Sweden Manager Travel Guide

Swedish Footballing History
World Cup Runners up in 1958, and World Cup third place play-off winners as recently as 1994, it is clear that Sweden has produced some great international-standard talent over the years. Yet, once the greats have been nurtured by their homeland clubs, and transferred to big-name continental clubs, what is left behind them on the domestic scene?

The Swedish domestic league is one of the oldest established in the world, commencing in 1896, dominated in those early years by Örgryte, yet overall it is IFK Göteburg who have won the top division the most; on 17 occasions in total. However, IFK last won the Premier Division (known in reality as 'Allsvenskann') in 1996. Recent times have seen the resurgence of Djurgården, who have won the Premier Division in 2002, 2003 and 2005, and who have won the Swedish Cup for the last three years running.

This decade has also seen the establishment of the 'Royal League', a competition featuring the top 4 clubs in the top divisions of Norway, Denmark and Sweden competing against each other, in a set up similar to the UEFA Champions League. The Danish clubs Aab and FC København have so far been the winners of this competition, with IFK finishing as runners-up in the inaugural competition in 2004.

On the continent, Swedish clubs have had little success in recent years. Malmö were runners-up to Nottingham Forest in the 1979 European Cup Final, which is the highest level of success for a Swedish club in the European Cup competition. The great IFK Göteburg team of the 1980's saw success in the UEFA Cup in 1982 and 1987, beating Hamburg and Dundee Utd respectively, the first of those victories overseen by a young manager by the name of Sven-Göran Eriksson...

The Clubs
As noted above, the major teams in Sweden are, in recent times, Djurgården, IFK Göteburg and Malmö. In teams of wealth, the richest teams are undisputedly Malmö, AIK Solna and Djurgården. AIK have not recently to this wealth to any great success though, last winning the Allsvenskann in 1998, and the Swedish Cup in 1999. These teams all have the foundations for success though, boasting, in relative terms, the best facilities, transfer budgets and squads in Swedish domestic football. Of these teams, it is arguably IFK which is the 'sleeping giant' of Swedish football, with a decent squad ready for the 2007 season, featuring among others former Everton winger Niclas Alexandersson. Another challenge could be to revive the fortunes of some of the early dominators of Swedish domestic football, such as Helsingborgs or Örgryte, who haven't won the top division title since 1985.

Outside of the top flight, and in what FM refers to as the 'First Division Elite' (in reality the 'Superettan'), the biggest team in terms of history is IFK Norrköping, who were one of the dominating teams in Swedish football in the 1940's and 1950's, last winning the top flight in 1989.

The Players
Sweden produces a smörgåsbord of talent year on year, many of whom are destined to higher levels of football outside of Sweden. Names such as Llungberg, Ibrahimovic, Wilhelmsson and Källström are now established names throughout European football, but all began their careers at home in Sweden. It is important to note that not one club was responsible for producing these talents, each of the players noted above began their careers at different clubs in Sweden, some of the big clubs as well as some of the smaller clubs, therefore it is wise to scout for players throughout Sweden, rather than focusing on the big name clubs. Realistically though, there are only likely to be a handful of players on the Llungberg and Ibrahimovic scale, so the 'talent' here should be taken as relative. The 'domestic stars' are players to watch out for if playing the Swedish leagues, they may be worth a purchase to strengthen your squad. Also, there are a lot of players who have returned to Swedish domestic football in recent years, who could still do a good job for a few years on the continent (not necessarily the top divisions though!). These are listed under 'returning heroes'.

Young Talent (age in 2007)
Peter Larsson - Def (RC), Halmstad, age 23
Dennis Boskailo - Def (RC), Djurgården, age 19
Samuel Holmén - Mid (RC), Elfsborg, age 23
Joakim Sjöhage - Striker, Elfsborg, age 20
Pontus Wernbloom - Def Mid (C), IFK, age 21
Marcus Pode - Attacking Midfield (R,L), Malmö, age 21
Mikael Dahlberg - Striker, GIF Sundsvall, age 22
Imad Khalili - Attacking Midfield (R,L), Helsingborg, age 20

Domestic Stars
Hans Berggren - Striker, Håcken, age 34
Markus Johannesson - Defender, Def Mid, Djurgården, age 32
Nicklas Bergh - Goalkeeper, AIK Solna, age 24
Andreas Augustsson - Defender (c), Elfsborg, age 30
Anton Holmberg - Attacking Midfielder/Forward, GAIS, age 25
Jari Illola - Midfielder (c), Halmstad, age 28 (Finnish nationality)
Jonas Wallerstedt - Attacking Midfielder/Forward, IFK, age 29
Ari - Striker, Kalmar, age 21 (Brazilian nationality)

Returning Heroes
Henrik Larsson - Striker, Helsingborgs, age 35
Andreas Jakobsson - Defender, Def Mid (C), Helsingborgs age 34
Mattias Jonson - Attacking Midfielder (R, L), Djurgården age 33
Anders Svensson - Attacking Midfielder (R,L), Elfsborg, age 31
Teddy Lucic - Defender, Håcken, age 34

The Competitions
The top four divisions of Swedish football are replicated in FM2007, the highest of which being the 'Swedish Premier Division' (Allsvenskann) and the lowest being the regional Second divisions. Like all countries, Sweden has tinkered with the amount of teams in each division, but currently there are 14 teams in the Premier Division and 16 teams in the First Division Elite (Superettan). Below this are the First Division North and First Division South, followed by the six regional Second Divisions. Each team play each other twice, making the Swedish season much shorter in comparison to other European countries, running between April and October, the harsh Scandinavian winters being a factor influencing this scheduling.

The champions of the Premier Division are the only qualifiers for the UEFA Champions League, with the 2nd place team qualifying for the UEFA Cup. The third place team goes into the Intertoto Cup, if the winners of the Swedish Cup haven't qualified for Europe by being in the top two in the league. The bottom two teams are relegated to First Division Elite, with the 12th place team taking part in a relegation playoff with the third place team in the First Division Elite. This pattern continues through the lower leagues, but the number of teams in the regional leagues depends on the regions themselves.

The Swedish Cup is a knockout structure, starting with a first round excluding the top two divisions, who enter with a bye to the second round, but are then only drawn against lower opposition in the second round (for example, you wouldn't see two Premier Division sides drawn together in the second round). The winners of the Swedish Cup qualify for the UEFA cup.

Author: Adam Jones