No league tables, no trophies: how Norway made sport fun for kids - and built a football team that beat Brazil

At full time, the arithmetic felt wrong. A team from a country of 5.5 million people, back at a World Cup after 28 years away, had just beaten the five-time champions to reach a first quarter-final.

During Norway’s victory over Brazil on Sunday there was little between the fast feet of Vinícius Júnior and the raw power of Erling Haaland. But look at how that pair and others on the two teams were raised and a different story emerges. Neymar, Matheus Cunha and Vinícius grew up in a system that prioritises prodigies – spotting talent early and fast‑tracking it through academies built around a single sport. Haaland, Martin Ødegaard and Antonio Nusa grew up with something altogether different.

That is because in 2007 the Norges idrettsforbund (NIF), Norway’s governing body for sport, revised the eight “rights” it had first adopted in 1987 to protect the participation, safety and joy of every child playing sport. The rules are mandatory for every coach and club registered with the NIF, and they read like heresy to those embedded in the talent-funnel culture found almost everywhere else in world sport.

Under the age of nine, children play only local club matches. There are no results lists, no league tables and no trophies. Regional competition opens at age 11, though scores and rankings stay off limits. Only at 13 can a Norwegian athlete take part in anything resembling a national championship.

Of the eight rights, two buck the trend of the sporting tiger parent culture: mastery and freedom to choose – the idea that a child has a right to try multiple sports rather than being funnelled into a single discipline before they are old enough to have chosen it themselves. For the gifted youngsters, there is the benefit of bringing the skills of each into whichever one they settle on.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/08/how-norway-made-sport-fun-kids-built-football-team-beat-brazil-world-cup

I think we need something like this, but under the current administration, it would just turn into another billionaire "bang for the buck" scheme and would never get anywhere.