SK Brann
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| Full name | Sportsklubben Brann |
|---|---|
| Short name | Brann |
| Founded | 26 September 1908 |
| Ground | Brann Stadion, Bergen |
| Capacity | 17,686 |
| Chairman | Eivind Lunde |
| Head coach | Lars Arne Nilsen |
| League | Tippeligaen |
| 2016 | Tippeligaen, 2nd |
SK Brann (most often called Brann or SK Brann in international contexts) is a Norwegian professional football club, founded 26 September 1908, from Bergen. Brann has been in the Norwegian Premier League Tippeligaen since 1987. They play their home matches at Brann Stadion where they had a record-breaking 17,310 in average attendance in the 2007 season. In October 2007, Brann won the series for the first time since the 1963 season.
As the biggest club in Norway's second-largest city Bergen, Brann is historically one of the major clubs in Norway in terms of public interest, and hence there are high expectations for the club every season. Brann won their first Norwegian Premier League titles in 1961–62 and 1963, but after this Brann was involved in the race for the league title only in seasons 1974–76, 1990 and 2006. In 2007, they reclaimed the league title and thus ended a 44-year-long waiting period.
Despite the limited success, the club has never failed to spark considerable interest from the Norwegian media and keeping an epidemics of football hysteria continuously running in Bergen. Moreover, Brann have regularly been winners and runners-up of the Norwegian Cup. The club reached the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup in the 1996–97 season.
On 26 September 1908 Christen K. Gran and Birger Gjestland together with eight other men, met in a local café in Bergen. Due to dissatisfaction of the current state of the local football clubs in Bergen, they decided to form a new football club. They called the it Ski- og Fodboldklubben Brann (Ski and Football Club Brann). This was later changed to Sportsklubben Brann (Sport Club Brann).
Brann played their first match against a local Bergen team on New Year's Day 1909, drawing 1–1. During the first years Brann struggled with poor results. Then in 1917,considered the breakthrough year for Brann, they managed to qualify for the cup final. Brann lost the match 1–4 against Sarpsborg, but was now among the top teams of Norway. In 1917 the club bought an area south of the city of Bergen. Two years later on 25 May, with funding contributed by fans and investors, Brann Stadion was opened. The opening match was against the Norwegian national team, losing 2–6. In 1923 Brann won their first title when they defeated Lyn 2–1 in the Cup final. Two years later Brann claimed their second title this time defeating Sarpsborg 3–0 in the cup final.
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