- Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna
Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna (English: Sporting Society Comrades), usually abbreviated IFK is a central organisation for a large number of sports clubs in
Sweden . There are also eight IFK clubs inFinland but they are organised separately. It was founded1 February 1895 and has 164 member clubs with around 100,000 members as of 2004.History
IFK was founded in
Stockholm by two young students (Louis Zettersten and Pehr Ehnemark) that wanted to create a sports association, consisting of a main club in Stockholm with smaller clubs in other parts of the country. This was in a time when no nationwide sports organization or other larger associations existed. An advertisement in the youth paper "Kamraten" (The Comrade) that was published1 February 1895 called forth all sports interested boys and girls in Sweden to join the society. Less than two months later, clubs inLuleå ,Härnösand ,Uppsala ,Jönköping ,Gothenburg andVästerås had been founded, aside the main club in Stockholm. It was decided to name the society after the paper that made the creation possible.The society grew fast and the administration was too heavy for IFK Stockholm to handle, so a central organisation was created in 1901. Championships and other activities for IFK clubs were arranged and were big tournaments in a time when there existed no central Swedish sports administration to handle nationwide events. Some of these Comrade championships died out as national championships were arranged, but in some sports they live on, for example in
Bowling . Other member associations started their own competitions, the most notable beingVasaloppet arranged byIFK Mora andLidingöloppet arranged byIFK Lidingö .Aside from the IFK members in Sweden and the separately organised IFK members in Finland, there did also exist IFK associations in
Denmark andNorway . The last active member in Denmark wasIFK Aalborg that ceased to exist in the early 90s, while the Norwegian member inKristiania (Oslo ) ended its activities early in the 20th century.Symbols and colours
IFK's colours are blue and white. They are used by almost all member clubs, and those clubs that do not use them have special permits from the central organisation for using other colours, like
IFK Malmö that uses yellow and white orIFK Stockholm 's blue and red kits. The colours are believed to symbolise innocence and loyalty as written, by the IFK society master, in "Kamraten" in 1899. Symbols used by IFK include the four-pointed star in blue or white, the blue shield with white stripe and the characteristically formed top with two rounded parts between three peaks which can be seen in most of the member clubs' badges, although some use other styles. The IFKflag is described as a blue and white Scandinavian cross on white background with a blue four-pointed star in the canton.Noted clubs
Sweden
*
IFK Göteborg
*IFK Lidingö
*IFK Mora
*IFK Norrköping
*IFK Stockholm
*IFK Umeå
*IFK Växjö Finland
*
IFK Helsingfors (commonly known asHIFK )
*IFK Mariehamn
* IFK Vasa
* IFK Åbo
* IFK GrankullaAchievements
* Swedish football championships: 31
**IFK Göteborg 18,IFK Norrköping 12,IFK Eskilstuna 1* Finnish Football Championships: 13
**IFK Helsingfors 7, IFK Åbo 3, IFK Vasa 3* UEFA Cup championships: 2
**IFK Göteborg 2* Finnish Ice Hockey Championships: 6
** IFK Helsingfors 6* Swedish Handball Championships: 5
**IFK Kristianstad 4,IFK Lidingö 1* Swedish Bandy Championships: 11
**IFK Uppsala 11* Finnish Bandy Championships: 16
**IFK Helsingfors 16External links
* [http://www.ifkcs.org/ IFK Centralstyrelse] - official site
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