Malmö FF

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Title	Home kit from 1920 to the present

The club are often known by the nicknames Di blåe (The Blues) and Himmelsblått (The Sky Blues). This is because of the club colours, sky blue and white. The players wear sky-blue shirts, white shorts, and sky-blue socks. The away colours are red and white striped shirts, black shorts, and red socks. Various alternative kits have been used for European play such as all-white kits introduced in the 1950s and all-black kits with sky-blue and golden edges and text used for European play in 2005.

The club colours have not always been sky blue. The predecessor club BK Idrott wore blue and white striped shirts and white shorts, and this kit was still used for the first six months of 1910 after Malmö FF was founded. This was later changed to red and white striped shirts and black shorts to symbolise that Malmö FF were a new club, and a very similar kit is now used as the away kit for historical reasons. The present sky-blue kit was introduced in 1920. Since 2010 a small Scanian flag is featured on the back of the shirt just below the neck.

The crest of Malmö FF consists of a shield with two vertical sky-blue fields on the sides, and one vertical white field in the middle. Underneath the shield is "Malmö FF" spelled out in sky-blue letters with a sky-blue star under the text. In the top area of the shield is a white horizontal field over the three vertical fields. The abbreviation of the club name "MFF" is spelled out with sky-blue letters in this field. On top of the shield are five tower-like extensions of the white field. The present shield crest made its debut on the shirt in the 1940s. There were other crests before this but they were never featured on the shirt. While the first crest was black and white, the second crest was red and white in accordance with the club's main colours between 1910 and 1920. The club have several fan clubs, of which the largest is the official fan club MFF Support. It was founded in 1992. MFF Support describes itself as "an idealistic and non-political association working against violence and racism".

There are also several smaller independent supporter groups. The most prominent of these is Supras Malmö, which was founded in 2003 by a coalition of smaller ultras groups and devoted fans. The name "Supras" is derived from the words supporters and ultras – the latter indicating that the group is inspired by a fan culture with roots in the Mediterranean. Supras Malmö is the most visible group in the main supporter stand at Swedbank Stadion, marking its presence with banners, flags and choreography. Another group with similar goals is Rex Scania. MFF Tifosi 96 is a network of supporters creating tifos for special occasions and important games. The average attendance for the club's games in the 2010 season was 15,194, the best attendance in Allsvenskan 2010.

Because of geographical proximity, minor rivalries exist with Trelleborgs FF and Landskrona BoIS, which are both also located in Scania. The main rivals of the club are Helsingborgs IF, IFK Göteborg and IFK Malmö. The rivalry between Malmö FF and Helsingborgs IF has existed since Malmö FF were promoted up to Allsvenskan in the 1930s, and is primarily geographic, since both teams are from Scania in southern Sweden. The rivalry with IFK Göteborg relates more to title clashes; the two are the most successful clubs in Swedish football history and the only two to have appeared in European cup finals, IFK Göteborg in the UEFA Cup in 1982 and 1987 and Malmö FF in the European Cup in 1979.

The rivalry with IFK Malmö is both geographical and historical. The two clubs come from the same city and used to play at the same stadium in the early 20th century. The supposed actions of board members of IFK Malmö in 1933, revealing Malmö FF's breaches of amateur football rules to the Swedish Football Association, further contribute to the competitive tensions between the two clubs.

Stadiums

Malmö FF's first stadium was Malmö IP, which was shared with arch-rivals IFK Malmö. The team played here from the founding of the club in 1910, until 1958. The stadium still exists today, albeit with lower capacity, and is now used by women's team LdB FC Malmö, who were previously the women's section of Malmö FF. Capacity in 2011 is 7,600, but attendances were usually much higher when Malmö FF played there. For the last season in 1957, the average attendance was 15,500. The club's record attendance at Malmö IP is 22,436 against Helsingborgs IF on 1 June 1956. The stadium is still considered a key part of the club's history, as it was here that the club were founded, played their first 47 seasons, and won five Swedish championships.

A new stadium was constructed in Malmö after Sweden was awarded the 1958 FIFA World Cup – this saw the birth of Malmö Stadion. Malmö FF played their first season at the stadium in 1958. The first time the club won the Swedish championship at the stadium was in 1965. The club enjoyed the most successful era of their history at this stadium, winning ten out of sixteen Swedish championships while based there. The stadium originally had a capacity of 30,000 but this was lowered to 27,500 due to changes in safety regulations. The club's record attendance at the stadium was 29,328 against Helsingborgs IF on 24 September 1967.

Following the 2004 victory in Allsvenskan, plans were made to construct a new stadium. In July 2005, Malmö FF announced that work was to begin on Swedbank Stadion, designed for 18,000 seated spectators and 6,000 standing. The stadium can also accommodate 21,000 as an all-seater for international and European games in which terracing is not allowed. Construction started in 2007 and was finished in 2009. The new stadium is located next to Malmö Stadion. Although there was still small-scale construction going on around the stadium at the time, the stadium was inaugurated on 13 April 2009 with the first home game of the 2009 season against Örgryte IS; Malmö FF's Labinot Harbuzi scored the inaugural goal in the 61st minute. The first Swedish championship won at the stadium occurred in 2010, when the club beat Mjällby AIF on 7 November in the final game of the season 2–0. Attendance at this game set the stadium record of 24,148. Swedbank Stadion is a UEFA category 4 rated stadium.

Ownership and finances

Malmö FF made the transition from an amateur club to fully professional in the late 1970s under the leadership of club chairman Eric Persson. The club are an open member association, and the annual general meeting is the highest policy-making body where each member has one vote, therefore no shares are issued. The meeting approves the accounts, votes to elect the chairman and the board, and decides on incoming motions. The current chairman is Håkan Jeppsson who has been chairman since 2010 after taking over after Bengt Madsen. The club's legal status means that any interest claims are made to the club and not to the board of directors or club members. Daily operations are run by a managing director who liaises with the chairman.

With an equity of 78 million SEK the club are the richest football club in Sweden as of 2011. The turnover for 2010, excluding player transactions, was 148.3 million SEK which was the highest turnover to date.

The main sponsors of Malmö FF are Elitfönster AB, BE Group, JMS Mediasystem, Svenska Spel, Sydtotal, Telia, SOVA and Mercedes-Benz. The club also have a naming rights deal with Swedbank regarding the name of Swedbank Stadion and four stand sponsors; E.ON, Carlsberg (currently marketing their brand Falcon), PEAB and Sydsvenskan. The current kit manufacturers are Puma, they also sponsor the club and many of Puma's products are sold in the official Malmö FF souvenir shop at Swedbank Stadion. The current shirt sponsor is ICA.

Media coverage

Malmö FF have been the subject of several films. Some examples are Swedish football documentaries Blådårar 1 and Blådårar 2, which portray the club from both supporter and player perspectives during the 1997 and 2000 seasons. Blådårar 1 is set in 1997, when the club finished third in Allsvenskan. The film focuses on devoted fan Lasse, player Anders Andersson, former chairman Hans Cavalli-Björkman and other individuals. Blådårar 2 is set in 2000, the year after the club had been relegated to Superettan, and follows the team as they fight for Malmö FF's return to Allsvenskan. The second film continues to follow Lasse, but also has a significant focus on Zlatan Ibrahimović, his progress and how he was eventually sold to AFC Ajax during the 2001 season.

The club have also been featured in Mitt Hjärtas Malmö, a series of documentaries covering the history of Malmö. Clips used included match footage from the 1940s (Volume 7), and match footage from the 1979 European Cup Final in Munich from a fan's perspective (Volume 8). Volume 9 of the series is devoted entirely to coverage of the club's 100th anniversary in 2010.

In the 2005 Swedish drama movie Om Sara, actor Alexander Skarsgård plays the fictional football star Kalle Öberg, who plays for Malmö FF. Finally, a recurring sketch in the second season of the comedy sketch show Hipphipp! involved a group of Malmö FF fans singing and chanting while performing everyday tasks, such as shopping or operating an ATM.

Players

Current squad

As of 17 June 2011

Out on loan

As of 2 June 2011

For season transfers, see transfers winter 2010–2011 and transfers summer 2011.

Notable players

List criteria:

player has made more than 500 appearances for the club, or

player has won Guldbollen, an official UEFA award or player has been picked as one of the 11 best players in the official Sydsvenskan team.

Management

Organisation

As of 7 February 2011 {| |valign="top"| |}

Technical staff

As of 3 June 2011 {| |valign="top"| |}

Notable managers

This is a list of managers who have won one or more titles at the club

Statistics

Malmö FF have played 75 seasons in Allsvenskan. The only clubs to have played more seasons are AIK with 82 and IFK Göteborg with 78. As a result, the club are positioned second in the all-time Allsvenskan table. They are the only Swedish club to have played a European Cup final, having reached the 1979 European Cup Final.

Domestic

Swedish Champions

* Winners (1): 1920–21

* Runners-up (1): 1923–24

Division 2 Södra (Tier 2)

* Winners (3): 1930–31, 1934–35, 1935–36

* Runners-up (1): 1929–30

Superettan (Tier 2)

* Runners-up (1): 2000

Cups

Svenska Cupen

* Runners-up (1): 2011

Doubles

Swedish Champions and Svenska Cupen

* Winners (7): 1943–44, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1967, 1974, 1975, 1986

European

European Champion Clubs' Cup

* Runners-up (1): 1978–79

Worldwide

Intercontinental Cup

* Runners-up (1): 1979

Footnotes

:A. The title of "Swedish Champions" has been awarded to the winner of four different competitions over the years. Between 1896 and 1925 the title was awarded to the winner of Svenska Mästerskapet, a stand-alone cup tournament. No club were given the title between 1926 and 1930 even though the first-tier league Allsvenskan was played. In 1931 the title was reinstated and awarded to the winner of Allsvenskan. Between 1982 and 1990 a play-off in cup format was held at the end of the league season to decide the champions. After the play-off format in 1991 and 1992 the title was decided by the winner of Mästerskapsserien, an additional league after the end of Allsvenskan. Since the 1993 season the title has once again been awarded to the winner of Allsvenskan.

Notes

Bibliography

External links

MFF Support – official supporter club site Himmelriket – supporter site MFF-Familjen – supporter site

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