SK Brann have become the one of the most successful women’s football teams in Norway in recent years, but the success has not alienated the club away from its community roots.
When FC Barcelona Femení traversed through the fjords of Norway’s Bergen for its UEFA Women’s Champions League fixture against SK Brann Kvinner in March 2024, it was a far cry from the bustling streets of Catalonia.
While Bergen or its women’s football team are not blessed with the same royal heritage of FC Barcelona, it does share one commonality with its opponents on that day; a real sense of community pride.
SK Brann Kvinner may have lost 2-1 on that night in March at the Brann Stadion, ultimately going on to crash out of the competition in the second leg in Barcelona, but the game captured the fanfare across Norway, and the attention of the rest of Europe.
The Women’s Champions League quarter-final served as validation of not just how far Norwegian women’s football had come, but how far SK Brann Kvinner had come in only two years.
Fast forward to May 2025, and Insider Sport was invited to Bergen to gain insight into how this rebranded women’s football team has become Norway’s most successful and community-driven women’s football club of the past three years.
Born out of fans desire & fire
SK Brann Kvinner was formed in 2022 after a merger with IL Sandviken. It had been the only women’s football club in Bergen for the last 75 years and almost poetically, won the Toppserien (the top level of women’s association football in Norway) in its final season under its former mantle.
But SK Brann picked up where IL Sandviken left off, retaining the league title in 2022, alongside winning the Norwegian Women’s Cup and embarked on that memorable Champions League campaign in 2023/24.
The success over recent years at the club have translated into growing attendances at the Brann Stadion. SK Brann have held the highest average league attendance across Norwegian women’s football for the last three consecutive years, averaging an attendance of 2,273 last year.
The club also took the unprecedented move of having Brann men’s and women’s teams share the same stadium for all their home fixtures, a move that was wholly supported by Bergen locals.
This was largely due to SK Brann being fan-owned; fans have a major role in the decision making of the club, such as sharing the stadium with the men’s team, as well as the move to keep natural grass as its pitch surface and rejecting the introduction of Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR).
Fans of SK Brann are so intrinsically connected to their club that they are not shy when it comes to voicing their opinions, particularly towards governing bodies like UEFA.
In April 2025, Brann won a landmark case when the Court of Arbitration (CAS) ruled in favour of the club over UEFA after the European body fined Brann €5,000 for ‘UEFA Mafia’ banners during a Women’s Champions League in March 2024 against St Pölten after not being awarded a free-kick.
The fervent fanbase rallied behind the club in its support to overturn the decision which may come as no surprise when you observe the ‘ultras’ fans who regularly attend SK Brann games; a rare occurrence for women’s football teams as ultras are often associated with men’s teams, such as Paris Saint-Germain and Internazionale.
But it’s not just the ultras who are symbolic of the tight-knit community Brann have fostered throughout Bergen. The infrastructure around the club has created a family-friendly experience for fans of all ages, both women and men.
Outside Brann Stadion, football pitches, racing tracks and community centres are regularly used by young people. The club have specifically placed these sporting areas so close to the stadium to help bring an added connection to SK Brann, in particular for young women. The idea is a visual one – if children train and compete with their friends with the looming stadium as their backdrop, they might be inspired to become the next generation of players.
SK Brann’s stadium also has another thoughtful addition – a nursery for players’ children to attend while their parents train for the club. It’s this type of attention to detail that separates SK Brann from other Norwegian and European women’s football clubs as they place the interests of their players first.
With Brann fully integrating the women’s team into the same infrastructure as the men’s team, sharing the stadium; including gym and training facilities, many of the locals believe this has enabled SK Brann to perform to the best of its ability, with some even suggesting that the men’s team should follow in the footsteps of its female counterpart.
A focus on homegrown players
A major facet of the early success of SK Brann has been its commitment to foster growth from within its youth academy, continuing to pride itself on its community and the players within Bergen.
For former Head Coach Martin Ho – who has just recently became Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur Women’s today (July 3) – this was a major factor as to why he took up the job in 2023 after spending time as assistant coach at Manchester United and Everton FC Women’s teams.
“That was one of the first conversations I had on what the club stands for, the ethos the club has,” said Ho.
“We put in a girls academy once I came in to build on that ethos of developing our own. We needed an actual strategy and academy underneath us to do that, and that’s now been running for 18 months.”
The Knicksen Academy has brought in and developed more than 400 young female footballers since 2022 from 44 different regional grassroots clubs, even outside of Bergen, with many parts of Norway recognising Brann as a home to nurture young talent.
Some of the most high-profile talents to have ‘graduated’ from the academy include Justine Kielland, Lisa Naalsund and Elisabeth Terland.
However, despite SK Brann being one of the preeminent forces in women’s football in Norway, the club still ranks lower in the pecking order of Europe’s elite teams, which has seen the three aforementioned players leave the club.
Kielland secured a move to VfL Wolfsburg in Germany, Naalsund joined Manchester United one year prior, and Terland joined Naalsund at United, albeit before leaving Brann for Brighton in 2022.
While losing homegrown players may be disappointing for Brann fans, the revenue generated from their transfer fees helped the club generate €2.1m in revenue during the 2023/24 season, as well as the club’s impressive run in the Women’s Champions League.
This financial performance saw Brann finish in the top 15 of the Deloitte Money League for women’s football, an impressive feat as it was only one of two clubs – SL Benfica Feminino being the other – outside of Europe’s top five leagues to feature.
The interest in players from the likes of Manchester United almost serves as a compliment to Brann’s academy and the development of its players, although Ho admitted they will be “lucky to keep hold of these [talented players] for a long period of time,” as European interest persists.
Player-Fan connection
During Brann’s 3-0 victory over Stabæk on May 15, which Insider Sport was present at the Brann Stadion, a section in the North stand was occupied by the club’s ‘ultras’ supporters, who did not stop singing from the first and final whistle.
After the match, the players gathered amongst each other, arms around together as they chanted Brann songs in unison with the ultras supporters, a demonstration of the connection the players have with the fans of the club.
Post-match, Insider Sport walked down into the media mix zone and eventually into the outside area, where each and every player signed autographs and took pictures with every fan.
This is the ethos of SK Brann, as Head Coach Ho highlighted; young players either born or developed from within the youth academy who understand the community and the club and how it impacts their lives.
Currently sitting second on the Toppserien this season, one point behind league leaders Vålerenga, Brann are set for another year of competing for major honours on all fronts, while continuing to bring through young, new players.
The club’s position may change, or it may lose another flurry of talented players, but one thing is a constant at SK Brann – the support of the fans. Come rain, sleet or snow, they will be chanting loudly from the stands of Brann Stadion.
