Town fan Inge Haug has been named Norway’s Supporter of the Year by the country’s Supporterunionen for Britisk Fotball. Inge is a season ticket holder in the Sir Bobby Robson Stand and has attended an astonishing 43 Blues matches this season, despite still living in his homeland.
Inge told TWTD that he was delighted to receive the award, which was announced live on Norwegian TV at half-time during their coverage of Manchester United’s weekend victory over Spurs: "They give it every year to one supporter who has done something special either over the years or during a season.
"Members from different clubs nominate whoever they think deserve the award. I was nominated by three different people and was then selected the winner by the jury.
”I’ve seen 43 Ipswich matches this season, including pre-season, cup matches and league games.”
Like so many Scandinavian supporters, Inge, who lives in Kongsvinger in the South-East of Norway with wife Monica and their two children, became hooked on English football when games were shown each weekend in the seventies: "I became a Town fan in 1978. Here in Norway we were watching a league game live on telly every Saturday and by far most popular team was Liverpool.
"I didn’t want to be like everyone else, so I chose Town. And when my Dad gave me a pennant after the cup win, I was sold (and yes, I have told this story approx 41524234978356 times now!).”
Inge, 37, also helps organise travel for ITSCON (Ipswich Town Supporters Club of Norway), which has more than 500 members, after all as he says, "I do have some experience!”.
Having been prevented from attending the Doncaster match due to the volcano-related flight problems, Inge says he made sure he wasn’t going to have similar hassles last Saturday: "The volcanic ash did prevent me from going to the last home game against Donny.
"When they reopened the airspace, I booked the first flight out of Norway on the Wednesday afternoon and took a couple of days off work, just to make sure I didn’t miss the Newcastle game!”
And it’s that sort of dedication which won him the award.