AIK Fotboll

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This article is about AIK's football department. For other departments of the club, see Allmänna Idrottsklubben.

AIK

Full name

Allmänna Idrottsklubben

Nickname(s)

Gnaget

Founded

1891
1896 (football department)

Ground

Råsunda Stadium,
Solna, Stockholm, Sweden
(Capacity 36,608[1])

Chairman

Per Bystedt

Manager

Rikard Norling

League

Allsvenskan

2007

Allsvenskan, 5th





Home colours





Away colours

AIK, pron. IPA: ['ɑ:i:kɔː], abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben, is a Swedish football club based at Råsunda stadium in Solna, a municipality in Stockholm County bordering to Stockholm city centre. The club was formed in 1891 in central Stockholm and the football department was formed in 1896. AIK currently plays in the highest Swedish league, Allsvenskan.

1 History
2 Current squad
- 2.1 Out on loan
3 Affiliated clubs
4 Achievements
5 Noted players
6 Noted managers
7 External links

[edit] History

Founded in 1891 by Isidor Behrens in Stockholm, at the downtown address of Biblioteksgatan 8, the club's full name, "Allmänna Idrottsklubben", translates to "the general sports club" or "the public sports club". The name was chosen to reflect that the club was open for everyone, and also that athletics, at the time called "allmän idrott" in Swedish^[1], was considered the club's main sport.

Putting football into practice in 1896, AIK were runners-up in the championship only two years later, in 1898. AIK won its first Swedish championship title in 1900, beating Örgryte IS in the final. In 1901, AIK won another title, after a walk over win against Örgryte IS team II. At the turn of the century, Swedish league football was dominated by Örgryte, who won ten times between the years 1896 and 1909. However, in the period of 1898–1901 AIK won the championship twice and were runners-up three times.

AIK didn't participate in the Swedish championships of 1902 and 1903, which meant these were played only with teams from Gothenburg. In 1902, AIK instead competed in "Svenska bollspelsförbundets tävlingsserie", a league competition open only to clubs from Stockholm. AIK competed with two teams in the first year of the competition, finishing fourth and last. As a result, the weaker AIK side was relegated, making the first team the only one from AIK in the highest division. The competition was played until 1909, with AIK winning it in 1908 and 1909, and was replaced by Svenska Serien.

Two years after the start of the "tävlingsserie", 1904, twelve teams participated in the championship, one of them being AIK for the first time since winning it. AIK went through to the semi-finals, where they were beaten by arch rivals Djurgårdens IF. In 1905, AIK went just as far, this time being beaten by IFK Stockholm. AIK competed in the championshiop three times in 1906-1910 without any success, but in 1911 they won the championship for the third time after beating IFK Uppsala in the final.

After that, AIK were eliminated in the semi-finals of 1912 and 1913 but won the championship once again in 1914. In 1915, AIK were again defeated by arch rivals Djurgården in the semi-finals. In 1916, however, AIK came back and defeated future rivals IFK Göteborg in the semi-finals, beating Djurgårdens IF with 3-1 in the final. In 1917, Djurgården mirrored AIK's achievement, winning against Göteborg in the semi-finals and then beating AIK with 3-1 in the final. Another couple of years passed by without any success for AIK, until 1923, when they won their sixth title after beating IFK Eskilstuna in the final.

From the years 1910 to 1924, a championship called "Svenska Serien" was played. AIK didn't win it, but were runners-up a couple of times. The status of this championship status increased in the beginning of the 1920s and it became more important than the Swedish championship.

In 1924, Svenska Serien was replaced by the current highest league, "Allsvenskan", (officially named "Division I"). The first years, the championship were dominated by teams from Gothenburg (GAIS, IFK Göteborg och Örgryte IS) and by Hälsingborgs IF. After some years when AIK finished fourth and fifth and in the middle of the table, AIK won the championship in 1931/32, making it their first Allsvenskan title and their seventh Swedish title.

AIK relocated to the suburb Solna in 1937, as the home stadium of the club was changed from Stockholms Stadion to Råsunda Fotbollsstadion. This was however only one of the things making the year 1937 a memorable year - AIK won their eighth Swedish title. After that, AIK didn't win a Swedish title in 55 years, and only finished second and third a couple of times. Their biggest successes came from winning the Swedish cup (established in 1941) in 1949 and 1950 (and later also 1976 and 1985).

But in 1992, AIK won the Swedish championship again, allowing them to play in the UEFA Champions League qualifications, but they were eliminated in their first match against AC Sparta Praha. Six years after that, in 1998, AIK won its tenth Swedish championship title, having scored fewer goals than all other 13 teams: 25 in 26 matches (average 0.962).^[2]

AIK have played 62 matches in European competitions and took part in the 1999/2000 Uefa Champions League, their only appearance in the tournament group stage to date. Drawn in Group B along with FC Barcelona, Arsenal FC and Fiorentina, AIK would finish bottom of the group with only 1 point from 6 games, their sole point coming from a 0-0 draw at home to Fiorentina.

[edit] Current squad

As of 6 March 2008.

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Daniel Örlund
2	DF	Patrik Karlsson
3	DF	Per Karlsson
4	DF	Nils-Eric Johansson (vice-captain)
5	MF	Jorge Ortiz
6	DF	Walid Atta
7	MF	Bojan Đorđić
8	MF	Daniel Tjernström (captain)
9	FW	Miran Burgič
10	FW	Iván Óbolo
11	FW	Lucas Valdemarin
13	DF	Daniel Arnefjord

No.	Position	Player
14	MF	Kenny Pavey
15	MF	Kevin Walker
16	MF	Pierre Bengtsson
17	FW	Saihou Jagne
18	DF	Markus Jonsson
19	MF	Jorge Anchén
20	MF	Khari Stephenson
22	GK	Nicklas Bergh
23	MF	Mats Rubarth
26	FW	Daniel Mendes
29	MF	Gabriel Özkan
30	MF	Dulee Johnson