Sofiemyr stadion

What makes the place different from the identical grounds down the coast is its age. It was laid out in 1938, before the post-war building boom, and has kept its simple shape ever since. The original pitch was natural grass, but the club eventually moved their fixtures to an adjacent all-weather surface at Kongeveien 60, leaving the older stadium to serve as a training base. You can see the contrast in the blue and white signage on the main stand; the colours of the club, Kolbotn IL, are worn on the concrete rather than painted on the seats.

There are only 400 seats under the roof, but the small crowd that gathers here tends to stay for the whole game. The record for a match at this venue was set in 1997, not with a local derby, but when Norway hosted Australia in a friendly that ended in a seven-one win. That was a special day, but on most Sundays the players are just trying to keep their footing on the wet turf while the wind comes off the fjord. The new synthetic pitch next door handles the mud better, but it lacks the history of the original.