2019 Norwegian First Division

The 2019 1. divisjon (referred to as OBOS-ligaen for sponsorship reasons) was a Norwegian second-tier football league season.

1. divisjon

Season	2019
Dates	30 March – 9 November
Champions	Aalesund
Promoted	Aalesund Sandefjord
Relegated	Notodden Skeid Tromsdalen
Matches played	240
Goals scored	722 (3.01 per match)
Top goalscorer	Pontus Engblom (19 goals)
Biggest home win	KFUM Oslo 5–0 Jerv (5 May 2019) Aalesund 5–0 Tromsdalen (16 May 2019)
Biggest away win	Tromsdalen 0–8 Ull/Kisa (14 April 2019)
Highest scoring	Raufoss 6–4 Tromsdalen (2 June 2019)
Longest winning run	9 games Aalesund[citation needed]
Longest unbeaten run	18 games Aalesund[citation needed]
Longest winless run	16 games Tromsdalen[citation needed]
Longest losing run	7 games Tromsdalen[citation needed]
Highest attendance	7,150 Start 3–2 Jerv (16 May 2019)
Lowest attendance	50 Tromsdalen 0–1 Aalesund (20 October 2019) Tromsdalen 3–0 Raufoss (2 November 2019)
Average attendance	1,434 15.5%
← 2018 2020 →

Aalesund set a new record for most points in a 1. divisjon season with 79. They surpassed IK Start's previous record of 74 points, from the 2004 season.^[1]

Season summary

On 20 October, Aalesund secured both promotion and league title with three games to spare by winning 1–0 away over Tromsdalen.^[2] The same day, Tromsdalen were the first team to be relegated as their defeat coincided with a victory for Strømmen. On 2 November, Sandefjord secured promotion to the first tier with one match to spare after their 1–0 win over Jerv at Komplett Arena.^[3] On the same day, Skeid were the second team to be relegated as their draw against Notodden meant that survival was out of reach before the ultimate round.

Teams

In the 2018 1. divisjon, Viking and Mjøndalen were promoted to the 2019 Eliteserien, while Åsane, Florø and Levanger were relegated to the 2019 2. divisjon.

Start and Sandefjord were relegated from the 2018 Eliteserien, while Raufoss, Skeid and KFUM Oslo were promoted from the 2018 2. divisjon.

Aalesund

HamKam

Jerv

Kongsvinger

Nest-Sotra

Notodden

Raufoss

Sandefjord

Sandnes Ulf

Sogndal

Start

Tromsdalen

Ull/Kisa

Oslo

Oslo region teams:
KFUM Oslo
Skeid
Strømmen

Locations of the teams in the 2019 1. divisjon

Stadia and personnel

Team	Location	Arena	Capacity	Manager
Aalesund	Ålesund	Color Line Stadion	10,778	Lars Bohinen
HamKam	Hamar	Briskeby Arena	7,800	Gaute Helstrup
Jerv	Grimstad	Levermyr Stadion	3,300	Arne Sandstø
KFUM Oslo	Oslo	KFUM Arena	1,500	Jørgen Isnes
Kongsvinger	Kongsvinger	Gjemselund Stadion	5,824	Vítor Gazimba
Nest-Sotra	Sotra	Ågotnes Stadion	1,200	Steffen Landro
Notodden	Notodden	Idrettsparken	4,000	Kenneth Dokken
Raufoss	Raufoss	Nammo Stadion	1,800	Christian Johnsen
Sandefjord	Sandefjord	Komplett Arena	6,582	Martí Cifuentes
Sandnes Ulf	Sandnes	Sandnes Stadion	4,969	Bengt Sæternes
Skeid	Oslo	Nordre Åsen1	2,000	Tom Nordlie
Sogndal	Sogndal	Fosshaugane Campus	5,622	Eirik Bakke
Start	Kristiansand	Sør Arena	14,448	Jóhannes Harðarson
Strømmen	Strømmen	Strømmen Stadion2	1,850	Ole Martin Nesselquist
Tromsdalen	Tromsdalen	TUIL Arena	1,695	Jonathan Hill
Ull/Kisa	Jessheim	Jessheim Stadion	3,500	Trond Fredriksen

• ¹Skeid played their home games at Intility Arena from 25 May 2019.^[4]
• ²Strømmen played their last home game at Jessheim Stadion due to nonapproved floodlights at Strømmen Stadion.^[5]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
HamKam	Kevin Knappen	Contract expired	11 November 2018	Pre-season	Gaute Helstrup	29 November 2018[6]	Pre-season
Strømmen	Espen Olsen	Contract expired	11 November 2018[7]		Ole Martin Nesselquist	29 November 2018[8]
Ull/Kisa	Vegard Skogheim	Contract expired	11 November 2018[9]		Trond Fredriksen	7 December 2018[10]
Kongsvinger	Mark Dempsey	Resigned	13 November 2018[11]		Vítor Gazimba	16 January 2019[12]
Tromsdalen	Gaute Helstrup	Signed by HamKam	29 November 2018[13]		Jonathan Hill	10 January 2019[14]
Start	Kjetil Rekdal	Mutual agreement	2 April 2019	15th	Jóhannes Harðarson[a]	3 April 2019[15][16][17]	15th

1. Harðarson was initially appointed as caretaker on 3 April 2019, and as interim head coach for the rest of the season on 10 July 2019. Harðarson was appointed as permanent head coach on 23 October 2019.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Aalesund (C, P)	30	25	4	1	67	25	+42	79	Promotion to Eliteserien
2	Sandefjord (P)	30	19	8	3	53	30	+23	65
3	Start (O, P)	30	19	5	6	54	31	+23	62	Qualification for the promotion play-offs
4	KFUM Oslo	30	13	9	8	58	42	+16	48
5	Kongsvinger	30	14	4	12	38	36	+2	46
6	Sogndal	30	13	6	11	51	39	+12	45
7	Nest-Sotra	30	14	6	10	43	31	+12	44[a]
8	Ull/Kisa	30	11	6	13	47	47	0	39
9	Sandnes Ulf	30	11	5	14	46	49	−3	38
10	HamKam	30	11	5	14	43	47	−4	38
11	Raufoss	30	12	2	16	47	59	−12	38
12	Jerv	30	8	9	13	34	54	−20	33
13	Strømmen	30	7	10	13	32	46	−14	30[b]
14	Notodden (R)	30	6	7	17	35	53	−18	25	Qualification for the relegation play-offs
15	Skeid (R)	30	4	10	16	38	54	−16	22	Relegation to Second Division
16	Tromsdalen (R)	30	3	4	23	36	79	−43	13

Source: nifs.no (in Norwegian), Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored (only if between two teams); 7) Head-to-head goals scored; 8) Play-off (only used to decide champions or relegation).
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Nest-Sotra have been deducted a total of 4 points due to financial difficulties. They were deducted 1 point in May^[18] and 3 points in October.^[19]
2. Strømmen have been deducted 1 point.^[18]

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Aalesund	3	2	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sandefjord	3	1	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Start	11	6	4	7	9	5	3	3	3	2	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
KFUM Oslo	11	15	14	11	8	4	8	5	4	4	5	3	6	6	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	6	4	4
Kongsvinger	3	8	8	5	6	8	5	8	6	6	4	6	5	5	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	6	7	6	7	7	5	7	5
Sogndal	7	13	7	9	12	13	11	13	13	11	10	8	10	9	8	6	6	6	6	5	6	5	5	6	8	6	6	7	5	6
Nest-Sotra	16	14	9	13	10	11	13	11	11	12	12	11	8	8	10	9	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	5	5	5	5	4	6	7
Ull/Kisa	7	3	1	4	7	3	7	4	7	7	7	7	7	7	9	10	10	11	9	10	10	12	12	12	11	10	9	9	10	8
Sandnes Ulf	7	10	10	6	11	7	9	7	8	9	9	9	9	10	7	8	8	9	10	11	11	10	9	9	10	12	12	10	8	9
HamKam	11	6	12	12	13	12	12	10	10	10	11	12	12	12	11	11	11	12	12	12	12	11	10	10	12	9	10	11	11	10
Raufoss	2	9	11	7	4	6	4	6	5	5	6	5	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	6	5	7	7	8	7	8	8	8	9	11
Jerv	1	4	5	2	2	9	6	9	9	8	8	10	11	11	12	12	12	10	11	9	9	9	11	11	9	11	11	12	12	12
Strømmen	10	11	13	14	14	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	15	15	14	14	14	14	14	15	15	14	15	14	14	14	13	13	13	13
Notodden	11	12	15	15	15	14	14	14	14	15	15	15	14	14	15	15	15	15	15	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	14	14	14	14
Skeid	3	5	6	10	5	10	10	12	12	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	13	14	14	15	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
Tromsdalen	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

	Promotion to Eliteserien
	Promotion play-offs
	Relegation play-offs
	Relegation to 2. divisjon

Source: nifs.no

Results

Home \ Away	AAL	HAM	JER	KFU	KIL	NSO	NOT	RAU	SAN	ULF	SKE	SOG	IKS	SIF	TUI	UKI
Aalesund	—	5–2	4–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	3–1	3–1	3–1	3–1	4–2	3–1	2–1	3–1	5–0	1–0
HamKam	1–2	—	2–2	4–4	2–0	3–2	1–2	1–2	1–0	2–3	2–1	0–0	4–0	1–2	2–1	2–0
Jerv	0–0	1–0	—	2–2	0–2	0–1	3–1	1–0	0–2	0–0	5–1	1–1	1–7	1–1	1–0	2–0
KFUM Oslo	2–4	2–0	5–0	—	0–1	2–1	4–1	2–1	3–3	3–0	2–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–1	5–1
Kongsvinger	1–1	2–1	1–1	0–0	—	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–3	1–2	0–2	3–0	4–2	3–2	3–2	1–2
Nest-Sotra	0–1	2–0	4–1	2–2	3–0	—	2–1	1–2	1–1	3–0	2–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	2–0	2–0
Notodden	0–1	1–2	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–3	—	0–1	0–2	0–4	1–1	1–3	0–2	3–0	3–3	0–0
Raufoss	2–1	1–2	4–2	1–0	0–0	2–1	1–4	—	0–2	2–5	4–5	1–1	1–2	1–0	6–4	4–2
Sandefjord	1–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	3–0	1–0	—	3–1	1–0	0–3	0–0	2–0	1–0	3–2
Sandnes Ulf	1–2	0–2	2–3	2–3	1–2	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–4	—	3–2	0–1	2–0	0–31	3–2	2–0
Skeid	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	1–2	2–2	2–3	2–2	0–0	—	2–2	1–1	1–1	3–0	1–2
Sogndal	2–3	3–0	4–0	4–2	2–1	0–1	4–1	1–3	1–1	1–1	4–2	—	0–1	4–2	5–2	3–0
Start	0–1	4–1	3–2	0–0	3–1	2–0	0–3	2–1	2–2	3–2	2–0	1–0	—	4–0	2–0	2–1
Strømmen	1–2	0–0	3–1	0–3	2–0	0–2	1–1	2–1	2–3	0–0	1–1	2–0	0–0	—	0–4	1–1
Tromsdalen	0–1	2–5	1–3	2–3	1–3	2–2	0–2	3–0	3–3	1–4	1–0	0–1	1–3	0–2	—	0–8
Ull/Kisa	2–2	0–0	1–0	4–2	0–2	1–1	3–1	5–1	0–2	2–1	3–2	3–0	0–2	2–2	2–0	—

Source: Football Association of Norway (in Norwegian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

• ¹Due to a frozen pitch at Sandnes Stadion, the game was cancelled and the result was set to 0–3.^[20]

Play-offs

Promotion play-offs

Main article: 2019 Eliteserien promotion/relegation play-offs

The 3rd to 6th placed teams took part in the promotion play-offs; these were single-leg knockout matches. In the first round, the fifth-placed team played at home against the sixth-placed team. The winner of the first round then met the fourth-placed team on away ground in the second round. The winner of the second round then met the third-placed team on away ground. The winner of the third round advanced to play the 14th-placed team in Eliteserien over two legs in the Eliteserien play-offs for a spot in the top-flight next season.

First round

Kongsvinger	1–0	Sogndal
Skagestad 17'	Report

23 November 2019

18:00 CET (UTC+1)

Gjemselund Stadion, Kongsvinger

Attendance: 1,433

Referee: Ola Hobber Nilsen

Second round

KFUM Oslo	2–0	Kongsvinger
Brix 24' Larsen 74'	Report

27 November 2019

18:30 CET (UTC+1)

Intility Arena, Oslo

Attendance: 1,311

Referee: Kristoffer Hagenes

Third round

Start	1–0	KFUM Oslo
Lowe 32'	Report

1 December 2019

15:00 CET (UTC+1)

Sør Arena, Kristiansand

Attendance: 2,615

Referee: Rohit Saggi

Relegation play-offs

See also: 2019 2. divisjon § Promotion play-offs

The 14th placed team took part in a two-legged play-off against the winners of the 2. divisjon play-offs to decide who would play in the 2020 1. divisjon.

Notodden	1–3	Åsane
Tagbajumi 21'	Report	Nygard 23' Hammersland 34', 54'

21 November 2019

19:00 CET (UTC+1)

Idrettsparken, Notodden

Attendance: 468

Åsane	2–2	Notodden
Hammersland 20', 80'	Report	Bakke 6' Gustavsen 25'

24 November 2019

14:00 CET (UTC+1)

Myrdal Stadion, Bergen

Attendance: 802

Åsane won 5–3 on aggregate.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[21]
1	Pontus Engblom	Sandefjord	19
2	Niklas Castro	Aalesund	17
3	Adem Güven	Kongsvinger	15
4	Kent Håvard Eriksen	Sandnes Ulf	14
5	Pape Habib Guèye	Aalesund	13
	Aron Sigurðarson	Start
7	Sivert Gussiås	Strømmen	12
	Simen Nordli	HamKam
	Martin Ramsland	Start
10	Torbjørn Agdestein	Aalesund	10
	Sigurd Hauso Haugen	Sogndal
	Kachi	Sandnes Ulf
	Moses Mawa	KFUM Oslo
	David Tavakoli	Skeid/KFUM Oslo