Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna
Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna ( German Sportskameradschaft ), often abbreviated to IFK , is a Swedish sports association. The organization has over 100,000 members in its 175 clubs in Sweden and Finland, where eight clubs are federal members.
history
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/3/35/IFKEskilstuna1904.jpg/250px-IFKEskilstuna1904.jpg)
On February 1, 1895, Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna was founded in Stockholm by the two students Louis Zettersten and Pehr Ehnemark. IFK Stockholm branches quickly developed in other Swedish cities . Since the organization became increasingly difficult due to the rapid growth, a central organization was founded above IFK Stockholm in 1901 and the departments in the other cities continued as independent associations.
IFK established the first national championships at a time when there were hardly any national sports associations. Some of these still exist today, but most of them were discontinued when independent state championships were introduced in the individual sports. For example, the Kamratmästerskapen in football existed until the mid-1920s, which were finally discontinued after a brief reintroduction during the Second World War in 1945, while state championships in bowling are still held today .
Well-known member clubs
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/d/dc/IFK_Norrkoping.svg/120px-IFK_Norrkoping.svg.png)
- IFK Eskilstuna
- IFK Gothenburg
- IFK Helsingborg
- Helsingfors IFK
- IFK Lidingö
- IFK Malmö
- IFK Mariehamn
- IFK Norrköping
- IFK Stockholm
- IFK Sundsvall
- IFK Uddevalla