The purpose of this article is to give you a sense of what Swedish clubs are our biggest rivals, why we loathe them, and just how much we loathe them. As you will discover, it’s not so much that we despise the clubs as the supporters.
To start off, the rivalry is not unfounded. There are always reasons behind, that is more or less important for each individual. Our largest rivals are undoubtedly the teams from Stockholm; Djurgården and AIK Solna. All 3 clubs have co-existed since the 1800’s, and the rivalry goes way back. Geographically, AIK (and most of their supporters) are located north of the city, whilst the supporters of Djurgården are more evenly distributed between the western, north and north-central parts of Stockholm. The vast majority of Hammarby supporters lives in south-central and southern parts of Stockholm. As always, there are exceptions, but now you have an idea of how the geographical disposition of the respective supporters is.
A second reason for rivalry is how the supporters interact with each other. Again, to generalize, the supporters of Hammarby and AIK are FAIRLY humble. That is, most supporters can to some extent acknowledge if the opponents had a better day and won fairly. Also, they are rather cunning and really know their football. Sporting success always attracts more supporters to a team, but in general Hammarby and AIK supporters attend the matches and stick with their teams no matter what. That is not the case with Djurgården supporters.
Djurgården, by the way, means “Animal Farm” in Swedish, and is often held against Djurgården supporters. They are often called animals or monkeys, which rather sadly and pathetic (if you ask me), is mistaken for racism. What is enormously annoying about Djurgården supporters is that they tend to have no distance at all. When times are bad, you hardly see any Djurgården supporters. But when they are successful on the field, and most of all if they win the league, you cannot move a yard in the city without stumbling over a dumbfounded monkey. They’re irritating to watch from a distance, but it’s not until you get into a conversation with one of them that you really get struck by their ignorance. If Djurgården lose a match, especially a derby, they always find reasons that have absolutely and entirely nothing to do with what actually happened. If it’s not the referee, it’s the height of the grass. It might be the weather, what phase the moon is at or any other silly explanation that you can possibly think of.
Personally, I find the average Djurgården supporter more annoying than the average AIK supporter. We’re splitting hairs here, but I think you get my message.
Apart from Djurgården and AIK, there’s also a more geographical rivalry between Stockholm teams and Gothenburg teams. IFK Göteborg(Gothenburg) is the largest team with most supporters, and they tend to get the most attention from us supporters. Next, you have another rivalry between Stockholm (which is located in central Sweden) and the southern parts named Skåne. Malmö FF and Helsingborg are our largest rivals in that part of the country.
I want to stress that the opinions expressed here are my own, and my own interpretation of the supporter culture in Sweden.
But I do know one thing. Hammarby is the team in my heart, and it’s satisfying to know that I am not alone. In a survey made a couple of years ago by a survey company, Hammarby have the most supporters in Stockholm. That is a statistically established truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment