History of IFK Göteborg

This article is about the history of the football section of IFK Göteborg. For the history of other sections, see IFK Göteborg (disambiguation) and their respective pages.

1895–1904

Football kit box
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title = IFK Göteborg's first kit, which was used in 1904 and 1905. White shorts were also sometimes used, and there was no standard sock colour.

The first IFK association in Gothenburg was founded in 1895, with Oscar Lagerstedt as chairman. It was short-lived, although it has been confirmed that it founded a small-bore rifle shooting challenge prize in the winter of 1896. The next attempt to found an IFK club in Gothenburg was made on 5 September 1897, when two brothers named FrimanThe first names of the brothers are not found in any of the sources, and their last name is in some sources written as Friberg instead of Friman.] , Eric Clase and Anton JohanssonStrangely enough, Johansson later on became a big Gothenburg-hater. He was also a one of the first members of the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) started in 1904. "IFK Göteborg 1904-2004, pp. 9 & 37."] reconstructed the club. The club was active until at least 1899, but after that no information can be found that confirms the club still existed. During these years, the main activity was athletics, and for a short time in 1899, four-time Olympic gold medalist Eric Flemming was active in the club.

There was no further activity of any IFK association in Gothenburg between 1900 and 1904. The present day IFK Göteborg was founded when Arthur "Lång-Arthur" Andersson, John Säwström, and two students at Chalmers University of Technology, Arthur Wingren and Sven Ljunggren, wanted to start an IFK club in Gothenburg. The idea came to their minds after reading a news-item which expressed confusion at to why the second largest city in Sweden still did not have an IFK association. Late in the evening of 2 October 1904, it was decided to start the club, and two days later on 4 October, IFK Göteborg became the 39th IFK association. Committees for football, hockey and parties were also founded at the meeting. One of the important initial questions raised was uniform colour. As with almost all IFK clubs, the colors decided on were blue and white. It was also decided that the uniform should consist of blue and white vertically striped jerseys, with blue shorts. The ownership group, however, lacked the financial ability to buy that kind of striped jersey, so blue ones with a single horizontal white stipe were used.

1904–19

The first match ever played ended in a 4-1 victory against a club from the local area, IK Viking. The foundation of IFK Göteborg was important for the development of football in the city, as until that point, Örgryte IS (ÖIS), the largest of the area clubs, had dominated the scene. IFK Göteborg represented some needed competition, although initially ÖIS maintained its traditional dominance (up until 1907 IFK managed only one draw, and were outscored 79-12). IFK also competed in the IFK association competition, but lost to IFK Stockholm in the finals.

ÖIS, a dominant and impressive team in Swedish football, outclassed IFK in almost all their meetings in the first years, but on 13 October 1907, IFK Göteborg, became the first Swedish team in four years to beat them. IFK Göteborg also won the local league in Gothenburg. It is conjectured that this probably lead to the decision by the district boardThe board was composed of almost exclusively supporters of Örgryte IS. "Jönsson, [http://www.ifkgoteborg.se/portal/page?_pageid=113,61266&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL 1906-10] ."] to disqualify IFK Göteborg. However, the Swedish Football Association disagreed with the decision and subsequently revoked it. IFK won the Swedish Championships for the first time in 1908 by winning the cup tournament Svenska Mästerskapet, and three players from the club were selected to play for Sweden in the first game played by the Swedish national team.The game was played on 12 July 1908 ending in an 11–3 win over Norway.] Erik Börjesson from IFK scored the historic first goal. IFK finished the season by playing international teams for the first time, the Danish clubs Østerbro BK and Boldklubben af 1893.

In 1910, the club finished third in the first season of Svenska Serien ever played, although the club was declared Swedish Champions as they won Svenska Mästerskapet.The Swedish Champions were decided by the cup tournament Svenska Mästerskapet from 1896 to 1925.] The team played its first game ever using their blue and white striped jerseys. The team played 1-1 in a game in 1912 against what became the Swedish Olympic team, and the newspapers in Stockholm nominated IFK Göteborg as "the best Swedish football club ever". The club acted as the national team the next year, where they played Norway to a 1-1 score. This marked both the first and last time that the Swedish national team was represented by only one club.

The first big scandal in Swedish football occurred in 1914 when several players, leaders, and supporters from IFK and ÖIS started a fight in the 1/8-final of Svenska Mästerskapet. Two years later, in 1916, IFK moved to its new home stadium Gamla Ullevi. Due to the long-standing conflict between the clubs from Gothenburg, Stockholm and the SvFF, the national team between 1913 and 1916 was composed of players from both Stockholm and Gothenburg, but never at the same time. IFK Göteborg won Svenska Serien for the fifth time in a row 1917, but the ongoing war and the Spanish flu led to the dissolution of the competition. As a replacement, a private competition called Fyrkantserien was started in 1918, and IFK also won that competition, which was dissolved the next year.

1920–39

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title = Blue-white stripes have been used on the home kit since 1910 with only very small variations. This variant was common during the 1920s and 1930s.

The club, with its 875 members started the new decennium by beating both local rivals GAIS and ÖIS in Svenska Mästerskapet, but lost in the semi-finals against Djurgårdens IF. The club gained its first official coach in 1921, Alexander Brody from Hungary. Svenska Serien was played again that year, IFK finishing fifth, but the league was dissolved again in 1924. After another conflict with the SvFF, the three clubs composing the Gothenburg-alliance, IFK, ÖIS and GAIS, boycotted the Swedish Championship tournament, Svenska Mästerskapen, in 1923.

The first Swedish official national league, Allsvenskan, was started in the autumn 1924. The same year as the legendary Filip "Svarte-Filip" Johansson made his debut for IFK Göteborg. IFK's debute in Allsvenskan was played against Malmö FF and ended in a 1-1 draw. The club finished second, but "Svare-Filip" scored 39 goals in 22 games and won the top-scoring league. The next five seasons, IFK never finished worse than fourth, but also never managed to win the league. Swedish football was still dominated by the three big clubs from Gothenburg, IFK, ÖIS and GAIS.

The 30s started as the 20s ended, with a lot of second and third places, but no win. The 1932–33 season ended with "Svarte-Filip" retiring, having reached a total of 177 goals in 181 Allsvenskan games, and totalling 329 goals for IFK. IFK finally won its first Allsvenskan title in the spring of 1935 after eight silver and bronze medals since the league start. As the only Swedish football club, IFK and its players boycotted the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Nazi Germany.The three players that were nominated to the national team but declined to take part were Ernst Andersson, Fritz Berg and Gunnar Löfgren. The decision was accepted by the SvFF and the other players, but the press went hard on them. Anton Johansson, mentioned above, uttered the words "Gothenburgers aren't real Swedes". "IFK Göteborg 1904-2004, p. 37."] Swedish football was no longer dominated by teams from Gothenburg in the later half of the thirties, with both IFK Göteborg and GAIS being relegated in 1937–38, although IFK was promoted back to Allsvenskan the next season. Back in the highest division, IFK finished second as it was decided to finish the league, even after the breakout of World War II.

1940–69

Mobilization affected the clubs as many players were doing their military service. Gunnar Gren (later A.C. Milan) made his debut in IFK as they won the league in 1941–42. The rest of the 40s were a sad time for the supporters of the club and the decade was ended by IFK being relegated from Allsvenskan for the second time. The only light in the dark was Gunnar Gren, being the top scorer in 1946–47 and was together with Gunnar Nordahl playing in a 'Rest of Europe' team against England at Wembley. He was also awarded Guldbollen as the best player in Sweden, and won an Olympic Games gold medal with the Swedish team in 1948.

IFK was promoted to Allsvenskan after one season in Division 2. They barely avoided relegation in 1954–55. The talented Bertil "Bebben" Johansson played for IFK and scored 27 goals when they won the long season league played autumn 1957 to autumn 1958. This was done as Sweden changed system from autumn/spring to spring/autumn. IFK competed in a European cup (the European Champion Clubs' Cup) for the first time, being eliminated in the second round. The still unbeaten Allsvenskan record attendance of 52,194 was set when IFK played ÖIS on Nya Ullevi in 1959.

IFK Göteborg gained the nickname "Änglarna" (the Angels) when a newspaper seller coined the name after seeing a heavenly freekick being shot by "Bebben". The training ground "Kamratgården" was built and opened in 1961. One of the founders, John Säwström died in 1962. The 60s were not very kind to the club, with IFK finishing in the middle of the league almost every year, even with "Bebben" as coach. The legendar Bengt "Fölet" Berndtsson retired in 1967, after setting the record for most matches played for IFK, 598. The team surprisingly won Allsvenskan in 1969.

1970–89

1970 was the darkest year in the history of IFK. After having won the league the year before, the team was relegated after losing the last game in the series against Örebro SK. 4,000 angry IFK supporters stormed the field in the last few minutes of the game and vandalized the field and the goals, trying to get a re-match. After a big fight between the police and the hooligans, it was decided that the end score should stand. IFK was also eliminated in the first round in the European Cup. After three seasons in the second league, IFK had bought 34 players, but still had not managed to win Division 2 and be promoted back to Allsvenskan. In 1975, still playing in the second league, IFK bought Torbjörn Nilsson and Ove Kindvall. Torbjörn Nilsson showed the way and IFK was promoted to Allsvenskan in 1976. A news-paper arranged a poll, showing that 60% of the people in Gothenburg supported IFK, 25% supported Örgryte IS and 15% GAIS.This has naturally changed since, but a new poll held in 2004 had similar figures for IFK, 55%, while ÖIS' and GAIS' numbers had dropped to about 10%.] A new record was set for Swedish Division 2 football when 50,690 persons watched IFK-GAIS at Ullevi.

The first season in Allsvenskan this decade ended with a sixth place, having bought many good players, including Ralf Edström, Glenn Holm and Tommy Holmgren. In 1978, IFK hired the coach Sven-Göran Eriksson, previously only having minor successes in lower leagues, to make IFK Göteborg a top team once again. He introduced the 4-4-2 system with "pressure and support", a system that was going to give IFK great success later on. The 70s ended with a second place in Allsvenskan and the first gold medal in Svenska Cupen.

After reinforcing the team with several good players, amongst them Glenn Hysén, Glenn Strömberg and the goalkeeper Thomas Wernerson, IFK finished second in the league and reached the quarter-finals in the UEFA Cup after beating Haka Valkeakoski, Sturm Graz and Rapid Bucureşti. 1982 became a turbulent season, as the whole board was replaced, and the club almost going bankrupt, having to loan money from the supporter club to be able to go to Valencia and play the quarter-final in the UEFA Cup. After the troublesome start, IFK won everything they could win that year, including Allsvenskan, Svenska Cupen, and the UEFA Cup, after beating Valencia and Kaiserslautern on the way, and defeating Hamburger SV in the finals.

After the European success, many players went abroad trying their luck, which meant that the team was split. IFK still managed to field a strong team and won gold in both the league in 1983 and 1984 and the cup in 1983. IFK also played in the European Cup and reached the quarter-finals two years in a row. In 1986, the team advanced even further, but was eliminated in the semi-finals after 3-0 at home and 0-3 away and then being defeated after penalties against FC Barcelona. A new team of talents made the impossible and won both the UEFA Cup and Allsvenskan once again in 1987, after beating Dundee United in the finals. The later years of the 80s showed an old team that would need a few young, hungry players. After finishing seventh in the league, the new junior coach Roger Gustafsson took over the team.

1990–99

Gustafsson could not have gotten a worse start than 0-6 against IFK Norrköping in the premiere of Allsvenskan in 1990. He using many youth players, and got heavily critizised by the press. However, in the next game, a 5-0 victory against AIK showed them that Gustafsson was doing the right thing. After a good autumn, IFK once again won Allsvenskan. It was also decided to move back to the old arena Gamla Ullevi, originally built for IFK in 1916. IFK won the league and the cup in 1991, and Gustafsson became a hero. 1992 ended with a fifth place in Allsvenskan, but a good result in the UEFA Champions League, beating PSV Eindhoven twice and FC Porto once, finishing second in their group after A.C. Milan.

IFK won Allsvenskan in 1993, their 14th title (Swedish record), and once again qualified for international play. IFK advanced to the group stage of the Champions League by beating Sparta Prague. The group consisted of FC Barcelona, Manchester United and Galatasaray. No one really believed that IFK would survive the group and enter the quarter-final stage, but after beating Galatasaray twice, and Manchester United and Barcelona once, plus one loss and one draw, IFK Göteborg won the group and was now playing Bayern Munich.

The 1995 season started with the quarter-finals against Bayern Munich, which ended in two draws, 0-0 in Munich and 2-2 at home, but IFK was eliminated due to fewer away goals. IFK won the league for the third time in a row, but was eliminated in the first round of the Champions League by Legia Warszawa, and the fantastic career of Roger Gustafsson ended. IFK hooligans behaved badly in the qualification to the Champions League, and IFK was punished by having to play next home match at least 250 kilometers from Gothenburg.

Although Gustafsson left, IFK continued to play well with the new coach Mats Jingblad, and won Allsvenskan 1996 for the fourth time in a row, and thus qualified for the Champions League once again. IFK won against A.C. Milan 2-1 at home, but lost all the five other games in the group. The last years before the new millennium was a disaster, with "only" a silver in 1997 and an eight place in 1998, after buying several expensive players without success. Jingblad was fired during the season and was replaced with Reine Almkvist. Almkvist was not able to make IFK to a winning team and was fired during the 1999 season when the club was situated in the lower part of the table. IFK had changed coach in the middle of a season two years in a row, something that the club never before had done. His replacement Stefan Lundin was more successful and the last year of the decade ended with a sixth place.

2000–

The first year of the new millennium started well for IFK. The club bought the players Gustaf Andersson, Tomas Rosenqvist and Mikael Sandklef from local rival Västra Frölunda IF. The player made success and IFK was in the top of Allsvenskan at the summer but when player Stefan Landberg was injured and had to end his career the club lost the contact with the very top and ended at fourth place. After strengthening the team with national team defense player Pontus Kåmark and promising Martin Ericsson the team was one of the favourites for the 2001 season. IFK again started very good but when national team midfielder Håkan Mild was injured the team played lost a couple of important games. Mild did a comeback at the end of the season and IFK approached the top position. But after losing two of the three last games the team once again finished at fourth place and was qualified for the UEFA cup.

The 2002 season was a disaster for IFK. Håkan Mild left the team for Wimbledon FC and IFK did not look like a favourite for the title for the first time of many years. IFK was located in the middle of the table during the summer but then problems appeared. Pontus Kåmark was injured and had to retire. Economical problems made the team sell striker Gustaf Andersson to Helsingborgs IF. The team fell to the bottom of the table and was almost relegated, staying in Allsvenskan only after two nervous play-off games against Västra Frölunda IF (1-1, 2-0). The result in the UEFA Cup was a humiliating defeat against a Moldavian club, Zimbru. Stefan Lundin was fired during the autumn and temporary replaced by Roger Gustafsson. 2003 was slightly better. Håkan Mild was brought back from Wimbledon FC and Bo Johansson became new coach. IFK played very unstable, wins against many of the top teams while a lot of lost and draw games against the other teams. IFK ended on a seventh place.

For the 2004 season IFK looked very strong with the new players Niclas Alexandersson and Peter Ijeh. The team were involved in the gold fight but finished at third place. In the Swedish cup the team made it to the final but lost against Djurgårdens IF with 3-1. With the new striker Stefan Selakovic IFK made it to the final in the first edition of the Scandinavian championship Royal League and the team again looked like a favourite for Allsvenskan 2005 with new coach Arne Erlandsen. But because of avoiding tax for the transfer of players Ijeh and Selakovic, the director Mats Persson was sentenced to jail. The club had a lot of bad attention from the media and striker Ijeh was sold to FC Copenhagen. Despite this, the club made a good season and finished at second place. Håkan Mild quit his career as a football player and became the new director. The team again looked strong for the 2006 but after selling the defense players Karl Svensson to Rangers and Oscar Wendt to FC Copenhagen the team collapsed at the end of the series and finished at 8th place. Erlansen was fired.

Few people believed that IFK could challenge for the title of the 2007 season since the squad mostly consisted of young, unknown players. But the club had a perfect mix of promising players and old experienced players. Defense player Ragnar Sigurdsson and striker Marcus Berg had a breakthrough and the team won the title for the first time in 11 years. The team also made it to the final of the Swedish cup where they lost against Kalmar FF with 3-0. Berg scored 14 goals and was sold to Groningen at the end of the season while midfielder Tobias Hysén was bought from premier league club Sunderland FC.

Timeline

Graphical timeline of IFK Göteborg's history

ImageSize = width:640 height:1610PlotArea = left:40 right:10 top:10 bottom:10DateFormat = yyyyTimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:reverse format:yyyyPeriod = from:1895 till:2009AlignBars = earlyScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1900ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:5 start:1895Colors = id:blue value:rgb(0.125,0.3125,0.5625)
# there is no automatic collision detection,
# so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlapDefine $dx = 20 # shift text to right side of barPlotData = bar:event width:20 color:blue shift:($dx,-4) from:start till:end color:blue mark:(line,white) at:1895 text:"1895 A first shortlived club with the name IFK Göteborg was founded" at:1897 text:"1897 A second shortlived club with the name IFK Göteborg was founded" at:1904 text:"1904 The present day IFK Göteborg was founded" at:1907 text:"1907 First win over local rivals and dominating Swedish club Örgryte IS" at:1908 text:"1908 First Swedish Championship and first international match (v. Østerbro BK from Denmark)" at:1910 text:"1910 Second Swedish Championship and first time blue and white striped jerseys were used" at:1913 text:"1913 First Svenska Serien win" at:1914 text:"1914 Second Svenska Serien win" at:1915 text:"1915 Third Svenska Serien win" at:1916 text:"1916 Fourth Svenska Serien win, move to Gamla Ullevi" at:1917 text:"1917 Fifth Svenska Serien win" at:1918 text:"1918 Third Swedish Championship" at:1925 text:"1925 Finishing second in the first Allsvenskan ever played" at:1935 text:"1935 Fourth Swedish Championship" at:1938 text:"1938 Relegated to Division 2" at:1939 text:"1939 Promoted back to Allsvenskan" at:1942 text:"1942 Fifth Swedish Championship" at:1950 text:"1950 Relegated to Division 2" at:1951 text:"1951 Promoted back to Allsvenskan" at:1958 text:"1958 Sixth Swedish Championship, move to Nya Ullevi" at:1959 text:"1959 Record attendance at Nya Ullevi; 52,194 (v. Örgryte IS)" at:1969 text:"1969 Seventh Swedish Championship" at:1970 text:"1970 Relegated to Division 2" at:1976 text:"1976 Promoted back to Allsvenskan" at:1979 text:"1979 First Swedish Cup win (v. Åtvidabergs FF)" at:1982 text:"1982 UEFA Cup winners (v. Hamburger SV), eight Swedish Championship and second Swedish Cup win (v. Östers IF)" at:1983 text:"1983 Ninth Swedish Championship and third Swedish Cup win (v. Hammarby IF)" at:1984 text:"1984 Tenth Swedish Championship" at:1987 text:"1987 UEFA Cup winners (v. Dundee United FC) and eleventh Swedish Championship" at:1990 text:"1990 Twelfth Swedish Championship" at:1991 text:"1991 Thirteenth Swedish Championship and fourth Swedish Cup win (v. AIK)" at:1992 text:"1992 Move back to Gamla Ullevi" at:1993 text:"1993 Fourteenth Swedish Championship" at:1994 text:"1994 Fifteenth Swedish Championship" at:1995 text:"1995 Sixteenth Swedish Championship" at:1996 text:"1996 Seventeenth Swedish Championship" at:2002 text:"2002 Winning relegation play-off (v. Västra Frölunda IF)" at:2005 text:"2005 Royal League runners-up (v. FC København)" at:2007 text:"2007 Eighteenth Swedish Championship" at:2009 text:"2009 Planned move to new stadium"

See also

* Football in Sweden

External links

* [http://www.ifkgoteborg.se/ IFK Göteborg] - official site

Notes

References

;Print
* Göransson, Mattias (2005). "Blåvit gryning." Göteborg: Offside Fanatik. ISBN 91-85279-03-X
* "IFK Göteborg 1904-2004: en hundraårig blåvit historia genom elva epoker." (2004). Wettergrens bokhandel (distributor). ISBN 91-631-4659-2

;Online
* Jönsson, Ingemar (2003). [http://www.ifkgoteborg.se/portal/page?_pageid=113,61264&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL IFK Göteborg - Historik] . Retrieved 1 September 2006.