Fredrikstad

The ground the club has used since 2007 sits inside what is left of the yard. The pitch at Værste is hemmed in by the old Fredrikstad Mekaniske Verksted; the side stands were built out of mechanical workshops that went up in the 1870s. The old ground it replaced had its own line in the record books as the first in Norway fitted with floodlights.

The club that grew there was, in 1903, something new in the country. The white and red came later, and from outside. Norway played Poland in 1926, and afterwards Fredrikstad wrote to the Polish football association asking whether they might wear the Polish national colours. Warsaw agreed and sent a set of kit. From 17 March 1927 those were the club's colours, and they still are — hence Rødbuksene , the Red Shorts, alongside the older nickname of the Aristocrats.

Nine league titles came between 1938 and 1961. Per Egil Ahlsen won 54 caps in that period and returned later as head coach. Then the descent: relegated in 1984 in the same season they lifted the cup. Knut Torbjørn Egen began the climb back, and by 2004 Fredrikstad were in the top flight again.