How strong is the Eliteserien compared with the Premier League?

Ratings and world ranks in this piece come from before our 25 October 2026 ranking update. Current figures are on each club's page.

The short answerThe Eliteserien is clearly weaker than the Premier League. On The Beaumont Index, the median Eliteserien club is rated 1255 and the median Premier League club 1597. But the gap is uneven: Bodø/Glimt, rated 1566, would sit around 18th in England, while most Norwegian clubs would rate below every Premier League side.

The answer in one sentence

The Premier League is much stronger overall, but Norway's best club is genuinely Premier League standard, and the gap only becomes huge once you leave the top two.

How we measure it

The Beaumont Index puts every club on one scale, adjusted for the strength of the league it plays in. That adjustment is the important bit. Winning every week in a weaker league doesn't earn a high rating on its own; it has to be weighed against who you beat. The ratings use an Elo-style scale, where a gap of about 180 points is roughly a goal a game.

The headline numbers

• Median club: Premier League 1597, Eliteserien 1255. That gap of roughly 340 points is close to two goals a game between two ordinary sides.
• Best club: Arsenal, 1780. Bodø/Glimt, 1566.
• Weakest club: In the Premier League, 1438. In the Eliteserien, 1149.
• Overlap: Two Norwegian clubs rate above the weakest Premier League side: Bodø/Glimt and Viking.

What 340 points looks like on a pitch

On our scale, 180 points is roughly a goal a game. So a gap of about 340 points between the median clubs means an ordinary Premier League side would be expected to beat an ordinary Eliteserien side by close to two goals, on neutral ground, over a long run of games. That's a big gap. It's bigger than the gap between the Premier League and the Championship medians, which is about 286 points.

Could Bodø/Glimt survive in the Premier League?

On rating alone, probably. Seventeen Premier League clubs rate higher, which would put them around 18th: a relegation fight, but a winnable one. Viking, rated 1441, would sit 20th, above one Premier League club. After that the drop is steep. Norway's third-best side, Molde, rates 1348. That's below every Premier League club and in line with the middle of the Championship.

Why you can't compare points across leagues

A common mistake is to compare league tables directly. Bodø/Glimt's performances in our run were worth about 2.49 points a game, a higher figure than Arsenal's 1.96. That doesn't make Glimt better than Arsenal. Expected points measure how a team performs against the opponents it actually plays, and Glimt play Eliteserien opponents every week. The same is true at the top of every league: Bayern München's figure is 2.74, Barcelona's 2.63, Middlesbrough's 2.29. A rating on one scale, adjusted for league strength, is what makes the comparison possible at all.

A very top-heavy league

The Eliteserien is unusually top-heavy. Between its best club and its third-best there are 207 rating points, more than a goal a game. In the Premier League the same gap is 77 points; in the Championship, 86. Glimt sit 114 points clear of Viking, and Viking a further 93 clear of Molde. None of our other leagues has a gap that big between first and third. It also explains the title race. Glimt and Viking were level on points per game in our run, 2.43 each, but Viking were the luckiest team in all our leagues, about ten points ahead of their performances, while Glimt were about one point behind theirs.

Who Glimt's neighbours would be

On rating, Glimt would sit between Tottenham Hotspur, rated 1566, and Coventry City, 1538. It's worth looking at how those clubs are actually playing. To 18 October, Tottenham had created chances worth about 1.3 goals a game and conceded about 1.7. Coventry had created about 1.1 and conceded about 1.8. Hull City, the lowest-rated Premier League side, had created about 1.1 and conceded about 1.75. That's the company Glimt would keep: teams that concede more than they create and spend the season looking over their shoulder. It's a fight, not a free ride.

Bodø/Glimt's performances in our run were worth about 2.49 points a game, a higher figure than Arsenal's 1.96.

Where Norway's famous names sit

Brann, rated 1339, and Rosenborg, 1329, are close to Molde and close to the Championship median. Both would be competitive in England's second tier on rating; neither would rate near the Premier League. The rest of the league thins out from there, down to Kristiansund at 1149, the lowest-rated club in any of our eight leagues.

Where Norway sits among Europe's leagues

Here are the median club ratings for all eight launch leagues: Premier League about 1621, Ligue 1 about 1467, LaLiga 1465, Bundesliga about 1437, Serie A about 1426, Championship about 1335, Eredivisie 1293 and Eliteserien about 1253. Among our eight launch leagues, the Eliteserien has the lowest median rating, just below the Eredivisie (1293) and the Championship (about 1335). But it also has the widest range, 406 points from top to bottom against 217 in the Championship, because Bodø/Glimt and Viking pull so far clear. In other words, it's a league with two clubs of a much higher standard and a long middle. Bodø/Glimt's 1555 is higher than the best club in the Eredivisie, rated 1485, even though the Eredivisie's median club is stronger.

Eliteserien v Championship

This is the comparison that surprises people. On the median, the Championship is stronger, about 1339 against 1255. But Bodø/Glimt, at 1555, rate higher than every Championship club, including West Ham United at 1507. Viking, at 1441, would sit about third, behind West Ham and Middlesbrough. Below that, the two leagues overlap heavily: Molde, Brann and Rosenborg would all be mid-table Championship sides on rating, and the bottom half of the Eliteserien would rate below every Championship club.

Glimt in European company

Rated 1566, Bodø/Glimt sit above Real Betis (1532), Monaco (1507) and Athletic Club (1504) on our scale. Viking, at 84th, sit near Bologna (75th) and Venezia (96th). On this scale, Norway's best club belongs in the same conversation as good sides from Spain and France, even though the league as a whole sits 22nd in our world league ranking.

Why this matters

For fans, this is what makes Norway's title race so watchable: two of Europe's better teams separated by a goal of goal difference. For anyone watching players, it explains why a top performer at Bodø/Glimt is playing at a higher level than the league's reputation suggests, while a top performer elsewhere in Norway may be playing at a level closer to the English second tier.

How to use these numbers

Three rules of thumb. First, compare clubs, not leagues, when the question is about a specific team: the league median tells you about the typical opponent, not about Bodø/Glimt. Second, remember the scale. A 100-point gap is a little over half a goal a game, which is noticeable but beatable on the day. A 340-point gap is not. Third, read the trend as well as the number. Bodø/Glimt, Molde and Rosenborg are all rated as rising in this run; Lillestrøm, Fredrikstad and several others are rated as falling. A rating is a snapshot of a moving thing.

Caveats

Ratings carry uncertainty. Below Bodø/Glimt the ratings bunch together: Viking are rated 1442, Brann 1348, Molde 1346 and Rosenborg 1342, so small differences in form can reshuffle Norway's middle quickly. That is why, when we compare Norway's middle with England's, we lean on the ratings themselves rather than on positions. And this run uses results to 25 October 2026. We refresh it weekly.