When in Sweden
Football and culture in Gothenburg
One of the greatest dilemmas for a football fanatic is working out when and where you can take a holiday during the football season.
Go too early and you miss the buzz of the new season. Go in the middle and you miss the big holiday derby games. Go too late and you may miss a crucial end-of-season six-pointer.
Back in January, I took the plunge and booked tickets to visit Sweden in April. This trip, my first to Sweden, had two purposes: to visit my girlfriend’s home, friends and family and to watch Blair Turgott play for BK Häcken.
If I was going to miss a Bromley game, particularly a play-off six-pointer, I was going to find a way to get football involved in some way. Hey, I’m a hopeless romantic.
A talented and much admired former Raven, Blair Turgott earned an Allsvenskan winner’s medal last season when BK Häcken won their first-ever top-flight title. For a small club, dwarfed by city rivals IFK Göteborg, this was an incredible achievement. Since I was visiting Göteborg, it felt right to try and catch Blair and Häcken in action.
Here’s Blair doing what Blair does at the business end of last season.
Alas, as Robert Burns famously put it: The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy.
In a tragic twist, Blair suffered an ACL injury in preseason and has been ruled out for the remainder of the season. Even so, I was determined to grab an interview with him. And I figured I’d catch a BK Häcken game while I was in town, too. How wrong I was.
I turned up in Gothenburg on Good Friday morning assuming that I could just stroll into town and get tickets for the match on Easter Sunday. Mice an’ Men.
Häcken’s stadium, the Bravida Arena, only holds 6,300 and their game against Hammarby was their first home game since winning their first-ever Allsvenskan title.
The ticketing website made it clear that I had completely underestimated the magnitude of this game. All I could see was: SOLD OUT. I was chastened, but I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. More on that saga later.
Any self-respecting non-league fan knows that the best thing to do in this scenario is find another game. After a little research - well actually my girlfriend’s, we decided IFK Göteborg Women's Saturday match-up against Malmö FF Women presented the perfect opportunity to sample some Swedish fotboll.
Both teams are relatively newly formed. IFK Göteborg Women rose from the ashes of the collapse of former Swedish champions Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC, and Malmö FF Women have had to start from scratch after Malmö FF’s former women’s team split from the club to create FC Rosengård.
Given both clubs’ historic status as Swedish footballing institutions, it is perhaps unsurprising that their new women’s sides have experienced back-to-back promotions since their formation.
This match, held at IFK Women’s Valhalla IP stadium, was the season opener in the third tier of Swedish women’s football. I went in with high hopes and wasn’t disappointed.
Tickets cost the equivalent of £5 and a very healthy crowd of 1,054 flocked into the 4,000-capacity stadium for the game.
An interesting tidbit: Valhalla IP is also the home ground of Qviding FF, where another former Raven, Hakeem Araba, plied his trade until his retirement from football last summer.
Before the game, the home crowd passionately sang the IFK club song, Snart Skiner Poseidon, which really set the tone.
The quality of the football outshone its lowly third-tier setting, but I was also struck by the passion shown by both sets of supporters; not because it was a women’s game but because of the level of the league.
Every good move or passage of play was met with raucous approval by the respective team’s fans, who were an eclectic mix of men, women and children of all ages.
I made sure to get involved by buying a scarf and pledging loyalty to the home side, and I was quickly rewarded for my choice. Just shy of the 20-minute mark, the stadium erupted when IFK Göteborg took the lead with a low shot from 20 yards that evaded the full-stretch dive of Malmö’s goalkeeper.
The game opened up from that point on. As the game ebbed and flowed, Göteborg made the mistake of not cashing in on their early advantage and Malmö made them pay. They equalised later on in the half then added another before half-time.
Göteborg’s diminutive goalkeeper was an excellent shot-stopper but her lack of height was exposed in the second half when a soft corner was bundled in by Malmö to put the game to bed. So ended a fantastic, keenly contested game of football. The post-match applause from both sets of fans was testament to the quality on show.
I don’t watch enough women’s football to accurately state where both teams would rank in the British pyramid, but the fact that the average age of Göteborg’s starting XI was only 19 suggests the future is bright. They certainly played great, flowing football.
I would expect that at least one of these sides will be playing in Sweden’s second tier next season, and I highly recommend you check out some women’s football if you find yourself in Gothenburg.
I must also give a shout-out to the ageing non-league boat who sat in front of me in the second half. I only understand a few words in Swedish but the language of the embittered fan is universal. Every misplaced pass or loss of possession was greeted with a chuntering of disapproval. He eventually walked out in disgust with ten minutes to go. Ah, football, never change.
Buoyed by my positive experience at Valhalla IP, I made it my mission to gain entry to the Häcken game the following day. With a cursory look on Facebook, I found a few people claiming to sell tickets and sent out some overnight feelers, hoping to strike it lucky.
Yes, this is going where you think it is.
Daniel Lundberg Sundqvist, I have a simple message for you…
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I got scammed. There, I said it. Sundqvist got his 360 Swedish Krona (£28 for two tickets) and I got a whole lot of air. No tickets arrived, and he blocked me on Facebook Messenger!
Serves me right, really. It was a schoolboy error to play the black market, but a football fan will do craziness to see games. I fell into the besotted fandom trap and paid the price.
I must credit Blair Turgott who tried his best to get me some last-minute tickets, but even Blair couldn’t beg a bly from his club. Sold out really meant sold out. However, do watch this space for our forthcoming interview.
Faced with the prospect of not seeing a game for which I’d paid good money, albeit for phantom tickets, I ventured to the Bravida Arena to soak up the pre-match atmosphere. And what an atmosphere it was!
It was immediately apparent why the game was sold out. Not only had Hammarby fans sold their allocation, they had also bought up any spares that were going in the home end.
To be fair, I should have seen this coming. One of Stockholm’s big three, alongside AIK and Djurgårdens, Hammarby were the best-supported team in the Allsvenskan last season with an average gate of 26,000. Häcken, despite going on to win the Championship, only averaged 4,700.
More importantly, despite many loud and proud Hammarby fans taking up residence in the home end, I saw no signs of aggro. Home and away fans entered the same way and mingled freely pre-match.
Huge flags, ultras with loudspeakers, and vivid tifo arrangements were on full display, but I got the sense that this is an established tradition in Swedish football rather than the recent trend that has crept into England’s top flight.
Also very noticeable was the makeup of the crowd. I don’t watch enough high-level football in England to make a definite comparison, but I saw loads of women, girls, and young children heading into the stadium and it was very refreshing to see. It undoubtedly contributed to the lack of aggro pre-match.
I must also give a shout-out to the BK Häcken funk band. Stationed just inside the entrance, they pumped out a rousing medley of funk tunes as the fans streamed in. More of this, please. More supporters on saxophones and guitars and fewer drums. This is the future.
Sadly, pre-match atmosphere aside, I didn’t find any touts outside the ground. There were plenty of Häcken fans who, like me, had turned up hoping to find a way in, but this was a rare case where there wasn’t a spare seat in the house.
Even more gutting was that I missed one of the all-time football howlers. As I walked away from the stadium, I heard the familiar roar that accompanies a goal, albeit with some laughter interspersed.
Here’s why:
So, what did I learn from my Gothenburg excursion?
Well, primarily that the football scene in the city is alive and well. I went with the intention of watching BK Häcken, but there are three other top-flight clubs in the city who are also worth a watch.
IFK Göteborg (Allsvenskan), Gais (Superettan), and Örgryte IS (Superettan) all share the city’s main stadium, Gamla Ullevi, which is slap-bang in the middle of the city.
BK Häcken, meanwhile, play in their own stadium about 25 minutes from the city centre. They also have a women’s side that plays in Sweden’s top tier (Damallsvenskan) and regularly features in the Women’s Champions League.
Of course, there are plenty of football clubs in Göteborg who ply their trade further down the Swedish pyramid. And, like British clubs, each of them has their own story and culture.
So, if you’re looking for a city break and a new football experience, I heartily recommend a trip to Gothenburg. Just make sure you book your tickets beforehand (and never trust Daniel Lundberg Sundqvist, he will finesse you).
For those who want more than just a football tour of Gothenburg, here are some recommendations:
The Paddan boat tour takes you out into the harbour and around the canals of Gothenburg (think Amsterdam but less glamorous). If you’re a history buff, this is a great way to get to grips with the ins and outs of the city.
Eat meatballs in Sweden. It’s the national dish and they do it well. I haven’t been to Ikea since I moved into my flat ten years ago, so my meatball experience isn’t extensive, but this should be top of your culinary to-do list in Sweden.
Go to Slottsskogen City Park and look for the moose. I didn’t find any, but I did see some reindeer. The park has a very relaxing vibe and it’s the perfect way to unwind from the city itself.
Make sure you find a café to have some fika. Swedes love to sit and have coffee and pastry. I mean, come on, must I explain this attraction further?
Try kebab pizza. Yes, I said kebab Pizza. Just do it.
I didn’t do the boat trip to the Gothenburg archipelago, but just flying over them on the way to the city gave me a sense of why everyone raves about them.
On my final day, I ventured out of the city to Skallahamn on the west coast. It’s a beautiful spot for hiking and hanging out on the beach.
It’s often the case that the best parts of a city break are found far from the city centre. You just have to be willing to take the path less trodden.
Gothenburg isn’t the thrill-a-minute European city break that Amsterdam, London, Budapest, or Prague can offer. But if you like a slower pace of life, and some stunning scenery, it’s worth a visit for sure.
So, where have you been on your off-the-beaten-track football travels? Jot your tales and recommendations in the comments section below. Or, better yet, submit your football travelogue to From Bromley with love and tell us your story. You might just inspire someone.
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