The Champions League Please!

April 13th, 2011 | by: aron | Comments Off

As if the recent years results haven’t been enough of a reminder, the current Allsvenskan League Ranking in UEFA is a sorry but true testimony of the current status of Swedish football. We’ve had no success in Europe, meaning the Champions League and Europa League, since Helsingborgs IF exited the then UEFA cup in the first knockout stages in the spring of 2008. Why is this a problem again? For one thing it means that Swedish teams don’t get a chance at international experience and miss out on a significant amount of money in the process.

This year probably won’t be any different either given that Malmö FF have started the season as solidly as they have. Call it an effect of the bad economy over the last couple years, but how else can one explain the fact that Malmö FF have managed to keep their team intact from last season and please keep in mind that they seem to be sitting on a horde of up and coming players. This would bode well for their chances in the Champions League qualifiers but for the fact that its often a game of luck with who one gets in the draw, and secondly that before we even think about the qualifiers there is the summer transfer window. If MFF keep winning the way they have and did last year, scouts are going to be showing up at every game and keeping an eye on a significant amount of important players. Daniel Larsson, Agon Mehmeti, Guillermo Molins, Jiloan Hamad, Jimmy Durmaz, Johan Dahlin, and Ivo Pekalski are all potential transfer targets for this summer. Malmö FF is also in serious need of cash injections so nothing is off the table at this moment. Add to this that current trainer Roland Nilsson is about to disappear across the sound to FC Copenhagen, and Malmö FF´s chances of reaching the group stages are seriously in doubt.

Further up the coast from Malmö is Helsingborg, which is home to two things of which the locals are very proud: Helsingborgs IF and Henrik Larsson, though the two have often been known to go together. This is the one team that I think has a decent chance of reaching the Europa League this year. They have a solid squad with a few standouts, and if they don’t sell off too much in the summer window, they might just go pretty far. The question mark is whether they can manage to keep Rasmus Jönsson and Alexander Gerndt. Buying Peter Larsson from FC Copenhagen was a wise move, but I am not sure it will be enough tie up all the loose ends on the defense side. Still with a coach like Conny Karlsson, they might just have a chance. Could 2011 be the year that Swedish teams reacquaint themselves with Europe? I won’t be holding my breath.