Short name KFF Chairman Mattias Rosenlund League Allsvenskan Head coach Peter Swärdh Founded 1910 | Ground Capacity 12,000 Arena/Stadium Guldfågeln Arena Manager Peter Swärdh Location Kalmar, Sweden | |
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Full name Kalmar Fotbollsförening Nickname(s) Röda bröder (Red brothers) Ground Guldfågeln Arena, Kalmar | ||
Kalmar ff
Kalmar Fotbollsförening, also known simply as Kalmar FF, Kalmar or (especially locally) KFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Kalmar. The club is affiliated to Smålands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Guldfågeln Arena. Formed on 10 January 1910 as IF Göta, the club have won one national championship title (2008) and three national cup titles (1981, 1987 & 2007). The club is currently playing in Allsvenskan, where the season lasts from April to November. Kalmar FF's local rivals are Kalmar AIK and Östers IF.
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In the beginning
On 15 June 1910, the club IF Göta was created, however they were not allowed to enter the Riksidrottsförbundet due to a conflict regarding the name. The name was already taken by Stockholm's-Göta and Karlstads-Göta. Later in 1912 the club changed its name to IF Gothia and was then accepted by Riksidrottsförbundet.
In 1918 Fredriksskans was opened and at the same time the where a major conference in Kalmar about the high number of clubs in the town, this led to the merging of IF Gothia and Kamraterna to Kalmar Idrotts Sällskap and Kalmar IK merged with Falken to form Kalmar AIK. In 1927 Kalmar Idrotts Sällskap changed its name to Kalmar FF.
In 1927–1928 they qualified for the local league in the Swedish league system, IFK Oskarshamn won the league and was moved up to the Southswedish league, covering both Småland and Skåne, however IFK Oskarshamn renounce its position and it was given to Kalmar FF, this gave rise to complaint from the clubs in Skåne since there were no good train connections to Kalmar at that time, however SJ solved it. In their first game they defeated KIS Malmö FF with 6–0.
The middle years
In 1949 the club reached Allsvenskan for the first time after defeating Halmstads BK in the decisive game of the season; during this time Swedish leagues were played autumn–spring, on 31 July they played their first game in Allsvenskan against Degerfors IF and lost 2–0, afterward, the later world-famous Gunnar Nordahl claimed that he had seen much worse newcomers, also this year, on 4 September Kalmar faced Malmö FF in front of 15 093 people in the audience; this is still the audience record on Fredriksskans.
Between 1950 and 1955 the club went up and down between Allsvenskan and Division 2. In 1955 they fell down to Division 2 and stayed there for 20 years; during this time players like Hungarian Ference Marko represented the club at the same time as he lived at the refugee camp in Borgholm in 1957, in 1959 Sune "Mona-Lisa" Andersson, who won an Olympic medal in the 1948 Summer Olympics as a player, as manager, during this time Sten-Åke Johansson played for the club and became the top goalscorer for all time for the club, on 19 October 1975 Kalmar FF defeated Västra Frölunda and returned to Allsvenskan.
In 1976 the club played its 100th game in Allsvenskan against GIF Sundsvall, however this ended with 9–2 defeat and led to manager Kay Wiestål being fired. The 1977 season became the club's most successful season so far; a group of companies sponsored the club's buying of Benno Magnusson; the club was able to end in 3rd place at the end of the season, earning the club its first medal.
In 1981 the club won its first title ever, by defeating IF Elfsborg with 4–0, the club won the Svenska Cupen for the first time ever, however they failed to stay in Allsvenskan and was relegated to Division 1; however the spell was only one year long and Kalmar returned in 1983.
1985 became the club's most successful season, as the club ended up in second place behind Örgryte IS and Billy Lansdowne and Peter Karlsson both became the league's top goalscorer along with Sören Börjesson, Örgryte IS, all scoring 10 goals each. The following year did not go as good; the club was relegated from the top league and the only happiness in 1987 was when the club yet again won the Cup title, this time against GAIS, however the club fell out of Division 1 this year.
In 1988 Kalmar FF won Division 2 without a single defeat which is a record in Division 2 and higher leagues. Between 1989 and 1997 the club spent most of its time in second highest league; this caused serious economic problems for the club.
The Brazilian era
After returning to Allsvenskan in 1998, but in 1999 the club fell out again, the only good thing was that the economy had been restored and was in good shape again. During the 2000 season club had to fight to avoid relegation from the second highest league and was only able to do it in the end of the season.
The goal of the 2001 season was to return to Allsvenskan again, after buying several new players such as Lasse Johansson, Fredrik Gärdeman and Lucas Nilsson, the club was able to return to Allsvenskan again, unfortunately the club was relegated directly. During the 2002 the first Brazilian, Alysson, arrived at the club.
The spell in Superettan 2003 became only one year as Kalmar won the league well ahead of Trelleborgs FF, purchase of Daniel Mendes and Dudu helped the club a lot.
In 2004 the club bought three new Brazilian players, Dedé Anderson, Fábio Augusto and Cesar Santin, they all helped the club to a 5th place in Allsvenskan, just missing out on Royal League, the club also made a change board as chairman Ronny Nilsson left after 12 years at the helm, he was replaced by Tommy Strandman.
Champions
The two following seasons, 2005 and 2006, Kalmar ended up in 3rd and 5th respectively. Then in 2007 they made a great run from start to finish and finally ended up in second place after champions IFK Göteborg. They won Svenska Cupen the same year by beating IFK Göteborg with 3–0 at Fredriksskans in Kalmar.
Before the start, several Swedish experts believed that Kalmar FF would be one of the teams fighting for the championship title 2008, the club started the season stable and as the season went on the club performance became stronger and saw the club win many big victories, only other team able to keep up was IF Elfsborg. The club had to wait until the last match of the season against Halmstads BK in Halmstad before they could become champions. Before the final match Elfsborg was behind with 3 points and 9 goals. The match against Halmstads BK ended 2–2 placing the club 1 point ahead of Elfsborg. Patrik Ingelsten also became the league's top goalscorer of the season with 19 goals scored. The team reached the final in Svenska Cupen yet again and also this year against IFK Göteborg, however this year IFK won 5–4 on penalties after full-time and extra time had ended 0–0. The club also had the chance to reach the group stage of the UEFA Cup. After strong play against Racing FC from Luxembourg and Gent from Belgium, the club faced Dutch team Feyenoord, after winning 1–0 away in Rotterdam the club lost home with 1–2, in Borås at Borås Arena since Fredriksskans failed to reach UEFA demands, sending the club out of the competition on away goals.
Colours, crest and kit
The traditional colours of Kalmar FF, reflected in their crest and kit, are red and white. Since the club's foundation in 1910, the most commonly used kit has consisted of a red shirt with white shorts.
Kit manufacturers and sponsors
The club's first kit manufacturer was Adidas, until a three-year deal was agreed with Umbro in 1995. Puma received the contract in 1998 and their sponsorship lasted for seventeen years. In 2016, Hummel was presented as the new kit manufacturer of the club.
European record
UEFA Club Coefficient Ranking
The following list ranks the current position of Kalmar FF in the UEFA ranking (as of 27 January 2017):
First-team squad
As of 11 January 2017Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Current youth players with first-team experience
As of 19 February 2017Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Out on loan
As of 11 January 2017Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.