Hammarby Fotboll

Hammarby IF FF

Full name	Hammarby Idrottsförening Fotbollsförening
Nickname(s)	Bajen[note 1]
Founded	13 August 1915 (1915-08-13) (as Hammarby IF)
Ground	Tele2 Arena, Stockholm
Ground Capacity	33,000
Owner	Hammarby IF Fotbollförening – 51% AEG – 45%
Chairman	Richard von Yxkull
Head coach	Jakob Michelsen
League	Allsvenskan
2016	Allsvenskan, 11th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Hammarby Fotboll, commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby (Swedish pronunciation: [²hamːarˌbyː] or, especially locally, [-ˌbʏ]), is a Swedish football club based at Tele2 Arena in Johanneshov but founded in the neighbouring Södermalm district of Stockholm City Centre, an area the club considers its heartland.

Competing in Sweden's first tier, Allsvenskan,^[1] Hammarby are placed twelfth in the all-time Allsvenskan table,^[2] and has won the league once, in 2001.

The club's colours are green and white, which is reflected in its crest and kit. Between 1918 and 1978, however, the club played in black-and-yellow striped home shirts, which since often form the club's away colors.

Hammarby is known for its vociferous fans and for having the highest average attendance in the Nordic countries.^[3] Drawing inspiration from England, Hammarby fans introduced football chants to the Swedish terraces in 1970.^[4]

Hammarby Fotboll is affiliated with the Stockholms Fotbollförbund (Stockholm Football Association).^[5]

History

1915-1940s: Establishment of football club

In 1889, Hammarby Roddförening ("Hammarby Rowing Association") was established, with the engineer Axel Robert Schönthal being the first chairman. By 1897, it had diversified into different sports, and was renamed Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), or Hammarby IF for short. In 1915, the club established a football division when it merged with Klara SK. In 1918, Hammarby IF merged with Johanneshovs IF. In the early 1920s, they had a strong showing where they went to the finals of Svenska Mästerskapet in 1922, losing to GAIS, but qualified to compete in Allsvenskan's inaugural season in 1924.

The club finished last in the 1924–25 Allsvenskan, and were relegated to Division 2, which was then the second highest league in Sweden. In the 1936–37 season, the club placed first in its section, but lost the playoff match that would have promoted them to Allsvenskan. The following season, the club placed first in its section again, but lost in the qualifying playoff. In the 1938–39 season, the club placed first in its section and finally qualified for Allsvenskan. Although the club finished last in Allsvenskan in 1939–40, the club eventually finished in the top four for the next six years back in Division 2. In the 1946–47 season, the club finished tenth and last place in Division 2, but because of a restructuring of the league system, the club was relegated to Division 4.

1950s–1960s: A period of yo-yoing

Hammarby did not return to the second highest league until the 1950–51 season. In the 1954–55 season, the club returned to Allsvenskan, but this time it finished sixth and managed to stay for another season. However, the club underwent yo-yoing, having been promoted and relegated between Allsvenskan and Division 2 seven times until 1970. Nacka Skoglund, one of the league's top players who played for Hammarby from 1944–49, returned to Hammarby to play from 1964–67.^[6] In his return debut, he landed a corner kick into the goal minutes into the match;^[6] in 1984, the club erected the Nackas Hörna (Nacka's corner) statue with his kick as the pose.

1970s–1980s: Stable Allsvenskan years

In the 1970 Allsvenskan season, Hammarby had acquired only 3 points in the spring portion of the season, but during the autumn, showed a dramatic improvement. With star players Kenta Olsson and Ronnie Hellström, and with a crowd that tried out supporter songs for the first time, the club went through the autumn half undefeated and finished in fifth place, its best showing in Allsvenskan. The club would stay in Allsvenskan through the rest of the 1970s, attracting large crowds, despite not returning above fifth place. Also in 1978, the club changed from black/yellow to green/white colours.

In the 1982 season, Swedish football introduced a playoff system for the top 8 teams in Allsvenskan to decide a champion. The playoffs consisted of two matches in which the aggregate score would determine who would advance. The club had placed second overall that season and had not lost a home game. After defeating Örgryte in the quarter-finals, and coming back from a 1–3 deficit to beat Elfsborg 4–3 in the semi-finals, Hammarby was in the final against IFK Göteborg. Hammarby won its away match 2–1 to a sold-out crowd, but lost 1–3 in its home match.^{[note 2]}

In the following year, Hammarby finished fifth in the league, but lost to AIK in the play-offs. In the Svenska Cupen tournament, Hammarby reached the finals but lost against IFK. However, since IFK qualified for the UEFA Cup that year, Hammarby qualified for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, its first major international competition, where the club lost to Finland's FC Haka in the second round. The Hammarby squads finished consistently in the top six in the league every year through 1987.^[7]

In 1988, Hammarby finished last in the standings and were relegated to the second tier.^[7] Although the club placed first in 1989,^[8] it finished last in 1990.^[7]

1990s–2000s: Tough nineties, restructuring, champions

Hammarby would stay in the second tier in 1991 and 1992, but in 1993, the team finished in first place and were promoted to Allsvenskan. In 1995 Allsvenskan, the team finished last and were relegated, but returned to the 1998 Allsvenskan with a third-place finish.^[9] The football department was formed out of Hammarby Idrottsförening (Hammarby IF) in 1915.

In 1999, Hammarby IF was reorganised as an umbrella organisation, with each of the individual sports departments breaking off to form independent clubs; the football club was then named Hammarby IF Fotbollförening (Hammarby IF FF).^[10] In 2001, the football club split the A team, B team and youth team into separate legal entities called Hammarby Fotboll, in which the parent football club owns a majority stake. Hammarby Fotboll is affiliated with the Stockholms Fotbollförbund (Stockholm Football Association).^[5]

Prior to the 2001 Allsvenskan season, the club had financially tough times, leading experts to conclude that the team was weak, and one journalist predicted a last place finish. Halfway through the 2001 season, manager Sören Cratz was informed that his contract would not be extended because the club's board wanted Hammarby to play a positive, attacking and fun football, something the board did not think that Cratz did.^{[note 3]} However, the club took the lead in the standings and in the second-to-last match, which was against Örgryte IS, the club won 3–2 and secured its first ever Allsvenskan championship. An estimated fifty to seventy thousand fans gathered in Södermalm and Medborgarplatsen to celebrate the gold after the final game, the size of which had only been seen with the Swedish national football and handball teams.

Hammarby stayed in Allsvenskan for the rest of the 2000s: In 2003 Allsvenskan the club finished second, and participated in the second qualifying and first rounds of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup. In 2006 Allsvenskan, Hammarby placed third overall and advanced to the UEFA Intertoto Cup, where they won their third round match, which advanced the team to the second qualifying and first rounds of the 2007–08 UEFA Cup.

In 2007, Bajen finished on the sixth place, and didn't qualify for any European cups. In 2008, Hammarby finished ninth, but 2009 was a disastrous year where the team finished last in the league and was relegated to the second tier known as Superettan.

2010–2014: Superettan

The 2010 Superettan was a letdown for supporters who had hoped to make the visit to Sweden's second tier short, as the team finished 8th. In the 2010 Svenska Cupen, Hammarby fared better, winning against multiple Allsvenskan opponents, until the finals where the team lost 0–1 to Helsingborgs IF. In the 2011 Superettan season, the club finished in a tie for 11th, its worst overall ranking in 64 years. The club was almost relocated to the third tier, until a game-winning kick in the season's final match against Ängelholm. After the season of 2011, Hammarby dismantled their development team HTFF, which was established in 2003. In 2012 Superettan, the club finished fourth, and in 2013 Superettan the club finished fifth. In 2014, in the last round of the season, Hammarby were promoted to the first tier, Allsvenskan, by finishing first in Superettan.

2015–: Top-flight comeback

The 2015 season started off well, with Hammarby managing an impressive 1–2 away win against local rivals AIK in the 2015 Swedish Cup, which also was the first Stockholm derby involving Hammarby since 2009. This was followed up with a 2–0 win in the season opener against BK Häcken, and in the fourth round Hammarby defeated their other local rivals Djurgårdens IF with 2–1. The summer was, however, tougher for the club, with Hammarby playing 10 consecutive league games without winning, before managing to defeat Falkenbergs FF at home with 3–0. Eventually, Hammarby finished at 11th place in their first Allsvenskan season since 2009.

Colours and crest

When Hammarby Roddförening (Hammarby RF) was founded, the club's crest consisted of a white flag with three green horizontal lines. The reason was that the two blue and red lines on a white flag were used by a competing rowing club, and that the colour green represented the colour of hope. The club eventually added a third stripe when it discovered that Göteborgs RF used a similar green-white flag with two stripes.^[11]

When Hammarby IF founded its football club in 1915, it determined the kit to be the following: a white hat with a five-pointed green star, a white shirt with "HIF" on its chest, white shorts and black socks.^[12] Following a merger with Johanneshovs IF 1918, the club changed its football team apparel to Johanneshov's black-and-yellow striped shirts, blue shorts and black socks with yellow stripes.^[13] In the 1960s, the club changed from blue pants to black. Fans have speculated that when "Nacka" Skoglund rejoined the club in 1964, he donated the club a set of black shorts because he thought the team's blue shorts looked awful.

In 1978, 60 years after the merger with Johanneshov, Hammarby changed its home colours from black and yellow to white shirts, green shorts and white socks. In 1997, the striped shirts returned, but with green and white colours, with green shorts and white socks. The yellow and black colours were retained for the away and third kits. A few exceptions were made since 1997. In 2002 and 2014–2016, the team wore all-white jerseys. In 2011, the team wore all grey-coloured outfits for the away kit.

Sponsors

German sportswear company Puma is the kit manufacturer for Hammarby.^[14] Hammarby also holds major sponsorship deals with construction company LW AB, car manufacturer Volkswagen, construction equipment company Safecon, and sporting goods retailer Intersport.^[15]

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor (chest)
1994–1995	Puma	Oddset
1996–1997		Folksam, Oddset
1998		Folksam, Oddset, Stadium Sweden AB
1999		Folksam, Falcon, Kungsörnen, Stadium
2000–2001		Folksam, Falcon, AXA, Stadium
2002–2003		Coop
2004		Siemens
2005–2006	Kappa
2007	Nike	UNICEF
2008–2009		Finlux
2010–2011		Pepsi
2011	Kappa
2012		None
2013		Herbalife
2014
2015–	Puma	LW AB

Supporters

The club's nickname is "Bajen" (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈbajɛn]). A fan of Hammarby is referred to as a bajare or a hammarbyare.

The club's main rivals are Djurgårdens IF and AIK, also from the Stockholm urban area. Hammarby and Djurgården have been tenants at the same arena, Tele2 Arena, since 2013.

Hammarby has historically been regarded as a club with a mainly working-class fan base, due to its connection with the formerly working-class (but today gentrified) Södermalm district of Stockholm. Nowadays the club attracts fans from all parts of society.

Hammarby has strong ties to Söderort, the southern part of Stockholm urban area. A 2012 poll conducted by the Swedish research company Novus showed that Hammarby was the most popular club in Söderort; 37 percent of those living there who had a favourite club chose Hammarby.^[16]

Hammarby's training ground, Årsta Idrottsplats, is located in the district of Johanneshov, while some of the older youth teams still play at Hammarby IP in Södermalm.

In 2014, Hammarby had the highest attendance in Scandinavia with an average of 20,500.^[17] Hammarby's average attendance for the 2015 season was 25,507, a new record high for Swedish top-division football.^[18]

The club's unofficial hymn is "Just idag är jag stark". Released in 1979, it was performed and co-written by Kenta Gustafsson, who was a notable Hammarby fan.^[19] The recording has been the team's entrance music since 2014.

Hammarby has several supporter clubs, the largest of which, Bajen Fans, has over 9,000 members and is one of the largest in Scandinavia.^[20] Hammarby also has a number of ultras such as Hammarby Ultras, Ultra Boys, Söder Bröder, and E1 Ultras. Other supporter groups are among others Bajen Bastards and Bamsingarna.

Hammarby supporters have since the club's early history been noted for their vocal support. In the 1982 finals against IFK Göteborg, Hammarby supporters attracted attention from opposing teams and the media for bringing a live samba band to the stands to accompany their chants, inspired by supporters in South America.^[21] In 2008, sports broadcaster Setanta Sports listed Söderstadion, Hammarby's home ground at the time, as the 11th noisiest stadium in the world.^[22] In August 2015, the British football platform Copa90 made a documentary about the history and supporters of the club.^[23]

Hammarby Fotboll has a slew of celebrity fans, including Tomas Andersson Wij, Magnus Carlson, Mikael Persbrandt, Alexander Gustafsson, Zara Larsson, Joel Kinnaman,^[24] Alexander Skarsgård,^[24] Björn Borg,^[25] Mikael Appelgren^[26] Jan-Ove Waldner, and Staffan Olsson.

Players

First-team squad

As of 11 August 2017^[27]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ögmundur Kristinsson 2 DF Birkir Már Sævarsson 4 MF Bjørn Paulsen 6 DF Oscar Krusnell 8 MF Jeppe Andersen 9 DF Stefan Batan 10 MF Kennedy Bakircioglu (captain) 11 MF Arnór Smárason (vice captain) 13 DF Mads Fenger 16 FW Rômulo 17 FW Pa Dibba

No. Position Player 18 MF Rebin Asaad 19 MF Serge-Junior Martinsson Ngouali 21 FW Sander Svendsen 22 FW Muamer Tanković 23 DF Marcus Degerlund 25 GK Johan Wiland 27 GK Benny Lekström 34 MF Leo Bengtsson 77 DF Mats Solheim 90 MF Jiloan Hamad

Current youth players with first-team experience

As of 26 April 2017^{[upper-alpha 1]}

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 30 MF Olle Edlund

No. Position Player 31 MF Elias Durmaz

Out on loan

As of 11 August 2017

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 7 FW Imad Khalili (at IF Brommapojkarna until 8 January 2018) 26 MF Dušan Jajić (at IK Frej until 8 January 2018)

No. Position Player 28 MF Gershon Koffie (at New England Revolution until 8 January 2018) — DF Oliver Silverholt (at Varbergs BoIS until 8 January 2018)

Retired numbers

12 – Fans of the club

Notable players

List criteria:

• player has made more than 300 appearances overall for the club, or
• player has won Guldbollen,^[28] is a member of the Swedish football Hall of Fame,^[29] has been named Allsvenskan top scorer of the year,^[30] or
• player has been picked as a top ten club profile, decided by the supporters in 2004 in an official voting called "Tidernas största Bajenprofiler".^[31]

Name	Nationality	Hammarby Fotboll career	Total appearances	Total goals	Guldbollen	Hall of Fame	Allsvenskan top goalscorer	Top ten club profile
Bergqvist, SvenSven Bergqvist	Sweden	1932–1946	212	0				Yes
Skoglund, LennartLennart Skoglund	Sweden	1946–1949 1964–1967	113	28		Yes		Yes
Hellström, RonnieRonnie Hellström	Sweden	1966–1974	169	0	1971 1978	Yes		Yes
Ohlsson, KennethKenneth Ohlsson	Sweden	1966–1983	396	83				Yes
Werner, MatsMats Werner	Sweden	1971–1984	251	46			1979
Ohlsson, BillyBilly Ohlsson	Sweden	1972–1978 1980–1986	219	94			1980 1984	Yes
Klas Johansson	Sweden	1975–1989	314	12				Yes
Ulf Eriksson	Sweden	1979–1983 1985–1989	176	55				Yes
Ramberg, Sten-OveSten-Ove Ramberg	Sweden	1979–1989	250	14				Yes
Eriksson, LarsLars Eriksson	Sweden	1985 –1988 1998–2001	123	0				Yes
Hellström, MikaelMikael Hellström	Sweden	1990–2005	301	18
Bakircioglu, KennedyKennedy Bakircioglu	Sweden	1999–2003 2012–	243	77				Yes

Management

Organisation

As of 28 April 2017

Name Role Richard von Yxull Chairman Björn Ekblom Secretary Henrik Kindlund Managing director Jesper Jansson Director of football Ola Larsson Technical director Mikael Hjelmberg Head of scouting Johan Lager Head of youth academy recruitment Peter Kleve Head of youth department

Technical staff

As of 28 April 2017

Name Role Jakob Michelsen Head coach Stefan Billborn Assistant coach Pablo Piñones Arce Assistant coach / U21 head coach Jimmy Lidberg Fitness coach Mikael "Mille" Olsson Goalkeeping coach Anders Friberg Mental coach Mikael Klotz Club doctor Linda Eisersjö Physiotherapist Anders Bitén Equipment manager Klebér Saarenpää U19 head coach Isak Dahlin U19 assistant coach Fredrik Samuelsson U17 head coach Gustav Scheutz U19 and U17 goalkeeping coach Nebez Kurban U19 and U17 fitness coach

Manager history

Honours

Domestic

• Swedish Champions^{[upper-alpha 2]}
  • Winners (1): 2001

League

• Allsvenskan:
  • Winners (1): 2001
  • Runners-up (2): 1982, 2003
• Superettan:
  • Winners (1): 2014
• Division 1 Norra:
  • Winners (3): 1989, 1993, 1997
  • Runners-up (1): 1996
• Division 1 Östra:
  • Winners (1): 1991

Cups

• Svenska Cupen:
  • Runners-up (3): 1977, 1983, 2010
• Svenska Mästerskapet:
  • Runners-up (1): 1922

European

• UEFA Intertoto Cup:
  • Winners (1): 2007^[33]

Futsal

• Swedish Futsal Championship:
  • Winners (1): 1994^[34]

International play

European games

Hammarby has occasionally qualified for play in competitions where the team has competed with clubs from other European countries.

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Agg.	Notes
1983–84	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup	First round		17 Nëntori Tirana	4–0	1–2	5–2
		Second round		Haka	1–1	1–2	2–3
1985–86	UEFA Cup	First round		Pirin Blagoevgrad	3–1	4–0	7–1
		Second round		St Mirren	3–3	2–1	5–4
		Third round		1. FC Köln	2–1	1–3	3–4
1999	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Second round		FC Gomel	4–0	2–2	6–2
		Third round		Heerenveen	0–2	0–2	0–4
2002–03	UEFA Champions League	Second qualifying round		Partizan	1–1	0–4	1–5
2004–05	UEFA Cup	Second qualifying round		ÍA Akranes	2–0	2–1	4–1
		First round		Villarreal	1–2	0–3	1–5
2007	UEFA Intertoto Cup	First round		Klaksvík	1–0	2–1	3–1
		Second round		Cork City	1–1	1–0	2–1
		Third round		Utrecht	0–0	1–1	(a)1–1	Winner
2007–08	UEFA Cup	Second qualifying round		Fredrikstad	2–1	1–1	3–2
		First round		Braga	2–1	0–4	2–5

Records

• Highest attendance, Råsunda Stadium: 35,611 (against Djurgårdens IF, 16 September 2003; Råsunda was sometimes used instead of Söderstadion for derby matches against other Stockholm teams.)
• Highest attendance, Tele2 Arena: 31,756 (against Östersunds FK, 4 April 2016)^[35]
• Highest attendance, Söderstadion: 15,626 (against Malmö FF, 6 April 2004)
• Biggest win, Allsvenskan: 7–0 (against Halmstad BK, 1 October 1972); 7–0 (against Enköpings SK, 29 September 2003)
• Biggest loss, Allsvenskan: 1–9 (against Djurgårdens IF, 13 August 1990); 0–8 (against IFK Göteborg, 2 June 1925)
• Most goals scored, Allsvenskan: 94, Billy Ohlsson (1972–86)
• Most appearances (including non-league), total: 400, Kenneth "Kenta" Ohlsson (1966–83)

Hammarby Damfotboll

Hammarby IF DFF are the women's football club affiliated to Hammarby Fotboll. Hammarby Damfotbollförening was first founded in 1970 as a section under Hammarby IF. In 1999 the association was reorganized and all the underlying sections got separated into an umbrella organization.^[10] Before the start of the 2017 season, Hammarby IF DFF was merged with Hammarby Fotboll.^[36][37]

Hammarby won the top tier Damallsvenskan in 1985 and two national cups in 1994 and 1995.^[38] In 1994 it was also the championship's runner-up. Previously, the team had been the cup's runner-up in its first three editions (1981–83).^[39] The home ground of the women's team is Hammarby IP, although occasionally they have played competitive games at Zinkensdamms IP and Tele2 Arena.^[40]

Footnotes

Works cited

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hammarby IF Fotboll.

• Hammarby Fotboll
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• Hammarby Fotboll on Facebook