2015 Norwegian First Division

The 2015 1. divisjon (referred to as the OBOS-ligaen for sponsorship reasons) was a Norwegian second-tier football league season. The league was contested by 16 teams, and the top two teams were promoted to Tippeligaen, while the teams placed from third to sixth place played a promotion-playoff against the 14th-placed team in Tippeligaen to win promotion. The bottom four teams were relegated to the 2. divisjon.^[1]

1. divisjon

Season	2015
Dates	6 April – 1 November
Champions	Sogndal
Promoted	Sogndal Brann
Relegated	Follo Nest-Sotra Bærum Hønefoss
Matches played	240
Goals scored	702 (2.93 per match)
Top goalscorer	Pontus Engblom (17 goals) Robert Stene (17 goals)
Biggest home win	Sandnes Ulf 6–1 Fredrikstad
Biggest away win	Bærum 0–5 Sogndal
Highest scoring	Sandnes Ulf 6–1 Fredrikstad Bærum 5–2 Nest-Sotra
Longest winning run	7 games Sogndal
Longest unbeaten run	14 games Brann
Highest attendance	17,284 Brann 2–2 Nest-Sotra (16 May 2015)
Average attendance	1,998
← 2014 2016 →

The first round of the season was played on 6 April 2015 and the season ended with the last round on 1 November 2015. The playoff-tournament was played between 7 and 21 November 2015.^[2]

An agreement with Oslo's housing cooperative OBOS was signed on 15 January 2015, branding the league as OBOS-ligaen until 2021.^[3]

Team changes from 2014

In the 2014 1. divisjon, Sandefjord,^[4] Tromsø^[4] and Mjøndalen^[5] won promotion to Tippeligaen, while Alta, HamKam, Tromsdalen and Ull/Kisa were relegated^[4] to the 2015 2. divisjon.

Sogndal,^[6] Sandnes Ulf^[6] and Brann,^[5] were relegated from the 2014 Tippeligaen, while Follo, Jerv, Levanger and Åsane were promoted^[7] from the 2014 2. divisjon.

Teams

Brann

Bryne

Bærum

Follo

Fredrikstad

Hødd

Hønefoss

Jerv

Kristiansund

Levanger

Nest

Ranheim

Sandnes Ulf

Sogndal

Strømmen

Åsane

Locations of the teams in the 2015 1. divisjon

Team	Location	Arena	Capacity	Manager
Brann	Bergen	Brann Stadion[8]	17,686	Lars Arne Nilsen
Bryne	Bryne	Bryne Stadion[9]	10,000	Gaute Larsen[10]
Bærum	Sandvika	Sandvika Stadion[11]	1,815	Roar Johansen[12]
Follo	Ski	Ski Stadion	2,500	Hans Erik Eriksen[13]
Fredrikstad	Fredrikstad	Fredrikstad Stadion[14]	12,565	Håkon Wibe Lund[15]
Hødd	Ulsteinvik	Høddvoll Stadion[16]	3,825	Sindre Eid[17]
Hønefoss	Hønefoss	Aka Arena[18]	4,120	Rune Skarsfjord[19]
Jerv	Grimstad	J.J. Ugland Stadion – Levermyr[20]	1,700	Steinar Pedersen[21]
Kristiansund	Kristiansund	Kristiansund Stadion[22]	3,000	Christian Michelsen[23]
Levanger	Levanger	Moan Fritidspark	6,000	Andreas Holmberg[24]
Nest-Sotra	Sotra	Ågotnes Stadion	2,000	Michael Schjønberg[25]
Ranheim	Trondheim	DNB Arena[26]	2,000	Ola By Rise[27]
Sandnes Ulf	Sandnes	Sandnes Idrettspark[28]	4,969	Bengt Sæternes[29]
Sogndal	Sogndalsfjøra	Fosshaugane Campus[30]	5,539	Eirik Bakke[31]
Strømmen	Strømmen	Strømmen Stadion[32]	1,800	Gunnar Halle[33]
Åsane	Åsane	Åsane Idrettspark	3,000	Morten Røssland[34]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
Bærum	Morten Tandberg	Resigned	20 Nov 2014[35]	Pre-season	Roar Johansen	1 Jan 2015[36]	Pre-season
Nest-Sotra	Ruben Hetlevik	Stepped down to become assistant	26 Nov 2014[25]	Pre-season	Michael Schjønberg	26 Nov 2014[25]	Pre-season
Sandnes Ulf	Tom Nordlie	Mutual consent	17 Nov 2014[37]	Pre-season	Bengt Sæternes	19 Nov 2014[29]	Pre-season
Sogndal	Jonas Olsson	Mutual consent	1 Jan 2015[31]	Pre-season	Eirik Bakke	1 Jan 2015[31]	Pre-season
Fredrikstad	Håkon Wibe-Lund	Sacked	7 May 2015[38]	13th	Jan Tore Ophaug Aleksander Olsen (interim)	7 May 2015	13th
Nest-Sotra	Michael Schjønberg	Sacked	13 May 2015[39]	15th	Ruben Hetlevik Steffen Landro (interim)	13 May 2015	15th
Fredrikstad	Jan Tore Ophaug Aleksander Olsen (interim)	End of the interim	20 May 2015	14th	Arne Erlandsen	20 May 2015[40]	14th
Ranheim	Trond Nordsteien	Sacked	27 May 2015[41]	14th	Svein Maalen	27 May 2015	14th
Brann	Rikard Norling	Sacked	27 May 2015[42]	9th	Lars Arne Nilsen	29 May 2015[43]	9th
Ranheim	Svein Maalen	End of the interim	8 June 2015	13th	Ola By Rise	8 May 2015[44]	13th
Nest-Sotra	Ruben Hetlevik Steffen Landro (interim)	End of the interim	16 July 2015	15th	Petter Fossmark	16 July 2015[45]	15th

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Sogndal (C, P)	30	18	8	4	59	31	+28	62	Promotion to Tippeligaen
2	Brann (P)	30	14	11	5	46	35	+11	53
3	Kristiansund	30	14	7	9	37	30	+7	49	Qualification for the promotion play-offs
4	Hødd	30	14	6	10	43	40	+3	48
5	Jerv	30	12	11	7	47	28	+19	47
6	Ranheim	30	13	8	9	48	36	+12	47
7	Sandnes Ulf	30	13	8	9	49	40	+9	47
8	Strømmen	30	10	7	13	33	39	−6	37
9	Levanger	30	10	6	14	48	53	−5	36
10	Bryne	30	10	6	14	43	50	−7	36
11	Åsane	30	8	11	11	46	46	0	35
12	Fredrikstad	30	8	11	11	41	61	−20	35
13	Follo (R)	30	8	9	13	42	43	−1	33	Relegation to Second Division
14	Nest-Sotra (R)	30	8	7	15	41	51	−10	31
15	Bærum (R)	30	8	7	15	44	67	−23	31
16	Hønefoss (R)	30	7	7	16	35	52	−17	28

Source: nifs.no
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	BRA	BRY	BÆR	FOL	FFK	HØD	HØN	JER	KBK	LEV	NS	RAN	ULF	SOG	STR	ÅSF
Brann	—	2–1	2–2	2–1	5–1	1–2	3–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	2–2	4–1	0–0	0–4	2–0	2–2
Bryne	0–1	—	2–1	2–0	2–3	1–4	3–2	1–2	2–0	4–1	2–1	2–2	2–1	0–2	0–0	0–0
Bærum	1–1	1–4	—	1–1	2–3	4–0	1–0	0–4	1–2	3–2	5–2	0–1	2–0	0–5	0–1	3–2
Follo	0–1	1–4	2–2	—	2–3	3–0	4–0	2–1	2–3	1–2	1–1	3–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–0
Fredrikstad	1–1	2–0	3–3	2–2	—	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–4	2–2	1–1	3–1	3–2	1–1	0–0	1–1
Hødd	3–0	2–0	4–2	2–1	1–1	—	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–4	3–2	1–1	1–3	1–0	1–1	4–0
Hønefoss	0–0	1–2	2–2	2–1	2–0	1–3	—	2–1	1–1	3–0	2–2	2–2	0–1	2–5	1–3	3–3
Jerv	2–2	3–0	5–0	2–2	4–0	0–1	2–1	—	0–1	4–2	3–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–1
Kristiansund	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	—	2–1	1–1	0–0	3–1	1–1	2–1	0–1
Levanger	4–1	1–0	4–1	3–1	4–1	0–0	0–1	1–4	0–2	—	0–3	1–1	0–0	4–1	0–1	2–2
Nest-Sotra	2–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	1–0	3–2	1–3	4–0	0–1	1–1	—	1–2	2–3	1–2	2–0	2–3
Ranheim	0–0	4–1	0–0	0–1	4–0	4–1	4–0	0–1	0–1	3–2	3–0	—	1–1	3–2	2–0	3–2
Sandnes Ulf	1–1	3–2	3–2	2–1	6–1	0–2	1–0	2–2	2–1	2–3	3–1	1–0	—	1–2	3–1	1–3
Sogndal	0–0	3–1	3–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	4–3	1–3	3–0	1–0	2–1	—	3–2	3–0
Strømmen	2–3	2–2	3–1	1–2	1–2	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	2–1	2–1	2–4	0–3	1–1	—	1–0
Åsane	2–3	2–2	5–0	0–1	3–3	2–0	2–1	1–1	2–0	5–0	0–1	1–2	0–0	1–1	0–3	—

Source: NIFS (in Norwegian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals	Games	Average
1	Pontus Engblom	Sandnes Ulf	17	26	0,65
	Robert Stene	Ranheim	17	29	0,59
3	Kristian Fardal Opseth	Sogndal	16	26	0,62
4	Ohi Omoijuanfo	Jerv	15	29	0,52
	Bendik Bye	Levanger	15	30	0,50
6	Mahatma Otoo	Sogndal	13	26	0,50
	Steffen Lie Skålevik	Brann	13	29	0,45
8	Martin Ramsland	Strømmen	12	28	0,41
	Oddbjørn Skartun	Bryne	12	29	0,41
	Alexander Ruud Tveter	Follo	12	30	0,40
11	Henrik Kjelsrud Johansen	Fredrikstad	11	19	0,58
	Eirik Ulland Andersen	Hødd	11	27	0,41
13	Alexander Lind	Jerv	10	28	0,36

Source:^[46]

Hat tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Jakob Orlov	Brann	Ranheim	4–1	30 April 2015
Ohi Omoijuanfo	Jerv	Levanger	4–2	31 May 2015
Kristian Fardal Opseth	Sogndal	Brann	4–0	21 June 2015
Robert Stene	Ranheim	Åsane	3–2	5 July 2015
Geir André Herrem	Åsane	Bærum	5–0	20 September 2015