List of Swedish Football Champions

List Of Swedish Football Champions

Swedish football champions (Swedish: Svenska mästare i fotboll) is a title held by the winners of the highest Swedish football league played each year, Allsvenskan. IFK Göteborg holds the record of most titles with 18 Swedish championships. After winning the 2012 Allsvenskan, IF Elfsborg are the reigning Swedish football champions. The title has been contested since 1896 in varying forms of competition. The first Swedish Champions, Örgryte IS, were declared in 1896 when the club won the cup tournament Svenska Mästerskapet. This happened before there existed any Swedish national association, which was not created until 1904. The winners of Svenska Mästerskapet between 1896 and 1904 have retroactively been declared holders of the title by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF). After the creation of the SvFF, the title continued to be held by the winners of Svenska Mästerskapet until 1925, even though a Swedish first national league, Svenska Serien, started in 1910. Svenska Mästerskapet was discontinued in 1925.

In 1924–25, a new Swedish national league was created, Allsvenskan, but the Swedish Champions title wasn't awarded to the winners of that league until 1930–31. Since then, the winners of Allsvenskan are considered Swedish Champions, with a few exceptions. Between 1982 and 1990, the title was given to the winners of a play-off held after Allsvenskan was finished, and the following two years, 1991 and 1992, the title was given to the winners of Mästerskapsserien, a continuation league with the best teams from Allsvenskan.

The current trophy, Lennart Johanssons Pokal, has been awarded since 2001 with Hammarby IF being the first winners. Johansson himself handed out the trophy in Sundsvall on 27 October 2001. The first trophy which was in use from 1904 to 2000 was named von Rosen's Pokal after the first chairman of the Swedish FA Clarence von Rosen. However in November 2000 it was discovered that von Rosen had been active in the Swedish national socialist movement during World War II which prompted the FA to give up using the old trophy.