A long way to AIK: Teenage dreams of Stockholm football, so hard to beat

Words: Reece Mullen

Images: Reece Mullen

When they were teenagers, most lads my age spent their free time kicking about the streets with their mates, playing Call of Duty or browsing certain websites that I’ll leave up to others’ imagination.

Everyone I knew had a football obsession in one way or another. Either playing FIFA non stop, obsessing over Celtic or Rangers (or both in 2012) or trying (and failing) to go pro.

Instead, I was fixated with watching videos on Youtube about what was happening in stands across Europe, particularly their vibrant tifos and ultra culture.

Video upon video, watching Copa90 with Eli and Martino taking you to all corners of Europe and beyond showing a type of football atmosphere that makes British football look like yer grandma’s wake.

From there I had to find more and it lead me down a rabbit hole of videos of different countries.

One such video really struck me and was from the Stockholm Derby where Djurgården were away at the national stadium the Råsunda playing their bitter rivals AIK.

I questioned why, of all countries, would Sweden have such a wild supporter culture?

©Reece Mullen/ Terrace Edition. AIK vs Hammarby.

Then the video started, showing TV highlights of the first 13 minutes of the match.

Nothing.

The two clubs were protesting the Swedish FA and sitting in silence. But, as the clock counted to the ten minute mark the crowd slowly started to rise until it hit 10:00.

Both ends of the stadium burst into two tifos and huge roars followed by the chanting of “AIK” to the sound of ‘Na Na Hey Hey’.

From there I was truly mesmerised and watched this video on repeat whenever I could. I added AIK to the top of my of places to visit for football when I was older.

Thirteen years later and it was finally time to visit AIK and their incredible atmosphere I had hyped myself up for for all those years. This also a derby against their other city rivals, Hammarby.

Getting there from Stockholm’s T-Centralen metro station, the train filled up with more and more black and gold until it burst out onto Solna Centrum, right outside the Råsunda Stadium, except there was no Råsunda.

The stadium was knocked down and now flats occupy the area.

It meant walking through what used to be where the pitch stood to get to our destination, its ultra modern replacement, the Strawberry Arena.

The fans marched through the suburban streets in a quiet fashion but not long till one of the Gnaget (AIK nickname meaning rodent) fans cracked out the pyro, two black and yellow smoke bombs and a flare, waving it outside an old granny’s house.

A couple of minutes later, you’re met with a huge black, metallic spaceship. My eyes couldn’t really register what I saw as a stadium rather looking like the other part of the shopping centre next door.

As soon as you were in though, it was all stadium, 50,000 seats in three tiers all the way round and both ends near full with their ultras in fine voice 45 minutes before kick-off

I was even more excited to see former Celtic player John Guidetti on the bench, most notably for having a song that ridiculed Rangers demise but his highlight will always be a last minute equaliser for Celtic against Inter Milan in the Europa League.

I was praying he’d come on for another goal like that.

When the teams came out the long anticipated tifos appeared.

Hammarby, occupying the full south stand like any away derby team should, unveiled a huge green and white banner with ‘HAMMARBY’ draping the middle tier into the lower with huge green and white flags and pyro adding to it.

The AIK effort was nothing short of incredible. A huge pulley revealed a large display of white, black and yellow playing cards with a caricature of their club legend Putte Kock and his iconic cigar pictured on a white playing card and part of a deck of black and yellow cards.

Kock was know for being one of the best bridge players in his later years.

Black and yellow scarves surrounded the rest of the stadium as the AIK support belted out their anthem.

What came after was an art in itself. A second tifo was revealed, with Putte Kock showing his suit off with AIK as the ace and players adorned on the other ‘cards on the table’ with the stand now flying individual flags with suits in the clubs colours.

©Reece Mullen/ Terrace Edition. AIK tifo vs Hammarby.

The first-half was a competitive one but was outweighed by the incredible intensity of the crowd. Swedish people can sometimes be quite introverted so naturally, football is their release and the chants were almost military like, everyone knew their cue.

My excitement was briefly cut short when the guy behind me was surprised to see I had a camera sticking out and warned me that some people might not like it too much, only for him to ask for a photo of him and his mates at half time.

He asked what I thought of this atmosphere, obviously I said it was incredible. He replied “You’re going to see some serious shit soon!”.

Half-time had come to an end but the AIK end were far from done. A third tifo was unveiled. A huge banner behind the goals reading ‘1891’, their formation date was adorned with billows of yellow smoke.

The military aspect came into play again with a bang. Large streaks of fireworks shot out like missiles towards the sky.

Inevitably, this delayed the start of the second half but like my new friend had said earlier, I was going to see some serious shit.

Both AIK and Hammarby proceeded to bring out full washing lines with their rivals scarfs, shirts and flags on them and burn them with pyro. Police immediately ran down each stairwell and the ref took off the players.

Game delayed for half an hour. This didn’t let up any of the atmosphere with both fans giving it full pelt.

Eventually 4pm came and the match restarted with one change for AIK. But apart from that the players went back to it as if nothing had happened.

The clock ticked towards full-time and nothing of note had happened yet on the pitch despite everything happening off it.

But then the moment came and made the crowd erupt. The 92nd minute, AIK got their goal and the limbs ensued. It was the man himself who came on after the delay. John Guidetti.

©Reece Mullen/ Terrace Edition. AIK goal vs Hammarby.

I was pulled apart by limb after limb, embracing random Swedes like they were my own blood. Just like the video, the crowd burst into ‘Na Na Hey Hey’ with “AIK” sang in the verse, repeating it over and over.

The match was over and a scrap ensued between both teams at full-time with both having players red carded.

It didn’t matter as the team ran towards to the ultras who serenaded each other with Guidetti leading the chants, including his own song made by the fans.

A coveted tick had been achieved on this bucketlist of mine and with that I felt it had taken me thirteen years to transcend from my bedroom chair to the stands of Scandinavia’s largest stadium.

I felt the play of this matchday had been specifically written for my teenage self to see when I was older and because of that, these scenes will stay with me till my bones creak.

But one thing is true. I no longer question the Swede’s passion for supporting their clubs.