Swedish Football for Dummies

In European club competition only two Swedish clubs have reached major finals.

Bill Kinnear takes us on a whistle stop tour of present day football in Sweden and looks back on how it all began?

Not unlike most other countries in Europe football is the most popular sport in Sweden although some of the winter sports, particularly ice-hockey, have a significant standing in the Swedish sports psyche.With over 240,000 licensed football players are associated with around 3,200 active clubs that field over 8,500 teams fotboll is massive.

Football was first played in Sweden in the 1870s with the first championship being decided in1896.The Swedish Football Association was founded in 1904 and despite being a relatively small country population-wise both the men's and women's national teams and the country's club teams have, as can be seen below, gained significant success over the years.

The UK, and particularly Scotland and England provided the main sources of inspiration for Swedish football and the sport gained popularity fast, with the firstrules made in 1885 by the clubs active in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Visby. The first international club match was played in 1890 and the first match with modern rules was played two years later in1892.

The first association to administer a Swedish national football tournament was Svenska Idrottsf?rbundet, founded in1895 in Gothenburg, the dominating football town in Sweden at the time and from where our guests tonight BK Hacken originate.The association arranged Svenska Masterskapet in 1896 which Orgryte IS won.In the late1890s, the IFK associations began playing football, and by1901, the first Kamratm?sterskap (IFK championship) in football was arranged.

In 1924 the first national league, Allsvenskan, was started and thereafter Swedish football began to have regular seasons.One of the advantages BK Hacken may have over the Pars is that the Swedish football season is in full swing but it wasn't always thus.The Svenska M?sterskapet for example, the decider of the Swedish Champions in the early years, was played spring-autumn, while Svenska Serien, the national league, was played autumn-spring.Some years, it was played spring-autumn-spring due to various reasons, and other years it was not played at all often due to economical trouble.In 1959, Swedish football changed from autumn-spring to spring-autumn seasons.

The Swedish football league system is a complex series of interconnected leagues for club football.Football is controlled by the Swedish FA and consists of 274 teams in 22 leagues divided in five levels.Below those five levels, additional regional levels numbered six to ten exist but are controlled by regional associations and not by the nationwide association.

The current Swedish Championship title, the Allsvenskan, is held by IF Elfsborg.The title has existed since 1896, although no club was given the title between 1926 and 1930.The 104 championships have been won by 18 different football clubs so far, with the top three title holders being IFK G?teborg (17 titles), Malm? FF (15) and IFK Norrk?ping (12).Clubs from the three largest cities in Sweden, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malm? have held the title the majority of the seasons, 71 in total, but there is also an example of a very small municipality being able to field a club capable of winning the title, as ?tvidabergs FF from ?tvidaberg did twice, in 1972 and 1973.

The Swedish Cup, the Svenska Cupen is the main Swedish Cup competition and like here in Scotland the winners qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Each year 98 teams compete, comprising the 14 teams from Allsvenskan (the All Swedish League - first level of Swedish football) and the 16 teams of Superettan (the Super Division 1 - second level of Swedish football) together with 68 teams from lower (district) series.

Not unlike the national league title and again not unlike most other countries the bigger, stronger and more affluent teams tend to dominate the domestic competitions.In terms of the Swedish Cup Malmo have won it 14 times.

The Swedish national team, played its first international match in 1908 against Norway.The team has been fairly successful with one 2nd place in the 1958 World Cup (hosted in Sweden itself) when they lost 5 - 2 to a rampant Brazilian side that incidentally introduced a then unknown Pele to the world stage.Sweden also gained two third places at the World Cups of 1950 and 1994.

Sweden's other notable international victory came in the 1948 Summer Olympics held in the UK when they defeated Yugoslavia 3 - 1 in the final at Wembley.

The Swedish Women's Team was once leading in the development of women's football and that won the unofficial European Championships in1984, a success the team has not managed to repeat.However, in 2003 in the United States the Swedish women took the silver medal in the Women's World Cup, losing out to Germany 2 - 1 in the final despite leading at half-time.

In terms of Swedish clubs and their success in European club competition only two clubs have reached major finals.The most successfuI club in Europe are Hacken's neighbours IFK Gothenburg who have won the UEFA Cup twice in 1982 (4 - 0 against Hamburg) and in 1987 (2 -1 against Dundee United). Malmo FF lost the European Cup final in 1979 when they were beaten 1 - 0 by Nottingham Forest, pre-season visitors to East End Park.

Err, that's it!

This article first appeared in The Game, (Matchday Programme) v BK Hacken 16/08/07