Allmänna Idrottsklubben

Allmänna Idrottsklubben (English: the public sports club), usually referred to as just AIK, is a professional sports club from Stockholm, Sweden.[1] Founded in 1891, at the downtown address of Biblioteksgatan 8 in the district of Norrmalm, the club is the largest in Scandinavia.[2] The club's achievements include Swedish championship titles in a slew of sports: football, ice hockey, bandy, handball, floorball, bowling, badminton, athletics and many other sports as well as Wimbledon championships and French Open in tennis (through Sven Davidson, Lennart Bergelin and Ulf Schmidt).

AIK
The crest of AIK
Full nameAllmänna idrottsklubben
NicknamesGnaget
Sportassociation football, bandy, handball, ice hockey and others
Founded15 February 1891 (1891-02-15)
Based inSolna, Stockholm, Sweden
Websitehttp://aik.se

Founding

The idea to start an athletic association began when the brothers Isidor and Paul Behrens were taking a walk through Hantverkargatan, in central Stockholm. They were walking pretty fast; and noticed that there were two other youngsters behind them who also walked quickly. The strangers tried to walk past the Behrens, so they had to speed up to keep the lead; but the strangers did the same. Finally all of them started to run in what now looked like an improvised competition. When Isidor and Paul were far away from the unknown youngsters, Isidor said that they should start an athletic association and compete with others.

So the brothers gathered their friends, who had strong athletic interest, and held a meeting at Behrens' on February 15, 1891, on Biblioteksgatan 8, in central Stockholm. Isidor introduced his idea to everyone, and they liked it. Since the boys agreed that every thinkable sport should be practiced, they decided that “Allmänna Idrottsklubben” (The General Sports Club) would be a suitable name. The name also had other meanings: AIK allowed anybody to become a member; and at this time many athletic clubs were limited (e.g. the military).

Media

On 5 February 1995, AIK became the first non-American sports club to promote an Internet website.[3]

Supporters

During the 1980s and 1990s AIK's official supporter group Black Army raged havoc around the country, making headlines in national newspapers. As a result of Black Army's bad behaviour another supporter group was created in 2000, Allmänna Supporterklubben (the General Supporters Club), as an option to Black Army. In 2002 Allmänna Supporterklubben was renamed to the much more AIK related name "Smokinglirarna" (roughly, "The Players", literally "the Black Tie Players"). In 2002 an ultras group was formed, Ultras Nord (Ultras North), and two years later, 2004, Sol Invictus was formed. Black Army, Smokinglirarna, Ultras Nord and Sol Invictus together with AIK-Tifo forms the so-called AIK-Alliansen (the AIK Alliance).

Crown princess Victoria's spouse Daniel Westling and princess Madeleine's former boyfriend Jonas Bergström both are ardent AIK fans.[4] From time to time the royal family visits the club's home matches. His Swedish Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf is an honorary member of the club (in line with family tradition), although he has stated that he is a fan of Djurgårdens IF, allegedly.

Among Swedish politicians the former party chairman of the Swedish Social Democratic Party Mona Sahlin is an AIK supporter as well as former Minister for Justice Thomas Bodström.[5]

The Wallenberg family are also closely attached with AIK as a club, being one of the major share holders.

The chant used by AIK is Å vi é AIK ("Oh we are AIK" pronounced with a Stockholm dialect).

Active departments

References
  1. "AIK:s historia - år för år". AIK.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  2. "AIK:s mardrömsvår – hur mår Sveriges största klubb?". FotbollDirekt (in Swedish). May 18, 2013. Archived from the original on April 19, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  3. "Om AIK". AIK.se. Archived from the original on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  4. Derby-sessorna Archived 2009-04-17 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Bodströms äkta kärlek för svartgult". Archived from the original on 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
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