AIK Fotboll

AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning "the public" or "general sports club"), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The club was founded 1891 in Stockholm and the football department was formed in 1896. AIK's home ground is Friends Arena, located in Solna in central Stockholm County.
League champions 2018, AIK has 12 championship titles and is third in the all-time Allsvenskan table. The club holds the record for having played the most seasons in the Swedish top flight. In addition, in this century AIK is the club that has finished top three in Allsvenskan the most times (11), and finished top three six times in a row (2013–2018). AIK is consequently the Swedish club that has qualified for UEFA club competitions the most times this century.
Affiliated with the Stockholm Football Association, AIK is the only side from Stockholm to have qualified for the group stage of a UEFA competition; the club reached the quarter-finals of the 1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, qualified for the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League group stage, and competed in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage.
Kit.
The first shirt is black and the second shirt is white. Shorts are white or, on rare occasions, black. Socks are striped in black and yellow; second socks are all white. A yellow third jersey was used in 2004, an orange third jersey was used in 2007, a dark-blue third jersey was used in 2010 and a grey commemorative third jersey was used in 2016. A dark-blue first shirt was used for the 2017–2018 UEFA Europa League qualification campaign.
When Adidas was the kit provider, new kits were launched every even year. Nike, however, releases a new AIK kit every year, before the start of the new season.
Apart from the brand of their kit provider Nike, AIK has the logos of the following sponsors visible on their shirt and shorts: Notar, a real-estate agent; Stadium, a sporting-goods retail chain; German automakers Volkswagen; and league sponsors Svenska Spel, a government-owned gambling company (whose logo is on the right sleeve of the shirts of all Allsvenskan teams).
Stadium.
Since the 2013 season, AIK play their home games at the Nationalarenan (known for sponsorship reasons as "Friends Arena" until 2023), which also houses the Swedish national football team. The decision which arena would replace Råsunda, the club's home up until the 2012 season, was made by a vote of the club's members, held in 2011, which resulted in a large majority favoring Nationalarenan over Tele2 Arena.
Support.
Rivalries.
AIK's main rival is Djurgården, also formed in 1891 in Stockholm, just three weeks after AIK. Widely considered the fiercest rivalry in Swedish – and arguably also Nordic – football, the fixture between the clubs is known as Tvillingderbyt ("the Twin derby"). AIK also maintains a strong animosity towards the third major Stockholm side Hammarby. The club's biggest rival outside the Stockholm urban area is IFK Göteborg, followed by Malmö FF.
Attendances.
In 2006 AIK had an average attendance of over 21,000, the highest in Sweden In 2007 AIK had an average attendance of over 20,000. AIK have had the highest average attendance 39 times, more than any other club in Sweden. AIK finished the 2013 season with an average attendance of 18,900, the highest number in Scandinavia. That was also the first season with the new arena. In 2018, AIK broke the record for most sold tickets in an Allsvenskan game in the derby against Hammarby two weeks before the game was played.
Club culture.
The club's entrance music and hymn is "Å vi e AIK" (meaning "Oh we are AIK"), a Swedish-lyric version (written in the 1980s) of a 1971 song, "The Last Farewell", originally performed by its co-writer, the British-Kenyan folk singer Roger Whittaker. The recording that has been used as AIK's entrance music since the mid 00s was released in 2002, an arrangement somewhat closer to Elvis Presley's 1976 cover of the song.
Players.
Retired numbers.
1 – Fans of the club
AIK in Europe.
UEFA Team rank.
The following list ranks the current position of AIK in UEFA ranking:
As of 25 March 2021.