Rosenborg is one of the clubs that disliked that the new Royal Leage should start as late as December. It has changed. The new starting time is in November. The TV channels TVNorge and Canal Digital will be showing the matches.

RBK Director of Sports Issues Rune Bratseth did not like the original plans that said the league was starting Dec 7th/8th.

"It sounds late, but I guess it is because of the Danish league. For the Norwegian clubs this is no advantage. Our leage ends October/November, and it is not ideal to have one month's break," Bratseth said to Norwegian newspaper VG in February.

But now the Royal League will start earlier, as the top clubs of Norway and Sweden has wanted. Saturday Nov 20th is kickoff.

The six matches of the first group stage are finished before Christmas, while second group stage happens in February and March. The grand finale is to be played Apr 22th.

rbkweb.com reported last autumn that Norwegian telecaster TVNorge shall show the Royal League, but this was not confirmed until today. American SBS Broadcasting, who owns TVNorge and Kanal5 in Sweden and Denmark, has in cooperation with Telenor / Canal Digital bought the rights for the coming 5 years. This implies that TVNorge shall show the games of the four Norwegian teams, while Canal Digital shows the remaining matches. In effect, Norwegian TV audience will be able to watch FC Copenhagen vs Djurgården, and so on.

"We are looking forward to presenting the best of Scandinavian football to the Norwegian audience. Royal League will be an exciting project, and will give us the ability to reach out to a broader audience than TVNorge currently does," Chief Executive Morten Aass of TVNorge said during a press conference at Ullevaal Stadium.

Rosenborg is happy about this new concept.

"Our ambitions are clear: We want in. The past few years we have had trouble getting good opponents for friendly games late autumn and around new year. Royal League is hence very interesting for our part," Chief Executive Nils Skutle of Rosenborg says.

General tournament details

First group stage, before Christmas, all meets all home and away:
Norwegian silver- and gold medalionists meets Swedish number 3 and Danish number 4.
Number one and two from Sweden meets Danish 3rd and Norwegian 4th placed teams.
Danish 1st and 2nd teams will meet Norwegian 3rd and Swedish 4th team.

The two best teams from each group advances to a second group stage closer to spring; two groups of three teams.

The two group winners plays a final match in late April.

The money involved

The 12 participants gains EUR 146.000 each as "entry award". After this, earnings are based upon results: In first group stage, drawed matches gives EUR 17.500 while victories earns EUR 29.000.

The six clubs that enters the second group stage gains EUR 1.46 million. Here, a draw means EUR 29.000 and a win EUR 58.000.

And, in the final match, the Royal League Champion gains EUR 350 000, while the losing finalist should get their expences covered with the price money counting EUR 116.500.

This gives a maximum reward of EUR 1.079 million if one of the teams win all their games.

More reading: royalleague.com