Halmstads BK

Halmstads BK is a football (soccer) club from Sweden.

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Halmstads Bollklubb, also called HBK or just Halmstad, is a Swedish Football (soccer) located in Halmstad in the southwest of Sweden. The club, formed 6 March 1914, competes in the highest Swedish league, Allsvenskan, and has won 4 national championship titles and 1 Svenska Cupen title. Being located in a relatively small town, HBK is known for being successful despite limited resources. The current manager, Janne Andersson, has been in Halmstads BK's organization for many seasons as assistant manager and has been manager since 2004.

Halmstads BK gained some European recognition in 1995, when they defeated the successful Italian club Parma A.C 3-0 at Gamla Ullevi (in Göteborg) in the first of two matches in the in the Cup Winners' Cup. However, their second encounter, in Parma, ended with a crushing 0-4 defeat, eliminating them from the tournament.

Since the clubs return to Allsvenskan in 1993 they have brought forward several known players such as Niclas Alexandersson, Petter Hansson, Fredrik Ljungberg and Marcus Rosenberg.

History

In the beginning

In 1913 a group of younglings calling themselves Viking, with a wish to create a more serious organization, meet at Hotel Lugnet and decided to create an organization which they gave the name Halmstads Bollklubb and chose Axel Winberg as the clubs first chairman, they also applied entrance to Riksidrottsförbundet.

On 6 March 1914 Halmstads BK is allowed entrance to Riksidrottsförbundet, the following year they play in their first competition, Pokalserien, a local tournament in which they face IS Halmia and Halmstads Kamraterna, Halmstads BK ends up last with 2 points and 5-16 in goal difference, in 1916 the same result was seen again, but this time Halmstads BK only managed to score 1 goal totally. In 1917 Halmstads BK was able to defeat Halmstads Kamraterna twice and end up in second place behind IS Halmia, the same year athletics was made a part of the club. The final in the district championship was reached in 1918, but yet again IS Halmia proved to strong. In 1919 Halmstads BK was for the first time able to defeat IS Halmia and Gustav "Pytt" Söderholm became top goalscorer in the tournament, swimming was made a part of the club.

In 1920 Halmstads BK won their first district championship title by defeating Falkenbergs FF with 4-0 in the final and boxing was introduced by the club. In 1921 Halmstads BK yet again won the championship, this time by defeating IS Halmia, Halmstads BK also won Hallandspostens pokal after defeating Halmstads IF with 5-0, a women's section was added to the athletics part of the club. Halmstads BK won the Bernhard Aronssons vandringspris after defeating IS Halmia in 1922, Halmstads BK also won a series of tournaments in Jönköping, Malmö and Ängelholm, however the district championship was lost to Varberg this year. By winning Hallandsserien Halmstads BK was able to reach Sydsvenskan in 1923, which lead to third place in 1924 after Varbergs GIF and Malmö FF, an international exchange of matches was started with FC Rudolfshügel from Austria and Danish B 03. In 1925 Halmstads BK won the district championship and came in second place in Sydsvenskan. Halmstads BK was able to win Sydsvenskan in 1926 and was to play qualifying matches against IF Elfsborg to reached Allsvenskan, however Elfsborg proved to be to strong and won with 2-1 after 3 matches. Halmstad only reached 3rd place in 1927 a large series of injuries made Halmstads BK use 32 different players in total. In 1928 Halmstads BK took part in the newly formed Division 2 Söder, Halmstads BK also employed amateur coach Henning Helgesson, Örjans Vall was only selected as the second best arena in the series duo to the lack of warm showers. In 1929 Halmstads BK celibrated 15 years with a match against 1. FC Köln from Cologne, Germany, 1600 people watched the game in heavy rain, SpVgg Sülz won with 5-2, Halmstads BK also failed to win Division 2 Söder after a hard race with Stattena IF and Redbergslids IK Fotboll, ending up in 3rd place.

Division 2 and upwards

Halmstads BK started the next decade with ending up in 4th place in the league, a visit by CE Europa did pull a large audience, the Spanish team won with 6-5. After a late league start in 1931, due to heavy snowing, Halmstads BK ended up in 4th place yet again. IS Halmia won the league in 1932 and in a campaign in the local newspapers tried to get the better Halmstads BK players to join the team, this failed however, Halmstads BK defeated IS Halmia in a charity match for the city's unemployed, the swimmers also left Halmstads BK and founded SK Laxen. Under the leadership of playing manager Gunnar Olsson (football manager) Halmstads BK was able to reach Allsvenskan, the top league at the time, in 1933 for the first time in the clubs history, this after defeating BK Drott and Helsingborgs IF for the league title and then defeating Krokslätts FF with 4-0 totally. Unexpected Halmstads BK won bronze their first season in the top league as when they finished in 4th place, Emil Carlsson also became Halmstads BK first player in the Sweden national football team. Halmstads BK was unable to repeat last seasons result and ended up in 9th place in 1935, Team handball was also made a part of Halmstads BK this year. Halmstads BK left the top league in 1936 after ending up second last, Halmstads BK would have been able to stay if they had won over IK Sleipner in the last game, however Halmstads BK lost with 2-4. Halmstads BK was able to return to Division 1 in 1937, but a defeat against top competitor Helsingborgs IF saw them come in 2nd, former English professional player Harry Bruce (football manager) became the first non-Swedish manager for the club. 1936 was a middle year for Halmstads BK as they ended up in 6th position at the end of the season, English club Sheffield United played a friendly against Halmstads BK and won with 5-2. In 1939 Halmstads BK celibrated its 25th year and won Division 2, however IFK Göteborg proved to strong in the qualify and won with 1-5 over the club.

Due to the ongoing World War II Sweden focused more on military readiness in case of an invasion then on sport, this lead to Halmstads BK being forced to use 29 different players during the season and the result came there after as Halmstads BK ended up in 3rd place behind IS Halmia, 1st, and Malmö BI, 2nd. Halmstads BK was the superior team in 1941 Division 2 but faild to defeat GAIS in the qualify for Division 1. Halmstads BK won Division 2 after hard competition with local rivals IS Halmia in 1942 and in the qualify Halmstads BK was able to defeat Lundby IF with 3-2. Halmstads BK ended up in 6th place in 1943, only 1 point from earning a medal. Halmstad was close to fall out of the top division in 1944 but a series of victories saved them in the end. 1945 saw Halmstads BK end up in 8th place. In 1946 Halmstads BK ended up second from last after a poor season, however the clubs youth squad won the unofficial youth championship, first defeating IFK Göteborg and the playing 4-4 against AIK Fotboll in the final, winning on drawing the winning lot, in the youth squad there where players like Sylve Bengtsson, Gunnar Johansson, Olle Ericsson, Östen Ståhl and Åke Hallström, who all later became noted players in the clubs history. Halmstads BK returned to Division 1 after only 1 season in Division 2, Halmstads BK crushed Örgryte IS with 6-1 in the 1947 qualify, Halmstads BK also played their first match outside Sweden this year, they defeated Helsingør IF with 8-2 and the youth squad won the youth championship again after defeating Djurgårdens IF Fotboll with 2-1. Just like the year before Halmstads BK time in Division 1 only became 1 year as they ended up dead last in 1948. In 1949 Kalmar FF proved to strong and Halmstads BK ended up in 3rd place in the league, Halmstads BK also refused to participate in the district championship as a protest to the "unsporting behavior" the district association had showed Halmstads BK the previous year.

The 1950s started poorly as Halmstads BK reached 2nd place behind Råå IF, several injuries on keyplayers disturbed the season, and in 1951 Halmstads BK board decided to rejuvenate the squad and this lead to a 7th place. In 1952 Halmstads BK yet again ended up in 2nd place, Halmstads BK also went on a trip, first to Germany, where they played a series of matches, and then to the French Riviera where Halmstads BK played a game and enjoyed the weather and beach, they then returned home and played a game against Brazilian team Sport Club Corinthians Paulista with a mixed team of Halmstads BK and IS Halmia players, the Brazilians won with 10-1, Sylve Bengtsson returned from the 1952 Summer Olympics with a bronze medal. 1953 saw a change in the league system and Halmstads BK was lucky as Halmstads BK was able to stay only because of better goal difference as 6 teams was relegated. Things changed in 1954 as Halmstads BK dominated the new league and won promotion with 12 points in front of Halmstads BK in second place, the made yet again a trip south, this time to North Africa and Spain, bowling was added to the club. Halmstads BK reached their best position so far in 1954-55 season as Halmstads BK ended up in 2nd place, winning Stora Silvret (eng: The Big Silver), then during 1955-56 season, Halmstads BK biggest victory was recorded as they club crushed Västerås SK with 9-0, Östen Ståhl scored 6 goals in the match, Sylve Bengtsson also became the leagues top goal scorer with 22 goals, Halmstads BK ended in 7th position. Just as in the beginning of the decade the end was far from good, Halmstads BK ended up in 8th place both in 1957 and 1958, during 1958 Sweden hosted 1958 FIFA World Cup and 2 matches,

The dark decade

The 1960s wasn't Halmstads BK's decade, Halmstads BK ended up in 4th place in 1960 even after Kjell "Lill-Goggo" Karlsson and Sylve Bengtsson had scored 34 goals together, in 1961 Halmstads BK ended up in 7th position after poor play, in 1962 Halmstads BK went through a rejuvenation and only won 9 matches out of 22, making Halmstads BK end in 6th place, then in 1963 two victories against Norrby IF and IK Oddevold helped Halmstads BK to 9th place, this year saw icehockey become a part of the clubs organization. Halmstads BK won Division 2 in 1964, but in the new qualify for Allsvenskan, a group of the four different Division 2 winners, Halmstads BK played poorly and ended up dead last. 1965 was the darkest year for Halmstads BK so far as it was relegated to Division 3 for the first time ever in club history, it took Halmstads BK 2 years to return Division 2 again after ending up in 2nd place both 1966 and 1967, then in 1968 Halmstads BK dominated Division 3 and had a goal difference of 87-23, a record in the Swedish league system, the icehockey left the organization and started their own. Halmstads BK made a strong return in Division 2 and ended up in 4th position, Lennart Alexandersson, Ingvar Andersson, Roland Fransson and Lars Nordin became the first contracted players in the club.

Champions

With only 3 point in total in all away games saw Halmstads BK end up in 6th place in 1970. 1971 was a turbulent as manager Janne Holmberg left in the middle of the season due to a dispute with the board, former top player Sylve Bengtsson replaced him and then Halmstads BK defeated Perstorp SK in the seriefinal and qualifid to Allsvenskan, they ended up in 2nd place and was promoted to Allsvenskan, however the spell in the top league became only 1 year as Halmstads BK ended up dead last and with only 14 goals scored in 1972, but the spell was yet again 1 year, under the leadership of Sven Agne Larsson, as Halmstads BK was able to play 20 games in a row without a defeat, Halmstads BK was close to be relegated back to Division 2, first in 1974 Halmstads BK ended in 11th place out of 14 and then in 1975 only survived because of better goal difference then GAIS. In 1976 Halmstads BK hired Roy Hodgson as new manager and success came directly as Halmstads BK went on and won Allsvenskan for the first time ever, the title was won in the second last game against IFK Norrköping, the last match against Östers IF was seen by 16000 people cheering for the team. Halmstads BK ended up in 8th place in 1977 season and Dynamo Dresden proved to strong in the first round of European Cup 1977–78, yet again Halmstads BK ended in 8th place in 1978, Mats Jingblad was moved up from the clubs youth system this year. Halmstads BK won their second title in 1979.

Just like after last time winning Allsvenskan, Halmstad ended up in 8th place in 1980 and in the European Cup 1980–81 Danish Esbjerg fB proved to strong with 0-0 home and 2-3 away, Roy Hodgson also left during the autumn to take over Bristol City. To the 1981 season Halmstads BK hired Dutch manager Jan Mak and with him came Frank Schinkels, the first non Swedish player in the club, but with a poor start saw Halmstads BK end up in 9th place. In 1982 Halmstads BK ended up in 8th and earnd a spot in the play-off, but IFK Göteborg proved to strong with 2-4 totally. In 1983 Halmstads BK climbed two positions much due to British goalkeeper Ken Allen. 1984 started with a fight between the board and manager Jan Mak and it ended it with Jan Mak leaving the club, he was replaced by Stefan Lundin, Halmstads BK reached 8th place and IFK Göteborg proved to strong in the play-off again. Halmstads BK topt the table during the spring of 1985 but a poor ending of the season saw Halmstads BK end in 7th place. During the middle of the 1986 season Stefan Lundin left Halmstads BK for Portugies C.S. Marítimo and was replaced by Kenneth Rosén, the season ended with a 5th place and Stig Nilsson became the new chairman. A series of injuries on keyplayers saw Halmstads BK end up second to last and was relegated from Allsvenskan for the first time in 14 years in 1987. Stuart Baxter became new manager in 1988 and ever after losing several keyplayers and trailing after Mjällby AIF with 7 point, Halmstads BK was able to claim the top spot on better goal difference. Halmstads BK ended up in a 5th place in their return to Allsvenskan in 1989.

Allsvenskan and Europe

The 1990 decade started far from promising for the club, in 1990 season Halmstads BK ended in 9th place and a new play-off was started in 1991, Halmstads BK just missed the play-off on goal difference to IFK Norrköping, ending up in 7th place and was forced to play relegation play-off against team 8-10 in Allsvenskan and the Division 1 champions, it went poorly and Halmstads BK was relegated. 1992 saw two league victories for Halmstads BK, first 1992 in Swedish football Division_1_S.C3.B6dra_1992 and then in the promotion/relegation play-off for Allsvenskan. Henrik Bertilsson became Allsvenska top goalscorer in 1993 with 18 goals, sharing the top spot with Trelleborgs FFs Mats Lilienberg, this helpt Halmstads BK to a 5th place. Halmstads BK ended up in 7th place in 1994 and Henrik Bertillson left for French FC Martigues, it went better for the youth squad as they reached the final in the youth championship, but Djurgårdens IF proved to strong and won with 1-0. 1995 became a hard year for Halmstads BK supporters to forget as they for the first time ever won Svenska Cupen and Halmstads BK ended up in 3rd place, winning Lilla Silvret, but it was the home match against Parma F.C in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1995–96 that drawed most atenttion as Halmstads BK won with 3-0 on Gamla Ullevi (1916) in Göteborg, however the returned ended with a major defeat, 4-0 to Parma. Tom Prahl took over as manager in 1996 and lead Halmstads BK to a 7th place in Allsvenskan and in the first round of the UEFA Cup 1996–97 Newcastle United F.C. proved the stronger team. In 1997 Halmstads BK celebrated their third championship title after 3-0 in the last game against Ljungskile SK, Mats Lilienberg, now in Halmstads BK, became league top goalscorer with 14 goals, along side Christer Mattiasson, IF Elfsborg, and Dan Sahlin, Örebro SK. 1998 saw Halmstads BK end up in 8th place and the UEFA Champions League 1998–99 adventured ended quickly after defeat with 3-2 in total against PFC Litex Lovech, from Bulgaria, in the first qualifying round, own product Fredrik Ljungberg was sold to Arsenal F.C for 40 million Swedish krona. A poor start of the 1999 season didn't prevent Halmstads BK from fighting for the league title until the second last match, Halmstads BK had to be satisfied with 3rd place and Lilla Silvret.
Halmstads BK started the new millennium with taking their fourth Allsvenska title, they also reached second round in the UEFA Cup 2000–01 after defeating S.L. Benfica, but then TSV 1860 München proved to strong, Halmstad also became the last team to win the Von Rosens goblet as it was revealed that Clarence von Rosen was a Nazism sympathiser, it was replaced in 2001 with the Lennart Johanssons goblet. Stefan Selakovic became league top goalscorer with 15 goals as Halmstads BK ended 7th place, R.S.C. Anderlecht was to strong in the UEFA Champions League 2001–02 third qualifying round and then Sporting Clube de Portugal in the second round of the UEFA Cup 2001–02, Tom Prahl left Halmstads BK for Allsvenska rival Malmö FF, he was replaced by former Swedish international player Jonas Thern. 2002 started extremely bad for Halmstads BK as after 15 rounds it lay dead last, but a spell of 11 games undefeated saw Halmstads BK get saved from relegation. During the 2003 season Halmstad had a chance for a medal until the end of the season where Halmstads BK lost 7 of the 8 last games and ended up in 9th place, Jonas Thern decided to leave Halmstads BK during the autumn and assistant manager Janne Andersson became new manager. Halmstads BK was 36 minutes from winning their fifth Allsvenska title after leading Allsvenskan most of the season, but only managed 1-1 against IFK Göteborg in the last game, while Malmö FF, on the same point prior to the last match, managed to win with 1-0 against IF Elfsborg, Markus Rosenberg, on loan from Malmö FF, became league top goalscorer with 14 goals. 2005 became a bad year for Halmstads BK as they struggled to a 10th place, Gunnar Heidar Thorvaldsson became league top goalscorer with 16 goals, however in Europe things went a bit better as Halmstads BK managed to qualify for the new group stage in the UEFA Cup 2005–06 after winning on away goal against last year runners-up Sporting Clube de Portugal, however Halmstads BK failde to take a single point in the group and only scored 1 goal. 2006 was much like the year before and Halmstads BK didn't score until the 7th match of the season when defender Per Johansson (footballer born 1978) scored the only goal of the match against Örgryte IS, Halmstads BK ended in 11th place. 2007 started promising and Halmstads BK was one of Halmstads BK fighting for the Allsvenska title until the 18 round, in the game against IFK Göteborg, Finnish goalkeeper Magnus Bahne got injured and missed the rest of the season, Kazakh goalkeeper David Loriya was brought in, but in his 7 games Halmstads BK failed to win a single one and in the last game, away against Helsingborgs IF, Halmstads BK lost with 0-9, the second biggest defeat in Halmstads BK history, Halmstads BK ended up in 7th place.Image:Kvastarna Lens 2005.JPG, France, prior to a game against RC Lens in UEFA Cup 2005-06.

Supporters

Halmstads BKs main supporter group is BollKlubben Support, it was earlier known as Kvastarna (eng: The Brooms), and where created in 1995, they are located in the center of the no seat section on Örjans Vall during the home games.

Halmstads BK have an average of 4000-6000 spectators when playing home, when playing teams like Djurgårdens IF, IFK Göteborg or Malmö FF then audience can rise to 8000-10000 people, however much because of the away supporters.

Prior to the Allsvenskan 2009 Kvastarna where dissolved and a new supporter group where created, named BollKlubben Support.

Stadium

Halmstads BK plays it home matches on Örjans Vall, which they share together with local rivals IS Halmia.
However since Örjans Vall is an old stadium, built in 1922, it doesn't meet the present European demands for stadiums, forcing Halmstads BK to play their European games on Olympia (stadium), Helsingborg, or at Ullevi, Göteborg.

Örjans Vall was the site of 2 games during the 1958 FIFA World Cup, Northern Ireland - Czechoslovakia and Argentina - Northern Ireland.

In later years, demands for a new stadium have groven, but nothing have been decided yet.

Match programmes and newspaper

In 2006 all Swedish clubs in Allsvenskan was given an offer from Aftonbladet to print their match programmes, aside from AIK Fotboll, Djurgårdens IF Fotboll and Hammarby IF, who signed a deal with newspaper competitor Expressen. Halmstads BK rejected the offer and chose to print their own match program, making them currently the only club in the top league with their own match programme.

Halmstads BK also print a minor newspaper know as Tidningen HBK (eng: Newspaper HBK), witch contains interviews with players, fans and other people conneceted to the club. It comes out as a supplement to the local newspaper Hallandsposten. It is also available to download on the clubs homepage.

In popular culture

Swedish comedians Hans Alfredson and Tage Danielsson, also known as Hasse och Tage, made an act about former HBK manager Roy Hodgson when Halmstads BK won Allsvenskan in 1976, known as Fotbollstränare Bob Lindeman (characters) (eng: Footballcoach Bob Lindeman).

As of 29 July 2009.

Out on loan

Youth squad

Youth squad players that can be called up to the main squad.

Technical staff

Noted players

See also: :Category:Halmstads BK players

- Peter Larsson (footballer born 1984) (1999-2008)
- Emra Tahirović (2006-2007)
- Dušan Đurić (2002-2007)
- Magnus Svensson (footballer) (1994-1997, 2002-2006)
- Joel Borgstrand (1991-2006)
- Torbjörn Arvidsson (1989-2005)
- Markus Rosenberg (2004)
- Mikael Nilsson (born 1978) (2000-2004)
- Robert Andersson(footballer born 1971) (1993-1997, 1999-2003)
- Petter Hansson (1998-2002)
- Håkan Svensson (1990-2002)
- Michael Svensson (1998-2001)
- Stefan Selakovic (1996-2001)
- Mats Lilienberg (1997-1998)
- Fredrik Ljungberg (1994-1998)
- Niclas Alexandersson (1988-1995)
- Peter Larsson (footballer born 1961) (1982-83)
- Mats Jingblad (1976-1987)
- Rutger Backe (1972-1981)
- Sylve Bengtsson (1947-1948, 1953-1960, 1967)

- Eduardo Delani (2005-2006)

- Magnus Bahne (2007-present)
- Tim Sparv (2007-present)

- Yaw Preko (2004-2006)

Holland:
- Frank Schinkels (1981-1983)

- Gunnar Heiðar Þorvaldsson (2004-2006)
- Eggert Gudmundsson (1982-1986)

- David Loria (2007)

- Tomas Žvirgždauskas (2002-present)

- Artim Sakiri (1997-1998)
:
- - Winners (4): 1976, 1979, 1997, 2000

- Allsvenskan:
- - Winners (4): 1976, 1979, 1997, 2000
- - Runners-up (2): 1954–55, 2004

- Svenska Cupen:
- - Winners (1): 1994–95

- Division 1:
- - Winners (11): 1932–33, 1938–1939, 1940–1941, 1941–1942, 1946–1947, 1953–1954, 1964, 1971, 1973, 1988, 1992

Records

- Most appearances, Allsvenskan: 306, Torbjörn Arvidsson (1989-2004)
- Most goals scored, Allsvenskan: 77, Rutger Backe (1972-1981)
- Biges victory: 12-0 vs. Fässbergs IK, 7 September 1968
- Biges victory, Allsvenskan: 9-0 vs. Västerås SK, 23 October 1955
- Biges defeat: 0-12 vs Malmö FF, 3 June 1943
- Highest attendance (before renovation): 19 783 vs. Djurgårdens IF Fotboll, 10 June 1955
- Highest attendance (after renovation): 16 867 vs. IFK Göteborg, 30 October 2004

AIK, Djurgårdens IF, Elfsborg, GAIS, Gefle IF, GIF Sundsvall, Halmstads BK, Hammarby IF, Helsingborgs IF, IFK Göteborg, IFK Norrköping, Kalmar FF, Ljungskile SK, Malmö FF, Trelleborgs FF, Örebro SK