The First NFF Quality Club Outside Norway
In 2026, SC Gjoa became the first soccer club outside Norway to achieve NFF Quality Club status from the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF).
The recognition followed more than nine months of assessment, documentation, interviews and evaluation by the NFF.
For Gjoa, this is much more than a diploma. It is independent recognition of the environment we have built for our players and a commitment to continue meeting those standards in the future.
What is an NFF Quality Club?
NFF Kvalitetsklubb, or Quality Club, is the Norwegian Football Federation’s national club development program.
For more than a decade, the program has established detailed standards for how soccer clubs develop players, educate coaches, engage families and operate as safe, responsible and well-run organizations.
Today, around 60% of children and young people playing soccer in Norway are part of an NFF Quality Club.
Quality Club looks beyond what happens during a game. It examines the entire organization surrounding a young player and whether the right people, philosophy, structure and standards are in place to provide a high-quality developmental environment.
Nine Months of Assessment
Becoming a Quality Club was not simply an application or review of our written policies.
Over more than nine months, Gjoa worked directly with NFF staff and provided evidence demonstrating how our club operates in practice.
The assessment included:
Coaching & Management
Qualifications, certifications and the competence of the people responsible for coaching our players and leading our soccer program.
Player Development
Our development philosophy, curriculum and coaching methodology, including how those principles guide the player experience at Gjoa.
Training Environment
Filmed training sessions were submitted to the NFF so they could assess whether our philosophy and methodology could actually be seen on the field.
Playing Time & Competition
Our approach to meaningful playing opportunities, appropriate competition and creating an environment where development remains at the center of youth soccer.
Financial Accessibility
Our finances and commitment to ensuring that financial circumstances alone do not prevent a child from participating. Financial assistance at Gjoa is based on need, never on a player’s soccer ability.
Parent Engagement
Evidence of how we communicate with and educate our families, including parent communications and recordings of parent meetings.
Staff Development
Our internal coach-development process, including meetings, education, observations and assessments.
Values & Culture
How Gjoa’s Core Values of Courage, Commitment and Respect are reflected throughout the club and in the everyday experience of our players.
The NFF didn’t just ask us what we believe in, we had to provide evidence that those standards are part of Gjoa’s everyday environment.
Our Travel Teams
The Coaching Team
What Does This Mean for Your Child?
Quality Club is ultimately about creating the right environment for young players to develop.
For Gjoa players, that means qualified coaches who continue to learn, purposeful training built around a clear development philosophy, meaningful opportunities to play, and an environment where players are challenged and supported.
Just as importantly, we want players to develop beyond soccer by learning to compete, work with others, respond to setbacks and show respect for teammates, opponents and referees.
The goal is simple: a better environment for your child to develop, both on and off the field.
More Than a League Name
Youth soccer is often judged by the league a team participates in. Quality Club measures something different.
A league tells you where a team competes. Quality Club looks at the environment in which a player develops.
The quality of the coaching, methodology, leadership, values and organization behind a child’s experience all matter.
This is why Gjoa chose to go through this process.
Independently Assessed by the NFF
“Gjøa has done outstanding work in the Quality Club process. They have established important structures and guidelines that aligned with NFF’s good club management & football activity on the field for children and youth.
We hope the certification will further strengthen the club’s proud Norwegian identity.”
Tommy Bang-Larssen, NFF Club Development Officer
Gjoa and Norway
Gjoa’s connection to Norway stretches back more than a century.
Founded by Norwegian immigrants in Brooklyn in 1911, our Norwegian heritage remains an important part of who we are. Today, we continue to work with the Norwegian Football Federation and other Norwegian organizations and bring ideas and principles from Norwegian soccer into the environment we create for players in New York City.
In June 2026, Gjoa hosted the NFF’s annual meeting at our clubhouse in Brooklyn, where representatives of the NFF formally presented us with our Quality Club diploma, plaque and banner, recognizing Gjoa as the first Quality Club outside Norway.
Our partnership continued at the Norway Cup in Oslo, where we met again with representatives from the NFF as they continued to observe and evaluate our club.
More than 100 years after our founding, becoming the first NFF Quality Club outside Norway is a special continuation of Gjoa’s relationship with Norway.
The Standard Continues
Receiving the diploma wasn’t the end of the process.
Gjoa will continue to be assessed by the NFF and expected to demonstrate that we continue to meet Quality Club standards.
That ongoing accountability is an important part of what this recognition means to us. We want our coaches to continue learning, our programs to continue developing and our club to continue improving the environment we provide for every player.
We are incredibly proud of the recognition, but the diploma itself isn’t the goal.
Qualified coaches. Purposeful development. Strong values. An environment that puts the player first.
That is what being an NFF Quality Club means to Gjoa.