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| Scandinavian Football One hundred years of Scandinavian football Do you play football in Scandinavia? I've been asked the question many times. Yes, generally speaking, it's true that the Nordic climate does not favour the practice of that sport. Think on the long, dark, cold Nordic winters. It's just simply too cold to play outside. The playing fields are completely frozen in winter, often covered by a thick layer of snow. Also, most parts of Scandinavia are scarsely populated and there may well be not enough people or just no-one around to play with! But it still would be wrong to think that everybody in Scandinavia is only playing ice hockey or going skiing. The fact is that football has actually a long tradition in Scandinavia, particularly in Denmark and in southern Sweden, where winters are relativery short and the land is more densely populated. The Dansk Boldspil-Union, (the Danish Football Association), founded in 1889, is one of the oldest in Europe. Denmark and Sweden were also two of the seven founding members nations of the FIFA (the international football federation) in the year 1904, exactly 100 years ago. Taking into account that Denmark and Sweden are rather small countries with a population of only 5 and 9 million respectively, it would be only fair to say that Danes and Swedes have an excellent record of participation in international competitions. These two small nations have always been among the elite of world football and have even gone to win several international competitions. Everyone with some knowledge of football has heard the name of international players like Michael Laudrup, Peter Schmeichel or Henrik Larsson, to name a few. Football in Denmark and in Sweden Football is the most popular sport in Denmark. The Danish League is the strongest and the most competitive in Scandinavia, with great rivalry among all the teams. It's a commercially and export orientated professional league. Many talented Danish players begin their professional career with their local teams in Denmark and are later sold to top-level European teams. Denmark has produced many great international players such us Peter Schmeichel, the Michael and Brian Laudrup brothers, Morten Olsen, Thomas Helveg, Lars Olsen, Ebbe Sand, Jon Dahl Tomasson... Much of the Danish football tradition is connected with the Parken National Football Stadium, built in 1911 and rebuilt in 1992 with a capacity of 42,000 spectators. The Parken National Football Stadium is also the home of FC Copenhagen since 1998. The Danish league is played in autumn and spring, with a break during the winter months. Football is increasingly popular in Sweden, although the sport has there a much less commercial approach than in Denmark. In Sweden, football is seen as a sporting activity which is equally practiced by men and women. There is at least one football club in every Swedish village or town, and about 1 million Swedes are members of a football club. Most Swedish football clubs still are non-profit organisations. Top football players in the Swedish league are generally professionals or semi-professionals. Some Swedish players are playing in top-level European teams, such us Henrik Larsson, the Scottish league top-scorer as a player for Celtic of Glasgow. The Swedish National Football Stadium is R�sunda, in Solna, Stockholm, and has a capacity of 37,500 spectators. The Stockholm derbys are renowned for the great football atmosphere on and off the pitch. Traditionally, the most important Swedish teams are from Stockholm and from southern Sweden. The Swedish league is played during the spring and summer months. A Winter league for the Nordic nations A new inter-Scandinavian tournament featuring the top teams from Denmark, Sweden and Norway, will kick off on November 2004. "The Royal League", as it is called, will be played during the winter months with 12 participating teams - the four best teams from the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian leagues respectively. The teams will be drawn into three groups and the best two teams in each section will qualify for a second group stage. The winners of these latter groups will contest the final of The Royal League. International tournaments are getting more and more competitive and the Scandinavians are aware of that. The Royal League is an initiative to keep Nordic players active during the winter break and to improve the competitiveness of Scandinavian football through matches among the top Nordic teams - creating the best possible conditions for Scandinavian teams to achieve a strength which will enable them to get further in European competitions than they do today. 1992, the greatest year in Scandinavian football Denmark and Sweden have won separately several medals in both the Olympic Games and in the World Cup, but from a Nordic point of view, 1992 has been so far the greatest year in the history of Scandinavian football, with Sweden organising the EURO 92 Cup and Denmark winning that championship against Germany. The EURO 92 Championships were hosted by Sweden, which achieved a great organisational and sporting success. The Swedish national team themselves had a fantastic performance and reached to the semi-final, losing 2�3 to Germany. Denmark had initially not qualified to play in the EURO 92, but suddenly, only 10 days before the EURO 92 Cup was due to start, the Danish team was asked to participate in the tournament as a late replacement to United Nations' boycotted Yugoslavia. Of course, nobody would count on the late participants to win, but Denmark surprised the rest of Europe when they climbed to the finals after winning over France and the Netherlands. In a memorable final at Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg, Denmark became the Champion of Europe after defeating the favourites Germany with a 2-0 win, goals of John 'Faxe' Jensen and Kim Vilfort. The Danish victory was celebrated by over 300,000 people in Copenhaguen's City Hall square when the Danish national team arrived from Sweden the day after the final. Milestones of Danish and Swedish football
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