IFK Göteborg

IFK Göteborg

IFK Göteborg is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the only club in the Nordic countries that has won one of the main UEFA competitions, having won the UEFA Cup in both 1982 and 1987. IFK have won 18 Swedish championship titles, second most in Swedish football after Malmö FF, and have the second most national cup titles with eight. The team has qualified for four group stages of the UEFA Champions League, and reached the semi-finals of the 1985–86 European Cup. They have played in the Swedish first tier continuously since 1977, which is the longest ongoing top-flight tenure in Sweden.

About IFK Göteborg in brief

Summary IFK GöteborgIFK Göteborg is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the only club in the Nordic countries that has won one of the main UEFA competitions, having won the UEFA Cup in both 1982 and 1987. IFK have won 18 Swedish championship titles, second most in Swedish football after Malmö FF, and have the second most national cup titles with eight. The team has qualified for four group stages of the UEFA Champions League, and reached the semi-finals of the 1985–86 European Cup. They have played in the Swedish first tier continuously since 1977, which is the longest ongoing top-flight tenure in Sweden. The club colours are blue and white, colours shared both with the sports society which the club originated from, Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, and with the coat of arms of the city of Gothenberg. The Blue and white are in stripes, with blue shorts and socks, with white socks and white shirts. The most popular football club in Sweden, with diverse country-wide support, IFK is the most popular team in Sweden by a wide margin, with more fans per game than any other club in Swedish history. They play in the highest Swedish league, Allsvenskan, where they have played for the majority of their history, and play their home games at Gamla Ullevi. They won their first Swedish championship in 1908, four years after the founding, and has won at least one championship title in every decade since, except the 1920s, 1970s and 2010s.

The legendary Filip Johansson made his debut for IFK in 1924, but later made his first Swedish official national league league debut for the club later that year. In 1937 IFK were surprisingly relegated in 1937–38, although the next season they were promoted back to the top division. In 1941, despite the outbreak of World War II, the club finished second in the league despite the club continuing to finish in the top four for the next ten seasons. In 2007 IFK won the Swedish Cup for the first time, beating Örgryte IS 2-1 in the final. In 2010, the team won their second Swedish title, despite finishing second in 1934–35, the ten previous seasons of the league saw the club finish the club finishing in top four despite the previous ten previous ten seasons being dominated by Swedish teams from the previous decade. In 2011, the first Swedish league title was won by IFK again, this time with a 3-1 victory over rivals Ljubljana. In 2012 IFK was nominated as the best Swedish football club ever by the newspapers in Stockholm. In 2013 IFK became the only Swedish team to have won the Jerring Award, an award for best Swedish sports performance of the year voted by the Swedish people, for the 1982 UEFA Cup victory. The award is given to the club for the best performance in all sports.