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| Full name | Åtvidabergs Fotbollförening | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1 July 1907; 118 years ago (1907-07-01) (asÅtvidabergs IF) | ||
| Ground | Kopparvallen,Åtvidaberg | ||
| Capacity | 8,100 | ||
| Chairman | Martin Siggesjö | ||
| Head coach | Dennis Bilanovic | ||
| League | Division 2 | ||
| 2022 | Ettan Södra, 13th of 16 | ||
| Website | www | ||
 Current season | |||
Åtvidabergs Fotbollförening, also known simply asÅtvidabergs FF,Åtvidaberg,Åtvid or (especially locally)ÅFF, is a Swedish professionalfootball club based inÅtvidaberg. The club is affiliated withÖstergötlands Fotbollförbund and plays their home games atKopparvallen.[1] The club colours, reflected in their crest and kit, are blue and white. Formed on 1 July 1907 asÅtvidabergs IF, the club was most successful during the 1970s when they won twonational championship titles and twonational cup titles.[2] With a population of around 7,000, Åtvidaberg is the smallest town ever to bring home a Swedish league title. They currently play inDivision 2, where the season lasts from April to November.
During the 1920s, the small town club Åtvidabergs IF played in the fifth tier of Swedish football. However, local businessmanElof Ericsson was determined to change this. He became chairman of the board and took the initiative of separating the different sections of the multisport club, thus forming a new club, Åtvidabergs FF, out of the football section. Through his companyFacit, which employed a large portion of the smallÅtvidaberg population, he was also able to increase the funding for the team.
Åtvidaberg became early forerunners with their strategy to scout players nationally instead of just locally. Since all players in Sweden at the time were amateurs, their ability to offer new signings a good job at the Facit factory made them an attractive club to play for. This, together with the hiring of foreign coaches likeKálmán Konrád, helped the club move up through the divisions, establishing them in the second tier and playing one year inAllsvenskan.[3]
The years that followed would prove to be Åtvidabergs FF's most successful ever. During this period, they recruited players likeRalf Edström,Roland Sandberg andConny Torstensson.
In 1967, they were promoted to Allsvenskan and five years later they won the league for the first time ever and repeated the year after in 1973. Ironically, thisgolden age came at exactly the same time as the Facit company, which had enabled the success, struggled greatly and eventually was sold off toElectrolux.[3]
After struggling greatly in the 1990s and falling as low as the fourth tier with attendance numbers in the hundreds,[4] Åtvidaberg had managed to climb back up to the second tier again by the start of the new millennium. In an effort to further strengthen their organization and finances, the club started a cooperation with reigning championsDjurgårdens IF in 2003.[5] The deal also included a loan of several Djurgården players to Åtvidaberg. In 2005, the Djurgården chairman said that the team should move to the nearby city ofLinköping, that did not have a club in the higher divisions. The proposal was met by a negative reaction from the Åtvidaberg supporters. The cooperation finally collapsed in 2006 whenÅtvidaberg Municipality refused to cover any potential economic losses for Djurgården.[6]
In the following years, Åtvidaberg finished in the top half of theSuperettan table and finally in 2009 they were promoted back to Allsvenskan for the first time since 1982. They were relegated again but bounced back immediately and achieved an eighth-place finish in the2012 Allsvenskan. During the upcoming seasons, Åtvidaberg finished mid-table in the top tier with the help of the three key players that long had stayed faithful with the club: goalkeeperHenrik Gustavsson (that made 487 league appearances between 1997 and 2015), central defenderDaniel Hallingström (350 appearances and 29 goals between 1999–2000 and 2002–2015) and midfielderKristian Bergström (489 appearances and 118 goals between 1992–1997and 2004–2015). All three players retired after the 2015 season, as Åtvidaberg finished 16th and last in Allsvenskan and got relegated back to Superettan.
Two years later, in 2017, the club got relegated from Superettan to the third tier,Division 1.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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As of 1 July 2023[8]
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Kálmán Konrád (1942–1947)
Erik Almgren (1948)József Nagy (1948–1952)
George Raynor (1952–1954)
Karl Durspekt (1956–1957)
Antonio Durán (1960–1963)Bengt Gustavsson (1966–1970)Sven-Agne Larsson (1971–1972)Ottó Dombos (1973–1974)Ingvar Svensson (1977–1979)Björn Westerberg (Jan 1979 – Dec 1982)Bo-Leine LarssonConny Torstensson (1986)Håkan Stenbäck (1989)Mats "Tott" Karlsson (1997 – 1999)Jörgen Augustsson (2000)Steve Creutz &Hans "Lerdala" Andersson (2000–2003)Kent Karlsson (2004 – 2006)Peter Swärdh (2007 – 2008)Daniel Wiklund (2009)Andreas Thomsson (2010 – 2012)Peter Swärdh (2013 – 2014)Roar Hansen (2015 – 2017)Andreas Thomsson (2017)Daniel Hallingström &Pontus Hydén (2018)Rickard Johansson (2018 – 2019)Tor-Arne Fredheim (2019)Jesper Ny (2019 – 2021)Rickard Larsén (2022)Jan Stahre (2022)Anders Bååth (2023)Robert Axelsson (2024 – 2025)Dennis Bilanovic (2025 – present)| International | |
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| National | |
