Åtvidabergs FF

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Åtvidabergs FF
Template: Infobox Football Club / Maintenance / No picture
Basic data
Surname Åtvidabergs Fotbollförening
Seat Åtvidaberg , Sweden
founding July 1, 1907
president Sven-Owe Samuelsson
Website atvidabergsff.se
First soccer team
Head coach Andreas Thomsson
Venue Kopparvallen
Places 7,200
league Division 2
2019 14th place, Division 1 Södra  
home
Away

Åtvidabergs FF (Åtvidabergs Fotbollförening), short ÅFF or "Åtvid", is a football club in Åtvidaberg in Sweden . He is two-time cup winner and Swedish champion. The club badge is reminiscent of the chemical symbol for copper in alchemy . The metal was once mined in the region.

history

Foundation and first decades

Elof Ericsson (1937)

The forerunner of the club, Åtvidabergs IF (IF = Idrottsförening = "Sportverein"), was founded on July 1st, 1907 . Football was played in the club from the start.

In 1923 the club took over the sports field of the company AB Åtvidaberg Industrier (from 1965 called Facit AB ; AB = aktiebolag = "Aktiengesellschaft") which in 1936 was to take on the current name Kopparvallen . At the end of this decade, the first major successes were achieved. The club rose as champions three times within four years:

  • Season 1928/29 - Championship in Division V.
  • Season 1929/30 - Championship in Division IV
  • 1931/32 season - Championship in Division III

In the course of the 1930s , Elof Ericsson , the director and later owner of the wood processing company Åtvidaberg Industrier , which specializes in office furniture , increasingly influenced the fate of the association. Ericsson was from 1930 to 1932 and from 1935 to 1936 president of Åtvidabergs FF, respectively its predecessor club Åtvidabergs IF, but was also always present and important benefactor of the club outside of those times. Between 1937 and 1949 he was also the Swedish Football Association .

In the 1932/33 season, the club played for the first time in Division 2 where it lasted until 1935. In 1935 the association was split up into individual departments, from which the Åtvidabergs FF emerged. After a second place in Division III in 1940, the promotion succeeded, as the champions, the Waggeryd football club , had renounced promotion for economic reasons.

Guest performances in the Allsvenskan (1945–52)

Five years later, in the 1944/45 season, under the Hungarian coach Kálmán Konrád , the club also won Division II, but failed in the qualifying game for the Allsvenskan against Djurgårdens IF with 0: 3. The next chance came after the 1950/51 season, when the ÅFF again won Division II Nordöstra (north-east Sweden). This time you didn't need a qualifier and played the following season in the highest Swedish league. In the season with a 2-1 win against Jönköpings Södra IF only one win.

Relegation and return (1953-67)

Therefore, the ÅFF was relegated to Division II and played there for a few years until he was relegated to Division III in 1959 and immediately rose again the following year. In 1967 the team won Division II Norra Götland. In the qualification they defeated IK Brage and Sandvikens IF with 2-0 each and rose to the Allsvenskan.

In 1961, Lars Hallgren became club president. He remained in office until 1972 and embodied the "Åtvidabergsandan", the "spirit of Åtvidaberg" in this extremely successful phase of the association.

The club's heyday (1968–74)

From 1968 the club played again in the Allsvenskan, in which the next few years should bring the greatest successes in the club's history. At that time the association enjoyed great financial support from the calculating machine manufacturer Facit AB, which has been known worldwide since the 1950s and emerged from Åtvidaberg Industrier . This was since 1957 under the direction of Elof Ericsson's son Gunnar , who was club president from 1950 to 1951 and also president of the football association from 1970 to 1975. In the first season, AFF reached seventh place; the player Ove Eklund was the top scorer with 17 goals. The club slowly rose to the top tier of the league: After a fourth place in 1969 , they took second place in 1970 and 1971 . In those two years they also won the Swedish Cup. This also made it possible to participate in the European Cup Winners' Cup . In 1971 there was a small sensation when they defeated the strong Chelsea team .

In 1972 they became Swedish champions for the first time and with the two strikers Ralf Edström and Roland Sandberg had the two top scorer in the team, who had scored 16 goals each. Despite the two players leaving for PSV Eindhoven and 1. FC Kaiserslautern , the club defended the title in 1973 . It started nine wins in a row and despite a weak autumn no other club was able to catch up. In the autumn of that year, they met the later title holder FC Bayern Munich in the European Cup, who only had to admit defeat on penalties. Bayern also recruited the player Conny Torstensson , who scored two goals against them in the national championship cup game.

As a result, other top performers in the team were poached by top clubs, and it became increasingly difficult for the ÅFF to maintain the high level. Nevertheless, the 1974/75 national champions' cup was the greatest success to date when they made it to the quarter-finals. The two games against FC Barcelona were lost 5-0 in total. Both matches were played in Barcelona because the Spanish club had paid for them.

Slow descent (1975-91)

The Facit company, which at its peak in 1970 still employed 14,000 people worldwide, essentially went under at the end of 1972 because their calculating machines were temporarily made obsolete by electronic computers. Due to the lack of financial support, the ÅFF could no longer build on earlier successes. In 1975 he was seventh in the Allsvenskan. In the following year, the club had to leave the top division and played again in Division II. In the 1977 season they were champions there rose again. A few years followed with moderate success. You could stay in Allsvenskan until 1982, when you finished last. Despite the chance to keep the class in the relegation games against Mjällby AIF , they lost 0: 1 and 1: 1 in the games. You could assert yourself in Division II and in 1984 got another chance to move up to the first division again. However, they lost the qualification against Trelleborgs FF with a total of 2: 3. After that, the club began to decline. They played for a few years in this division, last known as Division I , until they were relegated in 1989; two years later you had to go to Division III.

Return to professional football (1992-2004)

However, the ascent was again quite fast. In 1993, after victories against Gullringens GoIF (4: 2) and IK Tord (3: 1), they were promoted back to Division II. Two years later they reached Division I again. A return to the Allsvenskan was denied the club for a long time. In 1998 the prospects were good, but due to a poor finish they only came fourth. In 2000, the two Division I leagues in Sweden were combined to form the Superettan . The ÅFF was forced to relegate as a result, but rose in 2001 after a good season end in the new league. In 2003 the club reached fourth place there.

Sporting success with promotion to the Allsvenskan and subsequent drop to fourth class (since 2005)

In 2005 the ÅFF reached the final of the Swedish Cup and lost there against the champions Djurgårdens IF . ÅFF nevertheless got a place in the qualifying of the UEFA Cup in the 2006/07 season because the cup winners already had a place in the qualification for the UEFA Champions League . In the first qualifying round they won two wins against Etzella Ettelbrück (4-0 and 3-0 in Ettelbrück). With two draws against the Norwegian club Brann Bergen (3: 3 in Bergen and 1: 1) ÅFF moved into the UEFA Cup on the away goals rule . In the 2009 season , AFF returned to the Allsvenskan with 57 points and second place in the Superettan . In the following year, however, the class was not held and the club rose again from the Superettan. In 2011 he was directly promoted to the Allsvenskan as the Superettan master. After the club occupied eighth place in the table in 2012, 2013 and 2014, it was relegated from bottom of the table in 2015. In 2017, the club had to relegate bottom of the table from the Superettan to the third division Division 1 , from which the team relegated to fourth division at the end of the third division season 2019 .

successes

In the all-time Allsvenskan table, the club occupies 18th place (as of the 2011 season).

player

Trainer

¹) Coach in the Allsvenskan, relegation 1982. Possibly also coach in the 2nd division.

Jerseys

The club's players usually wear blue jerseys, white shorts and red stockings. The away kits consist of red shirts, red shorts and white stockings.

spectator

The club's home stadium is Kopparvallen in Åtvidaberg, which has a capacity of around 8,000. The game against IFK Norrköping saw a record attendance in 1968 when 11,200 spectators came.

The club's official fan club are the Kopparslagarna , which were formed from what was left of the former Brukets Blåställ club .

Web links