Brann Women

SK Brann Kvinner arrive in the new Toppserien campaign as champions, having taken the 2025 title, and Bergen now expects them to defend it against the same clutch of Norwegian sides who could not close the gap last season.

The team did not start life inside Brann at all. Its roots lie in 1978, when IL Sandviken formed a women's football section, and it was under that name that the club built most of its early history, including a Norwegian Cup win in 1995. The break came on 11 November 2021, when Sandviken's general assembly voted to hand its women's section over to SK Brann. From 2022 the side played as SK Brann Kvinner, and the paperwork caught up in January 2023, when the two clubs formally merged.

The timing suited the team on the pitch. Under Alexander Straus, still called IL Sandviken that year, they won the 2021 Toppserien with Maria Brochmann scoring five goals in the deciding match alone; Straus left for Bayern Munich soon after. His successor, Olli Harder, went further in 2022, winning the league and cup double in his first year in charge. Martin Ho, who had worked at Manchester United and Liverpool, has held the job since 2023.

Brochmann finished as the club's record scorer, with 38 goals in 93 appearances, but the team also sent players outward: Tuva Hansen captained the side through the 2021 title before moving to Bayern and then West Ham, and Elisabeth Terland left for Brighton and later Manchester United.

Bergen's other clubs supply the derby fixtures, against Åsane and Arna-Bjørnar, matches known locally as Bergensderby. Home games were split for years with Åsane Arena while Brann Stadion's pitch was unfit for regular use, but a stadium rebuild has since made Brann Stadion the settled home ground, holding 17,500 for domestic fixtures and reduced to 15,800 when the stands are set up for internationals.