Hammarby Fotboll
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| Full name | Hammarby Idrottsförening | ||
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| Nickname(s) | Bajen | ||
| Founded | 1897 | ||
| Ground | Söderstadion, Stockholm | ||
| Capacity | 16,185 | ||
| Chairman | Lars Strandberg | ||
| Manager | Anders Linderoth | ||
| League | Allsvenskan | ||
| 2005 | Allsvenskan, 4th | ||
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- For the place name, see Hammarby, Stockholm.
Hammarby IF is a Swedish football club located in Stockholm. The club is often referred to as the less formal name Bajen (a short form of a mock-english pronunciation of "Hammarby"). The club was formed in 1889 under the name of Hammarby Roddförening (eng: Hammarby Rowingassociation). In 1897 the name was changed to Hammarby Idrottsförening (Hammarby IF) as a result of the fact that the club's athlethes were now engaging in more sports than just rowing. Hammarby Football has won 1 national championship title, and was up until that first title, in 2001, considered as a yo yo club, going up and down in the league system. The club has now been playing in the highest Swedish league, Allsvenskan, since 1998. Hammarby is often regarded as, in a historical sense, being the 'team of the workers' of the poorer southern parts of early 20th century Stockholm. The club is owned to 49% by the Anschutz Entertainment Group.
History
The first years
The football section was started in 1915 when the football club merged with Klara SK. It is from these times that the green/white colors stems, in 1918 Hammarby merged with Johanneshovs IF and there gained their black/yellow colours they used until 1980. Hammarby's early football successes were not great - however, the club had a short strong period in the early 20s, going all the way to the finals in the Svenska Mästerskapet 1922, but losing out to GAIS, and qualifying to the first Allsvenskan played in 1924.
After that the club spent a long time as a top team of the second highest division, called Division 2 at the time. In 1936/1937 they won Div. 2 for the first time, but lost the playoff match then required to be promoted to the Allsvenskan. Also in 1937/1938 they won, only to again losing the playoff match. In the next season, which became their third win in a row, they finally managed to qualify for the Allsvenskan for the second time ever.
However, they finished up last and the next six years they finished in the top four, but then followed some tough years for Bajen. In the 1947/1948 season, Hammarby finished on a tenth and last place in Division 2, and because of a reformation in the league system, were directly relegated to Div. 4.
A period of yo-yoing
Not until 1950/1951 were Hammarby back in the second highest league, but just four years later, in 1954/1955, the club played in the highest league for the third time. The team finished sixth and managed to stay in the highest league for the first time. This marked a new period for Hammarby - one of yoyoing. Hammarby went up and down between the highest and the second highest league seven times until 1970.
During this time, the arguably most famous Hammarby player ever, Nacka Skoglund played in the team. In 1950 he was controversially sold to local rivals AIK because of Hammarby's poor economy, and then went on to play professionall football in Italy for a few years. However, in 1964 he returned to Sweden in Hammarby and it was a comeback that would be classic - after three minutes in his first comeback match, he bended a corner kick directly in to the goal, a goal which has been called the most classic Hammarby goal of all time, and that is depicted on the Nackas Hörna statue.
Stable Allsvenskan years
The 1970 season began terribly. At this time, the league had changed to being played over one year with a break in the summer, thus breaking the league in a spring part, and an autumn part. In the spring part, Hammarby had only gained 3 points and were last team in the league, and not much hope was put into the team. However, during the autumn, Hammarby played fantastic.
Some of Bajen's biggest stars played in the team at this time, including Kenta Olsson and Ronnie Hellström, and with good help by a crowd that had introduced something completely new to Swedish football this year - Supporter songs - the team outperformed themselves, went through the autumn half undefeated and finished in Hammarby's best position yet, fifth place. This marked the beginning of another period of Hammarby, a period of being a stable Allsvenskan team.
In the 1970s the reputation of Hammarby's supporters as some of the most dedicated in Sweden was born, as they throughout the 70s had attracted some of the biggest crowds in Sweden, despite not managing to repeat or outperform their fifth place from 1970. In 1980 Hammarby changed from the black-yellow to the new-old Green/White colours. In 1982 a new system was introduced in Swedish football - the top 8 teams in the Allsvenskan would play playoffs to decide the Swedish champions. Hammarby immediately aimed for the top 8, and their reputation as a home-strong team was not weakened - during the entire season, Bajen did not lose one home game.
At the end of the season, Hammarby had finished Runner-ups, much better than anything they had achieved before, after winners IFK Göteborg, which Bajen beated in the very last round. The new system created a chance for Hammarby to take revenge, and after easily defeating Örgryte in the quarter-finals, and, after a bit of trouble, defeating Elfsborg in the semi-final, Hammarby was in the final against IFK Göteborg. In the first, away match, Hammarby won 2-1 and Söderstadion sold out record-fast and everything was in place for a party. However, IFK dominated the match and won 3-1, but Hammarby had still made a season much better than all before, especially considering IFK Göteborg later went on to win the UEFA Cup, as the first, and so far only, Swedish team to do so.
In the following year, 1983, Hammarby continued to play strongly, finishing fifth in the highest league and qualifying to the playoffs, however losing the derby versus AIK. In the Svenska Cupen, Hammarby for the first time made the finals, where they again lost against the IFK "ghost-team". However, since IFK qualified for the UEFA Cup that year, Hammarby qualified for the Cup-Winners Cup, their first major international competition, and they lost to finnish FC Haka in the second round.
Hammarby 80s were consistently strong, finishing top 6 every year between 1981 and 1987 and having some of the biggest fan crowds for the time (rather small compared to today).
Tough nineties and revival
In 1988, Bajen's 18-year streak in the highest league were ended as they finished last and the 90s would prove troublesome for Hammarby. Although they immediately qualified for the Allsvenskan again, they finished last and would not visit it again until 1994.
In 1998 Hammarby became a stable Allsvenskan team again. That very year they were close to securing their first champion title, leading long parts of the season, but fell through in the last 5-6 rounds and in the end finished third, their second best place ever. Instead, that would wait until 2001. Prior to the 2001 season, Hammarby had problems. They had financially tough times and many experts saw their team as weak and one journalist even went as far as guessing Hammarby for the last spot. However, Hammarby early took the lead and kept it all the way until the match against Örgryte match in the second last round. Bajen won the match 3-2 and thus secured the gold, leading to a pitch attack by euphoric Hammarby fans.
Trainer Sören Cratz, which led the team to the gold that season, were fired halfway through the season, which led to the strange situation that he won the gold in his second last match. A proof of how big he became in the eyes of Hammarby fans is proved in the following season, 2002, when he led Swedish competing team Helsingborgs IF and, following a match against Hammarby, were cheered upon and praised by the Hammarby fans. Because of this, he was fired as Helsingborg's trainer.
The following years are perhaps the most succesful in Hammarby's history, as they finished runner-ups in 2003, one point after winning team Djurgården, led during a majority of the season in 2002 (finished sixth in the end) and finished forth in 2005.
Current squad
As of 11 August 2006: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Noted players
Achievements
- Swedish Champions:
- Winners (1): 2001
- Allsvenskan:
- Winners (1): 2001
- Runners-up (2): 1982, 2003
- Allsvenskan play-off:
- Runners-up (1): 1982
- Svenska Mästerskapet:
- Runners-up (1): 1922
- Svenska Cupen:
- Runners-up (2): 1976–77, 1982–83
External links
- Hammarby IF Fotboll - official site
- Bajen Fans - official supporter club site
- Söderstadion - supporter site
- Ultra Boys Stockholm - ultras site
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