“With a lot of our football players, it’s only a coincidence that they ended up in football. It’s actually one of the great success stories of Norwegian sports.”

Robert Spilman is the chairman of the sports club in Ørnes, the capital of the Meløy Municipality in Norway’s far-north Nordland region. He’s responsible for making sure that the club adheres to a very specifically Norwegian kind of sporting philosophy: idrettsglede, often translated into English as “the joy of sports.”

“It’s a long-standing activity here at the club,” he explains. “Children between five and eight can try every kind of sport we have. They can find out what they’re capable of, and what they actually want to play.”

Idrettsglede has been credited with the impressive performance of Norway’s team in the most recent FIFA men’s World Cup. Most countries try to identify young talent as early as possible and funnel them into a formalized academy or league system, but Norway is different. Sports here, the thinking goes, should be fun first. Coaches are expected to take the pressure off, and give kids space to move between different activities at their own pace. They’ll find their own, healthier relationship with sports as a result.

Of course, this kind of philosophy can only work if there are plenty of sports for children to choose from, and that’s where Robert and the club come in.

“Youth football is our biggest activity,” he says, “but we also have handball and volleyball, and we have frisbee golf now, with a 9-hole course and an 18-hole course. But the sport that’s growing the most right now is climbing. We have our own climbing wall, and so many people want to use it that it’s actually a problem.”

“There are a few other clubs around the region, in places like Glomfjord and Neverdal, and there are senior football clubs around, of course, but we’re the largest community club offering multiple sports in this area. We have around 420 members, around a quarter of the population of Ørnes alone. The next-largest has only 150.”

Robert grew up on the southsidefar to the south, in a town near the border with Sweden, and moved to Ørnes nearly 20 years ago. While his day job is as a security consultant, his first love was volleyball. After a successful stint as a youth player (even making a few appearances on the national team), he decided to become a referee. He rose through the ranks to become chairman of the Norwegian Volleyball Commission for 12 years, until his retirement in 2024.

“We have no employees at the club, we’re all volunteers, and, well, they found out about my background when they were trying to find a new chairman [three years ago], and I was stupid enough to say yes.”

He laughs. “Really, I’ve been lucky. It’s one of my passions, and it’s my way to give back.”

This can be easier said than done. As the biggest club in Ørnes and the surrounding area, there’s an expectation that the club has to continually invest in new sports, and new facilities, to continue being a place where people of all ages come to play.

When the club was first founded in January 1948, it included theater among its repertoire, but this was spun out into its own separate program a few years ago in an effort to keep the club’s focus purely on sports. A recent experimentation with esports was similarly short-lived, since another local club also had a team, “and it seemed stupid for us to compete with each other,” says Robert. Skiing also recently split away into its own separate club after concerns it was struggling in the shadow of the football program.

Other experiments, like frisbee golf, have been hugely successful. The club now sees more than 2,600 rounds played on its courses per year, with more registered players than there are actual residents in Ørnes itself. At the same time, though, the size of the frisbee golf courses means a significant amount of extra money is needed for maintenance and groundskeeping.

This growth in player numbers bucks the broader demographic trend seen in the wider Nordland region, which is experiencing a slow population decline. Those who do move north tend to be workers at one of the companies based in nearby Glomfjord’s industrial park, a workforce that can shrink quickly if a single employer leaves the area.

“Our main challenge is getting good coaches,” explains Robert. “Most of our coaches are parents volunteering, and we have to spend a lot of money on training those who already live here. If a coach wants to go to England to take a course, we will never say no to education. But even though we are, in a way, the biggest kindergarten in the community, it can be hard to find parents willing to take responsibility for the club and volunteer to work with us.

“But remember, when these kids leave for the city, for Oslo or Trondheim or anywhere else, they’ll have those foundation stones in place that tell them how to behave. Respect for rules, fair play, and sportsmanship.”

For Daniel Bergli, Nscale’s Director of Industry Partnerships (and a homegrown local himself), it was this crucial community role, and the awareness of Nscale’s responsibility to that community as an employer, which caught his attention.

“We're a small municipality,” he explains. “So [Nscale] needs to take care of it as a whole. That means going in and helping them out, to make sure that they have what they need to help the kids, and because it’s important to help each other.”

Nscale is sponsoring the club with NOK 23,000 annually, for three years. The club’s red jerseys are now emblazoned with Nscale’s logo, and, in return, a significant proportion of its running costs are now covered. For Robert, this means they can continue to keep membership fees as low as possible, and also maintain a solidarity fund for families and children who can’t otherwise afford to sign up for the club’s activities.

“We want the municipality to grow, and to be a more attractive place for people to live, so that workers come here,” says Daniel. “It’s a responsibility for any company to look after its community, but we also want to make it clear that we’re here to stay, for the long haul.”

This long-term support runs through what will be the club’s 80-year anniversary in 2028. Robert and his colleagues are already planning the celebrations, including potentially hosting an “Olympics” that will see the employees of Nscale and other industrial employers in the area face off against each other in all of the club’s sports. 

“It’s a pretty crazy idea, but I think it’s possible,” he says. “Either way, this long-term support is very important to us. We're going to have a celebration for our members, of course, and  for the community and everyone.

But, for Robert, there’s no question about the appeal of staying in the area.

“The life up here is very good. Even if it does rain for four months, when the sun comes out I say to my wife, why were we even complaining? We have the sea eagles flying in, the scenery is fantastic, we have the mountains, and if you want to fish, it’s beautiful.”

Wish to get involved in the project? Contact the team at https://www.ornesil.no