The Sweden men's national football team (Swedish: Sveriges herrlandslag i fotboll) represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Friends Arena in Solna and the team is coached by Jon Dahl Tomasson. From 1945 to the late 1950s, they were considered one of the greatest teams in Europe.[3]
Sweden has made twelve appearances at the World Cup with their first coming in 1934. They have also made six appearances at the European Championship. Sweden finished second at the 1958 FIFA World Cup, which they hosted, and third in both 1950 and 1994. Sweden's other accomplishments also include a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and bronze medals in 1924 and 1952. They also reached the semi-finals at UEFA Euro 1992, also while hosting.
Sweden Football
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At the Summer Olympics in 1952 in Helsinki, Sweden continued to achieve success and won an Olympic bronze. The following year, the Football Association decided not to allow foreign professionals to play in the national team and the team failed to qualify for the World Championships in Switzerland in 1954 when Sweden only came second in their qualifying group behind Belgium.
In 1956, the Swedish football federation allowed the professional footballers to play for the national team again, giving Swedish football fans hope for the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Sweden, the host nation, were in the same group as Mexico, Hungary and Wales.
Sweden's only major success in the '60s was to qualify for the 1970 World Cup, after winning UEFA Group 5 ahead of Norway and France. Sweden finished third in its group, losing a tie-breaker with eventual #4 Uruguay, and did not advance to the elimination round, however. The winner of Sweden's group was eventual world runner-up Italy.
In the qualification of the 1974 FIFA World Cup, Sweden was in the same group as Austria, Hungary and Malta. Sweden clinched a narrow win via a classic play off-match against Austria in a snowy Gelsenkirchen, and advanced to the World Cup finals in Germany.
In the third-place match, Sweden played against a Bulgaria side that had lost to Italy in their semi-final match in New York City. Sweden scored 4 goals in the first half, but the second half went goal-less. Sweden finished 3rd and won the bronze medal, the best placing for the national team in a World Cup since the 1958 silver medal. This led Sweden to a second-place in the FIFA Men's World Rankings for one month, in November 1994.
In the round of 16 on 16 June, Sweden played Senegal. Henrik Larsson gave Sweden an early lead by heading in a corner from Anders Svensson. Senegal equalised through Henri Camara. They also had a goal disallowed for offside. The game came to sudden death golden goal. Rising star Zlatan Ibrahimovi came on and nearly won Sweden the game. He made a terrific run on the right wing past several Senegal players, and shot with his weaker left foot from a tight angle straight at Senegal's keeper Tony Sylva. Ibrahimovi had Larsson and Svensson in excellent positions for a pass, but shot instead. Then Svensson made a great spin past a defender and hit the post with a powerful shot, which Sylva would have had no chance of saving, had it gone inside the posts. Camara then took a weak shot which went past Hedman, off the post and into the goal. Consequently, Sweden were eliminated. Henrik Larsson announced his retirement from the national team after the tournament.
In the quarter-finals on 26 June, Sweden played against Holland. The game became goalless after full-time, but not without a lot of chances. The closest Sweden came to scoring was through Freddie Ljungberg but he hit the post with a well taken shot. Henrik Larsson also hit the cross bar from close range. After a goalless extra time, the game went to a penalty shootout. After a long run of penalties were taken, it was Olof Mellberg's turn to take a shot. The Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar saved Mellberg's shot and Sweden lost the penalty shoot out after Arjen Robben converted the following penalty.
On 25 July 2015, Sweden were drawn in Group A of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification. The team scored six wins, a draw and three losses. As a result, they tied with the Netherlands in points, and claimed second place behind eventual world champions France on goal difference.
On 26 February 2024, the Swedish FA announced that former Danish player Jon Dahl Tomasson has been appointed as manager of the Swedish national team, effective from 1 March 2024.[43] Tomasson's contract includes the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification and will be extended if Sweden qualifies for the World Cup. Tomasson is Sweden's first foreign manager since George Raynor who led Sweden in the 1950 and 1958 World Cups.[44]
Swedish supporters showed up first during the 1912 Summer Olympics, where they chanted "Heja Sverige / friskt humr / det r det som susen gr" (roughly meaning "Come on, Sweden / being in good spirits is what does the trick") during the football games.
The traveling supporters for Sweden's away games showed up for the first time in the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany, and since then Sweden has always had supporters in large tournaments. In the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Sweden had one of the largest group of supporters during a tournament, especially during the group stage match against Paraguay with around 50,000 Swedish supporters in attendance, plus an additional 50,000 fans watching the game outside the stadium. The Swedish fans were also voted the best fans during the 2006 World Cup, due to their massive numbers, friendly attitude and love for the game.[45]
Sweden traditionally wears yellow shirts, blue shorts, and yellow socks as their home kit, and blue shirts, yellow shorts, and blue socks as their away kit. Since 2013, their kit manufacturer is Adidas, who were also the manufacturer between 1973 and 2003. They were manufactured by Umbro in 1970 as well as between 2003 and 2013.
Since 2012, the Swedish national stadium is Friends Arena, replacing Rsunda Fotbollsstadion which was demolished. According to FIFA, Rsunda Stadion was a classic stadium,[citation needed] one of only two stadiums in the world, the other one being the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, which hosted both the men's and women's World Cup final (1958 FIFA World Cup final and the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup). Rsunda stadium was opened 18 September 1910, and had a capacity of only 2,000, mostly standing. It was Rsunda stadium and Valhalla stadium in Gothenburg that were the first football fields with grass used for Swedish football. The stadium was expanded during 1937, to a capacity of 40,000 people. It was used for the football tournament in the 1912 Summer Olympics held in Stockholm, and hosted eight games during the 1958 FIFA World Cup. At the 1992 UEFA European Championship, the stadium hosted four games and in the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup it hosted only the final game. Ullevi in Gothenburg is used for some home games, such as the centennial game of the Swedish Football Association against England in 2004. Even other stadiums, such as Stadion in Malm, are used for the national team.
This is a list of captains who either have played 30 or more matches as team captain or have played a match as team captain in a major tournament (FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro and Olympic Games). Note that only players who started the match as captain are included in the list.[53][54]
Football at the Summer Olympics was first played officially in 1908. The Olympiads between 1896 and 1980 were only open for amateur players. The 1984 and 1988 tournaments were open to players with no appearances in the FIFA World Cup. Since 1992 Olympics, the football event was changed into a tournament for under-23 teams with a maximum of three overage players. See Sweden Olympic football team for competition record from 1984 until present day.
The following table shows Sweden's all-time international record.[55] The abandoned match against Denmark on 2 June 2007 here counts as a draw. Former national teams are included in their respective successor team.
Association football is the most popular sport in Sweden, with over 240,000 licensed players (approximately 56,000 women and 184,000 men) with another 240,000 youth players. There are around 3,200 active clubs fielding over 8,500 teams, which are playing on the 7,900 pitches available in the country. Football was first played in Sweden in the 1870s, the first championship was decided in 1896 and the Swedish Football Association was founded in 1904. Despite being a relatively small country population-wise, both the men's and women's national teams and the club teams have gained rather large success from time to time.
Football, along with other organised sports, came to Sweden in the 1870s and was mainly exercised by gymnastics clubs which exercised most of the sports of the time. England and Scotland were the main sources of inspiration and it is thus not strange that football gained popularity fast, with the first agreement of rules made in 1885 by the clubs active in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Visby. The first international club match was played in 1890 and the first match with modern rules was played two years later in 1892.
The first association to administer a Swedish national football tournament was Svenska Idrottsfrbundet, founded 1895 in Gothenburg, the dominating football town in Sweden, at the time. The association arranged Svenska Msterskapet in 1896 which rgryte IS won. The tournament was played until 1925 when the first national league, Allsvenskan, was started. In the late 1890s, the IFK associations began playing football, and by 1901, the first Kamratmsterskap (IFK championship) in football was arranged.
The current national league system administered by the football association is organised as 1-1-2-6-12, where Allsvenskan is the highest Swedish level and Superettan the second highest, followed by two third level (Division 1), six fourth level (Division 2) and twelve fifth level leagues (Division 3).[1] Below Division 3 are several lower leagues, in some areas going all the way down to the ninth level, (Division 7), or in the case of Upplands FF, the tenth level (Division 8), overseen by regional football associations. 152ee80cbc