History of Malmö FF facts for kids
Malmö Fotbollförening, often called Malmö FF, is a professional football club from Malmö, Sweden. The club is part of the Scanian Football Association and plays its home games at Stadion. Malmö FF was started on February 24, 1910. It is the most successful club in Sweden, having won the most trophies.
Malmö FF has won twenty-one league titles, which is more than any other Swedish club. They also share the record for most Swedish championship titles with eighteen wins. The club has won the national cup a record fourteen times. As of the 2015 season, the team plays in Allsvenskan. This is their 15th year in a row in the top league and their 80th year overall. Malmö FF's main rivals are Helsingborgs IF, IFK Göteborg, and historically, IFK Malmö.
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How Malmö FF Started (1905–1910)
Malmö FF began because the city of Malmö wanted to help young people play organized football. One of the youth teams, Bollklubben Idrott (BK Idrott), was a very early version of Malmö FF. In 1909, members of BK Idrott joined the new football section of IFK Malmö. However, they soon left because of problems between the two clubs.
On February 24, 1910, nineteen members of BK Idrott met at Malmö IP. There, they officially founded Malmö FF. The first chairman of the club was Werner Mårtensson. At first, Malmö FF wore blue and white striped shirts, just like their old club. But after six months, they changed their colors to red and white stripes with black shorts. This change showed that Malmö FF was a brand new club. Their first club logo was also red and white.
Early Years and National Competitions (1910–1920)
For its first ten years, Malmö FF played in local and regional leagues. There was no official national league back then. Most of their games were in the city league called Malmömästerskapen. They also played in regional competitions in Scania and even against Danish clubs.
In 1916, Malmö FF reached the final of the Scanian regional competition for the first time. They played against their rival Helsingborgs IF but lost 3–4. That season, the club beat local rival IFK Malmö three times. This earned them the unofficial title of Malmö's best football club.
In 1917, Malmö FF played in Svenska Mästerskapet for the first time. This was a cup tournament to decide the Swedish champions. They lost their first match 4–1 against IFK Malmö. The club kept playing in this cup until 1922. In 1920, they reached the quarter-finals but were knocked out by Landskrona BoIS. This cup was later stopped. The title of Swedish champions then went to the winners of Allsvenskan, which started in the 1924–25 season.
In 1920, the Swedish Football Association invited clubs to play in official national competitions. Malmö FF earned a spot in Division 2 Sydsvenska Serien. They won this division in their first season and were promoted to Svenska Serien Västra. This was the highest level of football in Sweden at the time. However, they were relegated after just one season. They returned to Sydsvenska Serien for almost ten years. Then, in 1931, they were promoted to Allsvenskan again.
First Time in the Top League (1931–1943)
Malmö FF played in Allsvenskan, Sweden's top league, for the first time in the 1931–32 season. During their first year, their local rivals IFK Malmö were relegated. Two years later, Malmö FF gave watches to their players as Christmas gifts. This news somehow reached the Swedish Football Association in Stockholm. They saw these gifts as breaking the strict amateur rules of that time.
Because of this, the club was relegated, and all their games that spring were canceled. The legendary chairman Eric Persson was known to dislike IFK Malmö for the rest of his life. He believed they were the ones who spread the news. Malmö FF returned to Allsvenskan in the 1936–37 season. Since then, they have only been out of the top league for one season.
Reaching the European Cup Final (1965–1979)
After winning Allsvenskan in 1977, Malmö FF qualified for the 1978–79 European Cup. They drew 0–0 at home against French champions Monaco. It seemed hard for them to go further. But they won the away game 1–0 thanks to a goal by Jan-Olov Kindvall.
Next, Malmö FF faced the champions of the Soviet Union, Dynamo Kyiv. After a 0–0 match in Kiev, hopes grew. With a 2–0 win at home, the club became the second Swedish team to reach the quarter-finals. After a very cold winter, Malmö FF played Polish champions Wisla Krakow. They lost the away game 1–2. The return match started badly for Malmö FF as the Polish team scored in the 58th minute.
However, Malmö FF made a great comeback. Anders "Puskas" Ljungberg scored three goals, and Tore Cervin added another. They won 4–1 at home, making the total score 5-3. Malmö FF had reached the semi-finals! In the semi-finals, they played Austrian champions Austria Wien. After a 0–0 draw in Vienna, Tommy Hansson scored the only goal. This sent Malmö FF to the final of the European Cup.
The final was played in Munich against Nottingham Forest, the English champions. In the last minute of the first half, Trevor Francis scored the only goal for the English team. Jan-Olov Kindvall almost scored an equalizer for Malmö FF. As of 2015, no other Nordic club has reached the European Cup final. For this amazing achievement, Malmö FF received the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1979. Malmö FF is also the only Nordic club to have played in the Intercontinental Cup (now the FIFA Club World Cup). They competed for the 1979 title.
A Challenging Decade (1990–1999)
The 1990s was the first decade since the 1930s that Malmö FF did not win any trophies. They started the decade as champions of Allsvenskan. They had won five league titles in a row in the late 1980s. The 1990 season was the last to have the Allsvenskan play-offs. These play-offs were stopped to help with falling attendance. In 1990, Malmö FF finished outside the top five for the first time since 1972. This meant they missed the last play-offs.
In 1991 and 1992, a new post-season league called Mästerskapsserien was played. The top six teams from the regular Allsvenskan season took part. Malmö FF played in both years, finishing third in 1991 and fifth in 1992. However, they did not do well in the new competition. They finished fourth in 1991 and sixth in 1992. Malmö FF's average attendance dropped to its lowest point since they were promoted to Allsvenskan in the 1930s. In 1991, only about 4,000 fans came to games.
In 1993, the league format changed back to how it was before the play-offs. The league champions were once again named Swedish champions. The league had fourteen teams, playing each other twice for a total of 26 games. This format stayed until 2007.
After finishing 10th in 1993, Malmö FF had a fairly good period in the mid-1990s. From 1994 to 1997, they finished in the top four every year. They also reached the 1996 Svenska Cupen Final, which was their most recent cup final. These results meant Malmö FF could play in European competitions again. They played in the UEFA Cup for four seasons in a row, from 1995 to 1998. However, they never got past the first round.
In the 1995–96 UEFA Cup, Malmö FF played against 1979 European Cup Final opponents Nottingham Forest. Malmö FF lost the match based on the away goals tie-breaker. The best season in the mid-1990s was 1996. The club finished second in Allsvenskan, but ten points behind champions IFK Göteborg.
The last two seasons of the decade saw the club's results get worse. In the 1998 Allsvenskan season, the team finished tenth. They barely avoided the relegation play-offs by one point. The 1999 season was very different. Malmö FF was relegated for the first time in its history. This was also the first time they dropped down a division since 1933–34. This ended a streak of 63 seasons in Allsvenskan, which is still a record as of 2015.
Malmö FF finished 13th out of 14 teams in 1999. They were two points behind the teams that went to the relegation play-offs. Their relegation was confirmed on October 23, after a 3–0 loss against AIK. In the 1999 season, Malmö FF had moved their home games from Malmö Stadion to their old ground, Malmö IP. Malmö IP had just finished a big renovation in August 1999. This move happened because Malmö Stadion was too big for the smaller number of fans. But in the end, Malmö IP was too small and didn't have the same facilities as Malmö Stadion. This led to safety concerns. So, Malmö FF moved back to Malmö Stadion for the 2000 Superettan season. This was Malmö FF's first season in the second tier of Swedish football since 1935–36.
Return to Success (2000–2010)
Returning to Allsvenskan marked the start of a successful period in the early 2000s. Tom Prahl became manager in January 2002. Under his leadership, the club finished in the top three three times in a row. In 2004, Malmö FF won Allsvenskan. This was the club's fifteenth Swedish Championship. It ended the longest time without a title in the club's history. Their last Swedish Championship was in 1988, and their last Allsvenskan title was in 1989.
In the next season, the club reached the final qualifying round for the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League. But they were defeated by Swiss club FC Thun. Good work with sponsors and selling players also made Malmö FF the richest club in Sweden. They still held this position as of 2012. The club moved from Malmö Stadion to Swedbank Stadion in 2009. This new stadium was built just for football and was next to the old one.
In early 2009, Bengt Madsen announced he would step down as chairman. Håkan Jeppsson replaced him early the next year. In 2010, the club celebrated its 100th anniversary with many events. On the day of the anniversary, the Swedish football magazine Offside said Malmö FF was the greatest football club in Swedish history. The season was a big success. The club won Allsvenskan for the nineteenth time and became Swedish champions for the sixteenth time. This was under the management of Roland Nilsson. Unlike in 2004, these wins happened without many new player transfers. The team was mostly made up of younger players.
Recent Years (2011–present day)
Malmö FF reached the final qualifying stage of the UEFA Champions League again in 2011–12. They beat Scottish team Rangers F.C. 2–1 overall in the third qualifying round. However, just like in 2005, the club did not make it to the group stage. They lost 3–4 overall against Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb.
Because of this, Malmö FF automatically qualified for the group stage of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League. This was the first time the club reached this stage since the competition changed its name in 2009. The club finished last in their group with only one point. They only managed one draw in six matches. The other teams in their group were Ukrainian Metalist Kharkiv, Dutch AZ, and Austrian Austria Wien.
For the 2011 Allsvenskan season, the club finished fourth. This meant they did not qualify for European play the next season. A big topic during the season was manager Roland Nilsson leaving the club in May. Rikard Norling was appointed manager in June. A good part of the 2011 season was Malmö FF reaching the quarter-finals in the 2011 Svenska Cupen. This was their best cup result since they reached the semi-finals in 2002.
For Rikard Norling's first full season as manager in 2012, the club only had the 2012 Allsvenskan to focus on. They had not qualified for European play. Also, the Svenska Cupen changed its schedule, so 2012 was a "gap year" with only one cup match for the club. As the season went on, Malmö FF chased IF Elfsborg at the top of the league. They spent most of the season in second place. With only two matches left, the club had overtaken Elfsborg and had a great chance to win the title. However, a draw and a loss in the final two games caused Malmö FF to drop to third place in the final league table.
The club remains one of the strongest football clubs in Sweden. As of the end of the 2013 Allsvenskan season, the club leads the overall Allsvenskan table, known as the maratontabellen. Malmö FF also holds the record for the most Allsvenskan championships and Svenska Cupen championships. They share the record for most Swedish championships with IFK Göteborg.
Images for kids
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Malmö FF's journey through the Swedish football leagues. The different shades show different league levels.
