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| Full name | Östers Idrottsförening | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 20 April 1930; 95 years ago (20 April 1930) | ||
| Ground | Spiris Arena, Växjö | ||
| Capacity | 12,000 | ||
| Chairman | Jonas Karlsson | ||
| Head coach | Roberth Björknesjö | ||
| League | Superettan | ||
| 2025 | Allsvenskan, 15th of 16 (relegated) | ||
| Website | www | ||
Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known asÖsters IF or simplyÖster, is a Swedish sports club located inVäxjö, specializing infootball. Östers will be relegated from Allsvenskan to Superettan in 2025. They were promoted from Superettan in 2024 and were relegated during their first season in a long time in Allsvenskan.
The club has previously also competed inice hockey (see separate article),bandy, andbowling. Öster was formed on 20 April 1930 asÖsters Fotbollförening, before adopting the name "Östers IF" in 1932. The club is affiliated to theSmålands Fotbollförbund.[1]
In1968, their first season inAllsvenskan, Öster became the first team ever to win the national title at their first attempt (newly promotedIF Elfsborg won the league in1961 but had played in, and been winners of, the championship in the past).[2] This win ignited the team's 'golden age' which lasted until the early 1980s and saw them win a total of four Swedish championships.
On 31 March 2011, Öster broke ground on their new arena,Myresjöhus Arena,[3] which was inaugurated in August 2012. The arena hosted four games of theUEFA Women's Euro 2013 tournament.[4]
Öster (English: "East") was named after a district in the city ofVäxjö. They were not part of the upper divisions in the early days of Swedish football and only made their first appearance in the third tier in 1947. During the 1950s and early-1960s the club made a push to raise the level of football by inviting and playing against foreign teams such asFlamengo,Juventus andFluminense. This coupled with an increase in the amount of training helped the team establish themselves in the second tier.
In 1961 Öster had their first chance ever to qualify forAllsvenskan but ended up in last place in the four team promotion playoffs. Success in the promotion playoffs would instead come six years later in 1967 when they beatIK Brage in the deciding game in front of a home crowd of 26,404 people. Öster defied the odds during their first season in the top division and won the league on goal difference after a total of four teams had ended the season on exactly the same number of points. Following their championship title the club had ten years of solid Allsvenskan finishes before becoming dominant in the late-1970s and early-1980s where they won the league three times in four years.
After that successful era followed a slow decline over the next couple of decades which culminated in their relegation to the second tier in 1998. After that the club has found it hard to reestablish itself in Allsvenskan and has only made short one year appearances.
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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| Head coach: |  Roberth Björknesjö |
| Assistant coach: | Torbjörn Arvidsson |
| Goalkeeper coach: | Rasmus Rydén |
| Physical Coach: | Agne Bergvall |
| Head of youth department: | Christian Järdler |
Bertil Bäckvall (1958–1963)
Vilmos Varszegi (1967–1973)Bengt "Julle" Gustavsson (1973–1974)Gunnar Nordahl (1975–1976)Lars "Laban" Arnesson (1977–1980)Bo Johansson (1980–1982)Leif Widén (1982–1985)Bo Johansson (1986–1988)Peo Bild (1988–1989)Hans Backe (1989–1994)Nanne Bergstrand (1994–1996)Andreas Ravelli (1997–1998)Bo Axberg (1998)Jan Mattsson (1998–2001)
Yevgeni Kuznetsov (2002–2003)Leif Widén (2003–2004)Lars Jacobsson (2005–2006)
Giles Stille (2007 – 2008)Yevgeni Kuznetsov (2008–2009)Andreas Ottosson (2009–2010)Ludwig Ernstsson (2010)Hans Gren (2010)Roar Hansen (2011 – 2012)Andreas Thomsson (2013)Roberth Björknesjö (2013 – 2014)Thomas Askebrand (2015 – 2017)Christian Järdler (2018 – 2019)Denis Velic (2019 – 2021)
Srdjan "Tufa" Tufegdzic (2022 – 2023)Martin Foyston (2024 –)
In recent seasons Östers IF have had the following average attendances:
* Attendances are provided in the Publikliga sections of the Svenska Fotbollförbundet website.[7] |
