Format
Attempts to create a national league were started in 1914–16 with the Test League, although this never held any official status. The first official league competition was the League of Norway, which started being contested in the 1937–38 season. It consisted of eleven double round robin conferences, each with six or seven teams, with the conference winners playing a two-legged, four-round play-off. Only two full seasons were contested before it was interrupted by World War II, but the league saw a final season be competed in 1947–48. The Main League started in the 1948–49 season, and saw two conferences each with eight teams. At the season end, the conference winners met for a two-legged final. In the 1959–60 and 1960–61, also bronze matches were played between the two conference runner-ups.
The final season, in 1961–62, saw all 16 teams collected in a single league which was played over one and a half years. Starting with the 1963, ten team were collected into a single league, named the First Division. At the same time, the season changed from a winter to a summer league. From the 1972 season, teams from Northern Norway were also allowed to participate in the First Division, for the first time creating a pan-national league. The same season saw the number of teams increase from ten to twelve. The Premier League, also known as Tippeligaen for the sponsor Norsk Tipping, was created in 1991 and for the first time a single-conference league was created below the top league. The Premier League was expanded to 14 teams from the 1995 season and to 16 teams from the 2009 season.
Read more about this topic: List Of Norwegian Football League Champions