 6 championship wins respectively. Trondheims-Ørn finished in the top three 16 out of 23 times from the beginning in 1984 to their current last medal in 2006. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, Asker managed the almost unthinkable, winning every single one of their 18 league games that season (Asker didn't win the double that season, however, as the club was knocked out of the semi-finals of the

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

by Trondheims-Ørn). However Asker FK, the women's team within

Asker Fotball Asker Fotball is the football department of Norwegian sports club Asker SK from Asker. The women's football team is one of the most successful clubs ever in Norway, with six top flight championships and five cup championships. Due to financia ...

, became bankrupt at the end of 2008 and most of the players were transferred to a new team within the nearby Stabæk IF, named Stabæk FK (FK = Fotball Kvinner (Football Women)). Asker finished among the top three 18 out of the 25 seasons the club existed. The new Stabæk team began playing in the Toppserien from the 2009 season and won the league in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. Røa won Toppserien five times from 2004 to 2011. Lillestrøm SK Kvinner won six consecutive titles from

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Competition format

The league currently consists of 10 teams, which play each other 3 times (home and away), for a total of 27 matches. The season lasts from April to November. Teams are ranked by: * Number of points (3 points per win, 1 point per draw). * Goal difference * Goals scored * Results between the tied teams.

Clubs

Current members

;Notes

List of champions

Medalists by year

The following medals have been awarded: Below is a list of the gold, silver and bronze medalists in the Toppserien since its beginning in 1984. The

Norwegian Women's Cup The Norwegian Women's Cup () is a single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Norwegian women's association football, football. It has been organised annually since 1978. The final is usually played on a Saturday, the day before the ...

has been played since 1978. From 1984 to 1995 the name of the league was 1. divisjon ("First Division"), and between 1996 and 1999 the name was Eliteserien ("The Elite League", a generic name) before getting its current name, Toppserien in 2000. From 1984 to 1985, the league was divided into three sections, and after the inclusion of teams from

Northern Norway Northern Norway (, , ; ) is a geographical region of Norway, consisting of the three northernmost counties Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the largest towns in Northern Norway (from south to no ...

there was four sections in 1986, with the championship decided through a play-off. Since then it has been a round-robin decided through a league table.

Medalists by club

The following clubs have won the top division in Norwegian football since

. ¹ = In 2008 Stabæk was handed the license to play in the top league, and also took over the best players from

, because of financial problems in the latter. But the rest of Asker remains, and they still have their top female team - in league three. Therefore, Stabæk is not to be considered the successor of Asker.
² = Athene Moss was Sprint/Jeløy successor, so one bronze as Athene Moss in 1998 is included.
³ = LSK Kvinner is the successor of Setskog/Høland and Team Strømmen.
⁴ = Rosenborg is the successor of Trondheims-Ørn.
⁵ = Brann is the successor of Sandviken.

Managers

References

External links

League
at toppserien.no
League
at nrk.no {{Top level women's association football leagues around the world 1984 establishments in Norway Sports leagues established in 1984 1 Nor Professional sports leagues in Norway