The Champions League badly needed Bodo/Glimt’s shock success – but it highlights a big problem

The Norwegian minnows from the Arctic Circle stunned Inter Milan to reach the Champions League last-16, but footballing authorities must now heed a warning SportFootballThe Champions League badly needed Bodo/Glimt’s shock success – but it highlights a big problemThe Norwegian minnows from the Arctic Circle stunned Inter Milan to reach the Champions League last 16 but footballing authorities must now heed a warningMiguel Delaney Chief Football Writer Wednesday 25 February 2026 08:22 GMTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoveropen image in galleryBodo/Glimt stunned Inter Milan to reach the Champions League last 16 (AFP via Getty Images)Your support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreAfter the San Siro had been silenced, long before the end, Bodo/Glimt’s Jens Petter Hauge had a fittingly suitable summation of it all.“It sounds not true,” the forward beamed. He was of course talking about their 5-2 aggregate victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League, but you can extend it to the whole story, which manager Kjetil Knutsen touched upon.“Can you believe it, a small team from the north?”If constant references to Bodo’s size amid so many European victories may counter-productively make the club’s progress feel less immense, and more routine, it is really anything but. It is historic.Bodo/Glimt’s qualification for the Champions League last 16 is probably the greatest feat of overperformance at European club level since Jose Mourinho’s Porto won the competition in 2004. Maybe even greater.There were so many different individual elements to this that just kept increasing the odds, to the point the entire journey here should have been close to impossible.open image in galleryBodo/Glimt celebrated a historic night at the San Siro (AP)open image in galleryInter Milan were left bereft after the stunning result (AP)There is first of all that population of 53,000, which plays into the immense economic gap. A scathing Italian media were reporting a chasm in squad values of €57m against €666m, and that from a starting budget for this Bodo/Glimt hierarchy of €4m in 2018, when they barely survived relegation.That gap was obviously a factor in the club initially looking like the also-rans they should be when they still hadn’t won a Champions League game after their first six league phase matches as the calendar flipped to 2026. Such a prospect looked even less likely when you glanced at their remaining fixture list, which involved matches against Manchester City and Atletico Madrid.And yet Bodo got through those to meet last season’s finalists Inter, but faced an even greater challenge that, by then, they were deep into their offseason.That should have diminished the advantage of home games in the Arctic Circle, but there was another twist. Sun actually helped them as a series of trips to Spain kept them fit, and fresh.open image in galleryHakon Evjen scored to put Bodo in control (AP)That still shouldn’t have been enough to beat Inter by an incredible 5-2 on aggregate of course. By the same token, a lot of debates are now going to be had about the state of Serie A – especially as the competition faces up to the prospect of no teams in the last 16 – but it still shouldn’t have sunk low enough for a club of such limited resources to rise so high.You wouldn’t have sensed any of these impediments, though, as Hakon Evjen so confidently swept in that crescendo of a fifth goal.“It sounds not true,” indeed.There are of course all sorts of lessons that can be taken from the Bodo/Glimt victory, especially as Hauge spoke about being “so proud of the group, the medical staff, we are all in this together”.Unlike so many other upstarts over the years, the club’s success hasn’t yet seen them been terminally asset-stripped in the way even a historic giant like Ajax have. Even those players that briefly went away, like Hauge, returned. Some put that down to the distinctiveness of this team. They do keep regenerating, and growing.open image in galleryJens Petter Hauge believes the results sounds “not true” (REUTERS)It does make you think what might be possible in European football if there was a touch more regulation and restriction on the constant flood of mon