In from the cold: Bodø/Glimt revel in dream ascent

Tottenham's semi-final opponents are a symbol of northern Norwegian self-esteem. Nick Ames visits the Arctic circle to chart their rise to prominence

- Nick Ames

No one is sure precisely when the "coffee table" tradition began, but consensus traces it back about 60 years. It would take a lot for one of the regulars not to show up. The time is almost 11am and cups are being laid out in the Aspmyra Stadion canteen for the Bodø/Glimt old boys' daily catchup. In walks Ivar Bakke, who can count himself as the group's elder statesman at 94. "One of the oldest people in Norway!" he laughs before sitting down. Tall tales are retold, memories sharpened in delighting over past and more recent glories; however far those stretch, everyone here knows what it has taken to bring their club to the barely fathomable territory of a Europa League semi-final.

The raconteur in chief is Jacob Klette, a sharp figure in his late 70s who made almost 400 appearances for a team that broke boundaries. "The northern part of Norway has always had to fight for its rights," Klette says. "I played for Lyn, the best team in Oslo, in the late 1960s. You would open the newspaper and see adverts: 'We have an apartment for rent, but not for people from the north.' You felt disgusted to see it."

Klette and many of his friends at the table would turn convention and prejudice on their head. Clubs from up here, 75 miles inside the Arctic circle, were not allowed to play in the Norwegian cup until 1963. They were regarded as poor relations on and off the pitch, the north's customs and dialect unwelcome in the supposedly more refined south. Promotion to the top flight was made possible for northern sides only in 1972, initially on condition of contesting an additional playoff. But in 1975 Bodø/Glimt, while still hammering at a glass ceiling from the second tier, travelled to Oslo and beat Vard in the cup final.