Stord Sunnhordland FK (Norway)
This is the
story of Stord Sunnhordland FK. The
‘Club Without a Soul’.
Founded on the
18th December, 2002, the club were originally named Stord/Moster, s
it was a merger of two clubs, Stord IL and Moster. Stord IL had been competing
in the Third division of the Norwegian football pyramid at the time, whilst
Moster were playing in the fourth division. The project was initiated by
football agent Terje Simonsen and professional footballer, Kjetil Lovvik. It
was a project that many from the outside looking in had deemed destined to
fail, and never believed it would be sanctioned in the first place. However, in
November 2002, Stord’s football section approved the plan’s and let both men
invest their money into the project. The goal was to reach the second division
of Norwegian football within five years, and once they had done so, they would
revise the plan. Everything was set-up and ready to go, with head coach Magnar
Aaland appointed, while Kristian Innvaer was appointed Chairman of he board.
However, Magnar resigned during pre-season and that left assistants, Elvind
Egeland and Oystein Djuve to take charge of the team. Another spanner in the
works appeared when Egeland resigned, pursing another career outside of
football. Icelander Kristinn Atlason was appointed head coach. It seemed as
though a bit of stability was in place, but that wasn’t to be the case as more
resignations started to flow into the office. Oystein Djuve handed in his
notice while fitness coach Tore Hammer did the same. In April 2003, two youth
coaches had handed in their notices., leaving Simonsen taking over the youth
section by himself.
On the pitch,
things looked slightly better, with owner Lovvik even registering himself as
one of the playing staff. He helped them win the league that year, becoming the
clubs top goal scorer that season, as the club won fourteen games out of the twenty-two,
they played, however, they lost in the promotion playoff to Norheimsund IL, 4-3
on aggregate. It meant another season in the third division. But it became
apparent in the early days of this project that making a profit was not going
to be easy. It their first year they were in a deficit, which was somewhat a
shock to co-owner Simonsen, who had been accused as using the whole operation
to make a profit for himself. Nevertheless, the club continued to be successful
on the field and once again they won their third division group, winning
eighteen, drawing one and losing three games all season. This was all despite
another managerial change at the start of the season when previous head coach,
Kristinn Atlason, who had the won the league the season before, was sacked in
favour of Vegard Hansen. This time the club won their promotion play-off match,
beating Nest-Sotra 3-2 on aggregate. It was somewhat a shock as Nest-Sotra had
already beaten Stord/Moster that season in the early rounds of the Norwegian
Cup.
The 2005 season
was to begin in the Second Division, and owner Simonsen had already outlined
the plan for the future of the club. He wanted to be challenging for promotion
by 2007. It ambitious to say the least. In their first season in the Second
Division, the club finished a respectable 8th out of fourteen clubs
in Group 3, finishing ten points above the relegation zone, while never
challenging to gain promotion. But off the field, things were starting to
unravel, and the club’s financial position was starting to deteriorate, with
both owners investments being lost. Within three years of the clubs formation. The
club was unable to pay players wages and it emerged that the manager, Vegard
Hansen was also not being paid. He left and with that Jonas Jonsson took over
as head coach.
The preseason
for 2006 was not ideal at all, with players effectively going on strike and not
turning up to training because of, their wages not being paid. Their current
manager, Jonas Jonsson was also not being paid, and as a result he left the
club to go and manage Mandalskameratens. By now it became public knowledge that
Stord/Moster were in big trouble and when owner, Simonsen’s company ceased all
financial commitments to the club, the writing was on the wall.
However, the
club continued to prepare as best the could for the upcoming season, with Bengt
Forland being hired as the new head coach. He was also put in charge of
marketing as the general manager of the club and so his salary was 45% coaching
based, while 55% was based on his marketing role. It was plan that did not work
out well, as in March of 2006, the club cut it’s budget by sacking all
non-playing roles, meaning Bengt was now only working for 45% of his salary,
which he deemed not worth his time and so he left.
It was around
this time the club were taken over by new limited company called Sunnhordland
Toppfotball AS and the club changed it’s name from Strod/Moster to Stord
Sunnhordland FK. The new Chairmen of the board was Tjerand Espeland and one of
his first jobs was to appoint a new head coach. Morten Tislevoli was hired and
was given one task, to try and stay in the second division while the new board
tried to stabilise the club financially. However, Tislevoli couldn’t prevent
the demise of the club on the pitch and the club were relegated after finishing
13th, second bottom of Group 3 that year. They finished four points
behind Askoy, who were placed just utside the relegation places. It is just as
well it wasn’t closer, as Stord were deducted two points for playing two non-eligible
players that season.
Despite the
relegation, the club had plans to continue and even hired a new head coach,
after Tislevoli has left. Petter Fossmark was appointed, and his brief was to
gain promotion that upcoming season. However, he never got the chance as in
December 2006, it was decided to fold the club due to financial difficulties.
As a result, their spot in the league system was given to Stord IL and most of
the playing squad or those deemed good enough were transferred to them. Stord
IL were a club founded in 1914 and still currently play their football in 3.divisjon
at the moment of writing.
And so, with
only one season being named Storm Sunnhordland, the club ceased to exist,
coming to an end what was to be a fruitless and failed project. The club
itself, left very little mark on Norwegian football, other than highlighting
how not to run a football club, and that making a progit from a football club
is harder than it looks. In fact, when I went to look for an interview about
this club, from anybody in the know about Norwegian football, it became
apparent that those, even experts of this league and football in this country,
couldn’t tell e about Stord Sunnhordland, other than it was a mistake and one
that was a bit of an embarrassment to Norwegian football.
It may be
questioned why I did pick this club to feature in this book, because I stated
at the start of this chapter, I could have chosen a more interesting story with
44 other clubs to choose from. However, I just felt that this story, needed to
be told. It's an example of how businessmen, who have no interest in football,
try to use it as a way of making a profit. I know a former footballer was one
of the co-owners, but when I did further research on this club, it became
apparent that Kjetil Lovvik was only used and brought in by Terje Simonsen to
get the funds to start up the club. Kjetil himself had very little to do with
the financial side, with him more concentrated on gaining success on the field,
as proved by his goal scoring exploits in their first season, gaining them
promotion. Simonsen, a football agent, seemed like he was just after a quick
profit. It’s hard to say if that really was the case, but reading reports back
then, a lot of people had accused him of only caring about profit making, with
the football part playing as a side show to himself. Of course, a football club
usually only makes profit if it is being successful, so Id imagine he wanted
the club to succeed on the pitch as well. In the end the whole thing seemed to
be a bit of mess, and it just seemed as though it was run (Badly I must say) as
a business and not much as a football club. Whilst I rarely ever say this about
a football club, I have to say, this is one club I am not sad to see go bust
and that’s because, in my research, other reports also suggested that there was
rarely any atmosphere at their games, and that really tells its own story. But
the quote that really struck me and is probably the main reason why I have
featured them in this book came from the Chairman of the new company that took
them over in 2006, Tjerand Espeland. He said, when they folded that
Sunnhordland was a ‘Club without a soul’. And that probably sums them up.