TheNorwegian Football Cup (Norwegian:Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the mainknockout cup competition inNorwegian football. It is run by theFootball Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football tournament in the country. The tournament is commonly known asCupen ("The Cup"),NM orNM Cup (NM Cupen), an acronym formed fromNorgesmesterskap ("Norwegian Championship"). These terms are used to describe both the men's and women's competitions. The equivalent competition for women's teams is theNorwegian Women's Football Cup.
The Norwegian Football Cup is a national championship, meaning that while theEliteserien may be the most prestigious competition to win, it is the winners of the Cup who are awarded the title "Norwegian football champions". This differs from, for example,English football, where the winners of thePremier League are the ones who become English champions.
Winners receive theKing's trophy. Winners also qualify for theEuropa League second qualifying round. The current Norwegian champions and holders of the cup areFredrikstad, who defeatedMolde 5–4 on penalties (0-0 AET) in the2024 final.Odd,Fredrikstad andRosenborg are the most successful clubs with 12 titles each.
The first cup was played in 1902, andOscar II presented the King's Cup to the inaugural tournament. This was an invitation tournament organised byKristiania IF and the Norwegian Football Association, which was later given official status. Five teams joined the competition, andOdd reached the final without playing a match.Grane won the first Norwegian Cup after they defeated Odd 2–0 atGamle Frogner Stadion,Kristiania. The first tournament who had official status at the time of the events was the1904 Norwegian Cup and was won by Odd.[1] In the beginning, the cup was open for county champions only. This continued until 1917, when the cup was opened for all clubs of a certain standing. League football began with the1937–38 season, andFredrikstad became the first team to win adomestic double by winning both the league and the cup in the same year. Due to the outbreak ofWorld War II, the competition was not played between the1940 and1945 editions. The competition was not nationwide until 1963. 1963 was the first year clubs fromNorthern Norway were allowed to participate, this was due to a poor communication system in the northern parts of Norway and to the belief that the clubs in the three northern counties could not compete on the same level as the southern clubs (Bodø/Glimt – one of the two northern newcomers – did stay in the cup to the fourth round that year). Until 1963, teams from Northern Norway competed in their own Northern Norwegian Championships, including theNorthern Norwegian Cup.
Before the 2004 cup final,NRK awarded the 1986 final betweenTromsø andLillestrøm with the titleTidenes Cupfinale (Best cup final ever), and ex-Rosenborg strikerGøran Sørloth withTidenes Cuphelt (Best cup hero ever).
The final has been played atUllevaal Stadion since the 1948 cup final.
Before the proper rounds take place, two qualifying rounds are played in March and April. As of the 2025 edition, all non-reserve clubs from tiers 1 (Eliteserien), 2 (OBOS-ligaen), and 3 (PostNord-ligaen) enter in the First Round, in sharp contrast to some other countries' main cups such as theFA Cup andCoupe de France where teams enter much more gradually. The top 4 teams in each of the 6 areas of theNorwegian Third Division also enter in the First Round,[2] as do an additional few teams placed 5th and possibly below in order to replace ineligible reserve teams to reach a total of 84 eligible teams.
176 clubs from tier 4, 5, and 6 enter the first qualifying round and 44 of these advance to the first round where they are joined by the above-mentioned First Round-entering teams.
The first round of the cup are played in April, around the same time as theEliteserien season starts. The first two rounds are set up by theNorwegian Football Association, where the top teams are under normal circumstance drawn automatically away against fairly weak amateur teams, often from the same counties or areas as the top teams. Early upsets, where an amateur team knocks a professional team out of the tournament do happen occasionally. For example, in 2012 the Eliteserien teamsSandnes Ulf andSogndal were knocked out in the first round by theNorwegian Third Division (fourth tier) teamsStaal Jørpeland IL andFlorø SK respectively.[3] Even if the amateur team loses, squaring off against a professional team may well be the highlight of their season.
From the third round to the semi-final, matchups and hostings are drawn at random, all matchups are single matches, and the winner goes on to the next round. The final match is played atUllevaal Stadium (national stadium) in November or December, and takes place near the end of the Norwegian football season, as no significant domestic competitions take place in January or February.
The cup is very popular in Norway, and tickets for the final match are hard to get hold of, as the game usually sells out quickly. The supporters of the two teams playing in the final match are seated at the two short-ends of the pitch, while the more neutral supporters are seated by the long-ends. The match is also televised on national television.
In all rounds, if a fixture result in a draw after normal time, the winner is settled by a period ofextra time, and if still necessary, apenalty shootout. Earlier, fixtures resulting in a draw (after normal time) would go to areplay, played at the venue of the away team.
The first Cup Final to go to a replay was the 1945 final, betweenLyn andFredrikstad. The initial tie finished 1–1 and the first replay also finished 1–1. Lyn won the second replay 4–0. The only other time the final has taken three matches to settle was the 1965 final between Oslo rivalsSkeid andFrigg (2–2, 1–1, 2–1). The last replayed final was the1995 final, when Rosenborg and Brann fought a 1–1 draw. The replay saw Rosenborg win the Cup, with the score 3–1. The first final to be decided by a penalty shootout was the2009 final betweenMolde andAalesund. The score ended 1–1 after normal time and 2–2 after extra time. Aalesund won the final 5–4 on penalties.
Prior to 2020, the Cup winners qualified for the following season'sUEFA Europa League (formerly named the UEFA Cup; from its launch in 1960 until 1998, they entered the now-defunctUEFA Cup Winners' Cup instead). After the creation of theUEFA Conference League, the Norwegian Cup winners from 2020 onwards qualified for that competition instead, until they returned to qualifying for the UEFA Europa League from the 2023 Norwegian Cup again due to Eliteserien's heightenedUEFA coefficients.
This European place applies even if the team is relegated or is not in the Norwegian top flight; for instance,Hødd played in the2013–14 UEFA Europa League qualifiers despite last having played in the top flight in1995.
In the past, if the Cup winning team also qualified for the following season'sChampions League or Europa League through their league position, then the losing Cup finalist were given this European berth instead. Norwegian Cup winners enter the Europa League at the second qualifying round. Losing finalists, if they hadn't qualified for Europe via the league, began earlier, at the first qualifying round. From the2015–16 UEFA Europa League season, however,UEFA does not allow the runners-up to qualify for the Europa League through the competition.[4]
If the winner – and until 2015, the runner-up - has already qualified for Europe through their league position (with the exception of the UEFA Cup until 1998), the Cup berth is then given to the highest-place team in the league who has not yet qualified.
Since 1978, an official cup for women's clubs has also been played. The women's cup final is usually played on a Saturday, the day before the men's cup final. The 1978 cup final between BUL and Trondheims-Ørn was the only Norwegian cup final to be decided on penalties.
Before the 2006 final, theNorwegian Football Association decided that the Women's final would be played atBislett Stadium instead ofUllevaal Stadion, which caused some debate. The Football Association claimed that two matches over one weekend would cause too much wear on the Ullevaal pitch, while representatives for the clubs claimed that the move was discriminating against women's football. When the semi-finals of the 2006 cup were drawn, all 4 clubs boycotted the draw in a protest against the move.[1]
^Andersen, Espen (2007).Det store gjennombruddet. Norsk fotballs kulturhistorie 1885–1925 [The big breakthrough. Norwegian fotball's cultural history 1885–1925] (in Norwegian). Oslo. pp. 207–208.ISBN9788250204102.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Mari Stanisic Waagaard (4 December 2024)."Her er lagene som skal spille NM menn 2025" (in Norwegian Bokmål). Norges fotballforbund. Retrieved23 July 2025.Fra Norsk Tipping-ligaen skal 1-4 (fire lag) fra hver avdeling med. Er 2. lag på noen av disse plassene, går plassen til neste lag i samme avdeling.
^After a protest from Odd during the original 1909 Final, which was caused by Odd refusing to play on after conceding what they saw as an offside goal – the Norwegian Football Federation annulled the Second Half. A replacement Referee – Thorvald Torgersen – was appointed and the 2nd Half and Extra Time were replayed in full –http://www.rsssf.no/1909/fcup
2025 Norwegian Football Cup
