Bodo/Glimt fans barter local fish and reindeer meat for Tottenham semi-final tickets

New York Times

07-05-2025

Bodo/Glimt fans have bartered local fish and reindeer meat to obtain tickets for the club's historic Europa League semi-final second leg against Tottenham Hotspur.
Torbjorn Eide, a production manager at a fish farm in Torsken, was among the fans attempting to get one of the few tickets that were on general sale for the game on Thursday. NRK and Reuters reported that 50,000 fans, roughly the size of the population of Bodo, attempted to get one of the 480 tickets available.
Eide explained to Norway's state broadcaster NRK that he offered five kilos of semi-dried boknafisk — worth 2,500 Norwegian crowns (£182; $243) — to a fellow fan who traded him a ticket.
Torsken is an eight-hour drive north of Bodo, so Eide posted the proposed trade on social media with the idea that the boknafisk, cod partially hung up which is partially dried by the sun and wind, would attract interest for a ticket-holder.
'I thought maybe someone would like it,' Eide told NRK. 'It's the best boknafisk in Norway. I didn't think it would work, but some guy contacted me who was interested.'
That buyer was Oystein Aanes, whose brother had a ticket but was unable to attend the match.
'It was just a funny thing,' Aanes said of the trade. 'I don't know anything about the fish, its price or how to prepare it. But it is for my mother anyway, so she can take care of it.'
The idea inspired Nils Erik Oskal, who used the same tactic by offering five kilos of reindeer meat for a ticket. 'I was 40,000 in the queue and had the meat to spare,' Oskal told NRK. 'It didn't take long for the offer to come.'
Glimt are the first-ever Norwegian team to feature in the semi-finals of a European competition but trail Spurs 3-1 after the first leg in London last week. They had been 3-0 down before Ulrik Saltnes' late goal gave them a consolation to take back to Norway.
As Glimt play in the north of the country, the pitch at their 8,200-capacity Aspmyra Stadion home is made from artificial turf, rather than real grass. They have won nine European matches at home this season and each of their last five, including victories over Porto, Olympiacos and Lazio.
'There is an incredible amount of things to be learned from this match we have to take with us,' Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen said after last week's defeat. 'There is a difference between artificial grass and grass, and some of it applies to us in the coaching team.'
'There were details where we weren't up to speed, I haven't seen them all, but we can only learn from that. We should be happy we can still turn around the tie when we go to Aspmyra next week.'
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