You’d be forgiven for not being familiar with Norway’s second-most successful football club. After all, most of this success came in the mid-20^th century with the team averaging a couple of league victories every decade from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Since then, this storied club has struggled and barring winning Norway’s domestic cup twice, there’s been little to shout about. For the last decade, the club has been outside of Norway’s top flight, which was then known as the Tippeligaen (it’s now Eliteserien).

The club even endured a couple of seasons in Norway’s third tier and looked poised to secure back-to-back promotions until an eventual loss in the promotion playoffs that saw the club come from behind, lead in extra time, have a player sent off, and miss only one of the penalties in the shootout.

The club has the potential to become great again and for some, especially Fredrikstad Fotball Invest (FFI), management is more than capable of taking the club back to its former glory, it just needs one thing: money.

How FFI Raises Money

FFI is a limited company that sells shares to raise money. When shareholders like Tor Anders Petterøe, whose shareholding group has the biggest percentage of shares in FFI, buy shares, they provide FFI with the money to invest in the club.

Shares are issued in rounds and interest has been good enough that people have had to be turned away. That said, they’ll get their chance as FFI is growing and there’ll be more opportunities to invest in the company.

How the Company Works

One of the main ways that FFI supports the club is in player acquisition. The limited company has an agreement to foot 30% of the bill for players. This agreement also means that the company enjoys 30% of the money received from the sales of players, too.

However, this doesn’t mean that FFI affects Fredrikstad FK’s transfer policy and the company is happy to maintain a dialogue with the club but leaves the decisions on which players to acquire fully up to the club’s management.

The company also has a particular interest in the club’s youth system and development. One of the biggest problems smaller or poorer clubs face is raising young talent only to see it taken from them by richer clubs. With the money from FFI, Fredrikstad FK has more opportunities to offer young players professional contracts to stop them from being lured away by other clubs.

Turning a Profit

FFI was founded in 2018 and by its third year, it was making a profit. This system has also been shown to work in the neighbouring town of Sarpsborg, where a similar investment company was set up and is also involved in player logistics.

Profits are all well and good, but the company insists that this is more about providing the club they love with the money to do better. Investors should be investing in FFI because they love Fredrikstad FK first and foremost and then, and only then, can they enjoy the benefits.