Over the years it has not been uncommon for grown men to be moved to tears inside Elland Road.
Whether through the dark days of financial turmoil and League One football or marvelling at the wonder of Marcelo Bielsa’s title-winning side, Leeds United fans have known a full range of emotions following their team.
But for some, just getting to the stadium that Leeds have called home since 1919 is enough to bring a tear to the eye. Like all clubs, a variety of international flags can be spotted around home games at Elland Road. But one is more common than the rest: the red, white and navy blue cross of Norway. United’s Scandinavian-based fans run into the thousands and for each, their first trip to West Yorkshire is a pilgrimage.
“I remember the first time I saw Elland Road, I cried like a baby when we started singing,” says Jan Okland of Norwegian supporter group Tananger Whites. “But that’s typical. I came over in October with four guys who had never been before but had been supporters their whole lives and we all cried. It’s very emotional because most Leeds supporters here in Norway are strong supporters; it’s not something that we take on lightly. We’ve been there all the time. We know you can’t have a weak heart if you want to be a Leeds supporter. Hearing Marching on Together at Elland Road is just beautiful.”
Leeds have had a strong presence across Norway, Sweden and Denmark dating back to the 1970s, when top-flight games from England were shown on free-to-air television across the three nations. The legacy is a generation of fans — most densely populated in Norway but with a strong contingent in Sweden too — and their children and grandchildren who are mad for all things Leeds.
Leeds United Supporters Club of Scandinavia visiting Thorp Arch in early December (LUSCOS)
“I grew up in the 70s with English football trading cards and magazines like Shoot and Goal,” says Anders Palm of LUSCOS (Leeds United Supporters Club of Scandinavia), the biggest overseas fan group for Leeds. “The Swedish, Norwegian and Danish broadcasters collaborated and got a deal with a television company to show live football on TV in Nordic countries. That meant every kid got into an English football team and I did that before I knew anything about my local team.
“We knew all the line-ups, the best players and we traded cards and so it was a coincidence which team you started to follow. You might have an uncle come back from a trip to England with a Leeds scarf or an Arsenal scarf and so you started to support that team. I landed on the white kit of Leeds United and the mystique around Peter Lorimer. Many Norwegians were fascinated by him having the hardest shot in the world at the time.
“A lot of us are around 50 or 60 years old, but we have been loyal and passionate. When you choose a football team, you stay loyal to them and you don’t change. It’s not possible. There are two things in life you cannot change: your kids and your football team. Everything else you can change.”
There are around 8,000 Leeds fans in Norway, and since the 70s new generations across the three Scandinavian countries usually coincided with the team’s success on the pitch. A new wave came in the 90s, when Alf-Inge Haaland, Eirik Bakke and Gunnar Halle were part of David O’Leary’s team — the Irishman took his side to the Champions League semi-finals in 2001. Others followed the promotion in 2020 under Bielsa.
Leeds have had popular players from Sweden (Pontus Jansson) and Denmark (Casper Ankergren) over the years. It has helped strengthen an already healthy bond between United and fans in the region.
“Norwegians like to go over to England and watch games — it’s a big part of the culture in Norway,” Bakke, who made almost 200 appearances in a seven-year spell at Leeds from 1999 to 2006, tells The Athletic. “The football season in Norway is from April to November. So me and my friends always used to travel over to England, we were over for 10 days watching football over Christmas. We took the ferry from Bergen to Newcastle, went to Liverpool to watch some games and stopped in Leeds in a bed and breakfast. It turned out to be five minutes from where I was living the year after.
“I come from a small place in Norway, so it was always a dream come true to play in the Premier League. Suddenly I was there. I played for 1,100 people in Sogndal in the summer and then three months later I played for 40,000. I think around 400 Norwegian people have season tickets at Leeds. Every weekend there are so many people over. When I was there it was me, Alfie Haaland and Gunnar Halle, so there were even more coming over, there were flags there (at Elland Road) and I remember when I signed we had to wear Viking hats. It’s not far from England to Norway so whenever there’s a home game there are lots over — it’s the Norwegians and the Irish I think (who come over most).”
There are supporters in Scandinavia who hold season tickets at Elland Road, while Terje Hansen is a high-profile fan who has been to over 700 Leeds games and intends to go to all 46 league matches this season. Although flights between Norway and England only take a couple of hours, the journey is far from straightforward. Fans have to plan ahead for delays and stay a few days when a round trip in 24 hours is not possible.
Haaland on the pitch at Elland Road before a game in 2022-23 (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
“I came to the play-off final against Southampton and a guy from the south of Norway chartered a Boeing flight and brought over 200 people to watch the match,” says Okland. “There’s a lot of craziness around it.”
“I wouldn’t be without it, even though it has been frustrating sometimes,” says Palm, who was at Elland Road for December’s 2-0 win over Derby County for one of his final trips of the year. “If they have lost and you’re travelling back on a Monday and there are delays it’s a hassle, but after a while you remember the good times you had and you book the next one. It’s a commitment, but it’s a good opportunity for me to meet people who I wouldn’t usually meet. Norway is a long country; it’s a long way from Oslo to the Nordic parts so it’s a chance to meet people when we are here. In the beginning, for me, it was the 90 minutes but now it’s more the experiences we have here. I went to a concert while I was over — The Damned — with some of my English friends who I met at Leeds.
“We are all a family and it’s very open. We drink a lot, we party and we are loud and cheerful but we’re met with open arms. It’s a big happy family supporting Leeds.”
While the TV deal of the 70s sparked a love for United in a generation of fans in Scandinavia, their affinity for the club runs deeper. For Leeds natives like Robert MacKenzie, who moved to Karlstad in Sweden 10 years ago, those roots have allowed him to find a community in the Karlstad Whites supporters group.
“It always amazes me (the commitment of the fans),” he says. “We’re a club that has been out of the spotlight for many years, not just recently but in the 1980s as well. The supporters stay true and I think that’s why there’s a lot of respect in Leeds for Scandinavian fans. Living in Leeds, historically, you had to positively buy into being a Leeds fan. Maybe it’s because of the bad reputation of the 1970s and 1980s, but just living in Leeds wasn’t enough; you really had to buy into it. And Swedish and Norwegian fans give that positive buy-in and they show it by turning up at the games and sticking with the club through thick and thin. Or thin and thinner, as the joke goes.”
The love shared in the stands is felt by players on the pitch, with Bakke maintaining a strong bond with Leeds since leaving to join Norwegian club Brann in 2006. The 47-year-old former midfielder still returns when he can to relive memories of the team that played in the Champions League.
Palm (right) with former players Ben Parker, Ross McCormack and Eddie Gray (LUSCOS)
“It was a big step, moving abroad as well but I was lucky I had Alfie (Haaland) there and he had been in England for a few years,” Bakke says. “That helped me settle in and to be playing in the biggest league in the world, against my heroes, was special. They were good years and then I had some bad injuries with my knee. After that when I came back the club was in a different shape. A lot of players changed, there were different chairmen and owners which was a bit of a mess.
“But looking back on my first four years and the good times we had fighting at the top of the Premier League, playing in Europe in front of the best fans was great. Everyone says Liverpool is the loudest stadium on European nights but nothing can beat Elland Road; it’s an electric atmosphere. I miss that now, those big games there. Hopefully one day they will get the European nights back.”
If Leeds can take one step closer by achieving promotion to the Premier League this season, it would bolster interest in the club among the younger generation in Scandinavia. Whatever happens, United can still count on the support of a small army of fans in the region who have loved the club for the best part of 50 years.
“When you’re from Leeds, you take it (going to Elland Road) for granted but for some people, it’s an ambition for decades,” says MacKenzie. “There are plenty of people closer to home who turned their back on the team when things got tough, but not here. It doesn’t matter where you’re from to be a Leeds fan.”
(Top photos: Getty Images and Robert Mackenzie)
