Allsvenskan

Allsvenskan

Countries	Sweden
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Founded	13 January 1924
Number of teams	16
Levels on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Superettan
Domestic cup(s)	Svenska Cupen
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League
Current champions	Helsingborgs IF (2011)
Most championships	Malmö FF (19 titles)
TV partners	TV4 Group
Website	Allsvenskan
2012 Allsvenskan

Allsvenskan (English: The All-Swedish; also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan) is a Swedish professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Swedish football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Superettan. Seasons run from April to October, with teams playing 30 matches each, totalling 240 matches in the season.

The league was created in 1924. Before that, the top league in Sweden was called Svenska Serien. The winner is awarded Lennart Johanssons Pokal. It is ranked 24th in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years, just ahead of the Slovak Super Liga and below the Belarusian Premier League. The current champions are Helsingborgs IF, who won the title in the 2011 season.

Status

The champions of the Allsvenskan are considered Swedish Champions. The winners of Allsvenskan between 1924 and 1930 were only considered league winners. The same is true for the years 1982 through 1990 when the champions were decided through play-offs and 1991–1992 when the champions were decided through a continuation league called Mästerskapsserien.

The competition

There are 16 clubs in Allsvenskan, increased in 2008 from previous years' 14 participants. During the course of a season (starting in March and ending in October) each club plays the others twice (home and away) for a total of 30 games. The two lowest placed teams at the end of the season are relegated to Superettan and the top two teams from Superettan are promoted in their place. The third lowest team in Allsvenskan plays a relegation/promotion play-off against the third placed team in Superettan.

The winners of Allsvenskan qualify for the UEFA Champions League, the runner-up together with the third placed team in the table qualify for the UEFA Europa League as well as the team who wins the Svenska Cupen.

Trophy

Lennart Johanssons Pokal

The current trophy awarded to the Swedish champions is Lennart Johanssons Pokal. Created in 2001, the trophy is named after former UEFA chairman, Lennart Johansson. A different trophy that was named after Clarence von Rosen had previously been used between 1903 and 2000, but was replaced after journalists discovered that von Rosen had been a nazi sympathiser.^[1]

Television

The Swiss corporation Kentaro has owned the TV rights for Allsvenskan since 2006.^[2] Through licence agreements with the media company TV4 Group matches are aired through C More Entertainment who broadcasts them on their CANAL+ Sport and CANAL+ Extra channels. Matches can also be bought through the online pay-per-view service C SPORTS. The current license agreement is valid from 2011 to 2015.^[3]

Clubs

A total of 61 clubs have played in Allsvenskan from its inception in 1924 up to and including the 2011 season. No club have been a member of the league for every season since its inception, AIK are the club to have participated in most seasons with a record of 83 seasons played out of 88 seasons in total.

The following 16 clubs are competing in Allsvenskan during the 2012 season.

Stadia and locations

AIK

IF Elfsborg

Helsingborgs IF

BK Häcken

GAIS

IFK Göteborg

Malmö FF

Kalmar FF

Gefle IF

Örebro SK

Mjällby AIF

Djurgårdens IF

IFK Norrköping

Åtvidabergs FF

GIF Sundsvall

Syrianska FC

Locations of the 2012 Allsvenskan teams

Råsunda Fotbollstadion in Stockholm.	Swedbank Stadion in Malmö.
Gamla Ullevi in Göteborg.	Borås Arena in Borås.

Managers

The current managers in Allsvenskan are:

Conny Karlsson is the only current manager who has won the league both as a player and manager.

	Name	Club	Appointed
SWE !	Bergstrand, NanneNanne Bergstrand	Kalmar FF	02002-10-2929 October 2002
SWE !	Olsson, PerPer Olsson	Gefle	02004-12-2828 December 2004
SWE !	Melkemichel, ÖzcanÖzcan Melkemichel	Syrianska FC	02005-05-2929 May 2005
FIN !	Boström, SixtenSixten Boström	Örebro SK	02007-11-3030 November 2007
SWE !	Åkeby, SörenSören Åkeby	GIF Sundsvall	02008-10-022 October 2008
SWE !	Swärdh, PeterPeter Swärdh	Mjällby	02008-10-2424 October 2008
SWE !	Gerhardsson, PeterPeter Gerhardsson	Häcken	02008-11-2020 November 2008
SWE !	Axén, AlexanderAlexander Axén	GAIS	02008-12-099 December 2008
SWE !	Karlsson, ConnyConny Karlsson	Helsingborgs IF	02009-11-2323 November 2009
SWE !	Thomsson, AndreasAndreas Thomsson	Åtvidaberg	02010-03-3131 March 2010
SWE !	Andersson, JanneJanne Andersson	IFK Norrköping	02010-12-011 December 2010
SWE !	Alm, AndreasAndreas Alm	AIK	02010-12-1616 December 2010
SWE !	Pehrsson, MagnusMagnus Pehrsson	Djurgårdens IF	02011-05-033 May 2011
SWE !	Norling, RikardRikard Norling	Malmö FF	02011-06-033 June 2011
SWE !	Stahre, MikaelMikael Stahre	IFK Göteborg	02011-11-011 November 2011
SWE !	Lennartsson, JörgenJörgen Lennartsson	Elfsborg	02011-11-2929 November 2011

Previous winners

Key

Performances

Medal table

Historically the players and coaching staff from the four best teams in Allsvenskan are awarded medals at the end of each season. The champions are awarded the gold medal while the runners-up receive the "big silver" medal. The third place team gets the "small silver" medal instead of the more commonly used bronze medal which is instead awarded to the fourth place finisher. This tradition of awarding four medals and not three is thought to have to do with the fact that the losers of the Semi-finals of Svenska Mästerskapet were both given bronze medals since no bronze match was played.^[4]

The overall medal rank is displayed below after points in descending order. 5 points are awarded for a "gold" medal, 3 points for a "big silver" medal, 2 points for a "small silver" medal and 1 point for a bronze medal. The table that follows is accurate as of the end of the 2011 season.^[4]

Honoured clubs

Clubs in European football are especially honoured for winning multiple league titles and a representative golden star is usually placed above the club badge to indicate the club having won 10 league titles. In Sweden the star instead symbolizes 10 Swedish championship titles as the league winner has not always been awarded the title of Swedish champions. The star system was not established for Allsvenskan clubs until 2006, although AIK had already introduced the star to their kit in 2000. IFK Göteborg, Malmö FF, IFK Norrköping, Örgryte IS and Djurgårdens IF were the first teams after AIK to be awarded their stars. No new club has been awarded a star since 2006, the clubs closest to being awarded their first is IF Elfsborg and Helsingborgs IF with 5 titles.

The current (as of the end of the 2011 season) gold star clubs are:

• AIK (11 titles, received in 2000).
• IFK Göteborg (18 titles, received in 2006).
• Malmö FF (16 titles, received in 2006).
• IFK Norrköping (12 titles, received in 2006).
• Örgryte IS (12 titles, received in 2006).
• Djurgårdens IF (11 titles, received in 2006).

Cities

Stockholm

Kalmar

Borås

Gothenburg

Helsingborg

Malmö

Halmstad

Norrköping

Åtvidaberg

Växjö

Locations of the cities who have won the league

All-time Allsvenskan table

The all-time Allsvenskan table, "maratontabellen" in Swedish, is a cumulative record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in Allsvenskan since its inception in 1924–25. It uses three points for a win even though this system was not introduced until the 1990 season. The matches played in the championship play-offs between 1982 and 1990 or the matches played in Mästerskapsserien in 1991 and 1992 are not included. The table that follows is accurate as of the end of the 2011 season.^[5]

Referees

Martin Hansson

Allsvenskan has 23 active referees that are available for matches as of the 2011 season. Currently there are seven fully certified international FIFA referees in Allsvenskan. There are also a further six referees who are certified by the Swedish Football Association who have refereed matches in Allsvenskan. Martin Ingvarsson is the only as of now active referee who has been a FIFA certified referee (1997–2010) but who is now active only as a referee certified by the Swedish Football Association. A further nine referees certified by the Swedish Football Association are available to referee Allsvenskan matches but have not done so as of 2011.^[8]

FIFA certified referees

• Daniel Stålhammar
• Jonas Eriksson
• Markus Strömbergsson
• Martin Hansson
• Martin Strömbergsson
• Michael Lerjéus
• Stefan Johannesson

See also

• Seasons in Swedish football
• List of Allsvenskan top scorers
• Sports attendances
• List of foreign Allsvenskan players

Notes

External links

• Official Allsvenskan website
• Allsvenskan at the Swedish Football Association website