Allsvenskan continues to suffer from mass scandals.
Now football representatives are sounding the alarm about a new escalation of violence in the stands.
It has nothing to do with support culture. There are people who want to create chaos. A bunch of hooligans, head of Sef Mats Enquist thunders.
In the 85th minute everything went to hell. Then the intense, hot and exciting football derby between Djurgaarden and AIK turned into what the police call violent riots.
Mats Johnson, Djurgarden’s director of events, talks about the start of the runway scandal on Sunday.
– A boom lights up and then explodes. Next we have a escalation situation in the first stage. There will be more people who will join in and it will become an unwanted situation, he says and continues:
– The carpet strikes on the West Wing, in Section 103 or 104. In the northwest corner (where the park ranger was seated). What we can be sure of at the moment is the starting point. I actually don’t know if it’s AIK members or animal farmers who are throwing it away.
In plain words: after the first explosion, fireworks began to circulate between different groups of supporters in the stands. The first Bengal was thrown from the heel of the AIK towards the zoo section. Djurgarden’s supporters responded by throwing large amounts of firebombs and powerful shots at goal.
– It’s disastrous. There are families with children sitting there, there are little boys and girls, Magnus Ericsson told Sportbladet.
The result: chaos, the match was canceled and a large group of “normal” spectators left Tele2 Arena.
– It is sad that a small part of the approximately 27,000 people who were there should have been destroyed in this way. Before that, the match and standings was a good show for Swedish football. Now, it’s up to the unions and the police force to work with this clique that does this kind of thing, says match agent Christopher Loveberg.
It could have been played entirely in front of empty stands
In cooperation with the two clubs and the police authority, he took the decision to suspend the match temporarily.
– Troubles of which everyone can see that there are too many will be included in my report to the national representative. But I want to say that the police and the regulator had a good influence on their actions during the break. There was a good dialogue between all the parties and the ambition was to be able to finish the match which we did.
Mats Enquist is the general secretary of the elite Swedish soccer team, and he was deeply saddened by the incident.
It was the closest we’ve had a league game canceled entirely since we started our new way of working. I don’t remember anything this serious since the cup match between Gais and IFK Gothenburg (February 2021). This way: If the slightest thing happened after the outage, Djurgården-AIK would have stopped. It had to be played in front of empty stands, and I wasn’t involved in that.
Ola Osterling, a police press spokeswoman, announced Sunday evening that no one had been arrested so far.
– We classify what happened in Tele2 Arena as a violent riot, he says and continues:
– I don’t know yet if any of the police officers were subjected to violence. But on the other hand, it is the security guards who have been subjected to violence. Flashlights and flares were thrown. But I don’t know yet if anyone is infected. Therefore, we have now started identification work to find those who participated in this violent riot.
A kind of terraced culture
It’s not the first time we’ve seen trouble in the Allsvenskan stands this season. Riots, fights and throwing of Bengals took place in a large number of matches throughout the year.
Many within Swedish football are now warning that the Swedish stands have been partially changed after the pandemic with more elements of violence and chaos.
After the pandemic, we see a new kind of advocate and stand-up culture that we must be prepared for and deal with. We’ve lost two years of great education that we need to make up somehow. We’re in the final phase of the Allsvenskan and so it’s almost always the case if you look historically the major disruptions happen towards the end of the season. It’s not the reason, says Mats Johnson of Djurgården, it’s just an observation.
He gives several examples.
– More things have been asked, and our use of language has changed somewhat from what it was before the pandemic. There is a coarse use of language and a greater number of things being thrown in at the internal level. We have an upward trend in the use of fireworks and it’s something we have to work on.
“Totally destroyed and sank”
Mats Enquist of Sef, whose organization represents elite clubs in Allsvenskan and Superettan, shares that photo.
What is the reason for this?
– It’s very hard to guess. But we noticed that more loose gatherings entered the stands. The pandemic put an end to the supporter culture, but when we started again, I saw new groups. There have been new kinds of violence in the stands in Sweden and Europe recently.
You try to manage and curb these situations. It’s unusual for the police to enter matches at Allsvenskan, but I’m thankful they did today. It was such a dangerous situation. Now, like I said, prosecution and identification are the next steps. If you do, you will not be allowed to go to football.
Enquist condemns recent public scandals but maintains that a minority behave badly in the stands.
– I’m frustrated about this. We have had a wonderful development with a supportive culture in all the essentials. But these behaviors were completely destroyed and subsided. It has nothing to do with support culture. There are people who want to create chaos. A bunch of troublemakers. No other word: these troublemakers.
‘The fine is pointless’
So how does Swedish football want to solve the problem? The model currently in use is to try to avoid “collective punishment” and instead identify, prosecute and suspend individuals responsible for crimes in the arenas.
Our way of working is to find people who do it. Previously, there were more fines for clubs, but we felt it had become pointless. So we try to avoid it, unless the organizer fails, if the club fails in its work. Just because someone throws flares doesn’t necessarily mean the club has done something wrong, says Mats Enquist.
Does it work better with suspension only rather than suspension and fines on associations?
– Yes I think so. We hope that in this work the cooperation with the police has become much better. It’s better now than before. There’s no working method that solves all problems, but what’s happening in the stands now was unavoidable with the old system either, says Enquist.
Mats Johnson of Djurgården does not believe that the association collapsed in the organization.
This kind of accident is not the norm, but it is something we need to address. Today we have staff with whom we are still satisfied and it has been well adapted. But when people decide one thing and want to do something destructive with their support, we are second to the ball, no matter how many guards we have.
Mats Enquist is deeply concerned about the impact this kind of stand-up scandal will have on the image of Swedish football.
Of course, this is negative for Swedish football. And he is right. This has happened! In football we see a lot and that’s a beautiful thing. When this kind of thing happens, it can also be observed.
The Secretary General of Sef concludes with a call.
– We have to deal with it, this behavior should not gain a foothold.
Many who came home from Tele2 Arena on Sunday may be wondering if they haven’t already.