Molde are chasing European promotion – more fired up than Liverpool

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Molde have delivered the goods in Europe, and are now ready for the round of 16 in the Conference League after they outclassed Legia Warsaw on Thursday.

This has resulted in a solid financial gain.

Molde tops the list of Conference League clubs that have performed best in European tournaments in the 2023/24 season, according to the website FotCalc.

The club is said to have spent more than 13 million euros, equivalent to almost 150 million Norwegian kroner. That is almost NOK 17 million more than the next team on the list, Maccabi Haifa FC.

Much of the reason for the high income is that Molde reached the play-off in the Champions League. This gave the club a check for approximately NOK 57 million. Molde has also brought in over NOK 81 million in the Europa League. There, the roommates came third in their group.

Through the European adventure, the club from the city of Roses has collected more than, among others, Liverpool and Alexander Sørloth’s Villarreal.

Molde’s advancement in the Conference League does not only bring financial gain. It also means that Norway can get a direct place in the Champions League and an additional fifth team in Europe.

In the blink of an eye, Norway is in 15th place in the European Football Association’s (UEFA) ranking. If this position is maintained after the end of the season, it will mean five teams into Europe from the 2025/26 season.

The managing director of Norsk Toppfotball, Leif Øverland, believes that something should be done about the atmosphere in the boardroom of the elite series clubs.

– It will do something with the dynamics. If you don’t have a European ambition for the ten or twelve teams with the biggest budget, you don’t actually seize the opportunity. It is actually possible, he says to NTB.

Suspect match-fixing: – Not unlikely