Our match shirt this season pays tribute to the 80 years of success since Malmö FF won its first Swedish League title in 1944. Inspired by a time when the football team and the working class city of Malmö grew and rose to the top together, and with it creating a strong mentality that hard work leads to great achievements.

A winning mentality that’s now become equivalent with Malmö FF and made it Sweden’s most successful football club in both domestic and international competitions. With 23 Swedish Championships, 16 Swedish Cup titles, leaders of the all-time Swedish league table, regular participation in Europe’s top competitions and the only Swedish club to ever reach the final of the European Cup, today’s Champions League. 

While in Sweden, Malmö FF are a dominate force, in Europe we face other obstacles by not having the same means and financial resources as the majority of our opponents. However, with our winning culture and our incredible supporters who make Eleda Stadion a fortress, Malmö are constantly beating the odds to make what might seem impossible, start feel like the norm. 

European cup final

In 1979 Malmö FF reached the European Cup final with a semi-amateur team. Every game leading up to the final being in themselves historic achievements, by a Malmö team combined almost only by local players from the city and lead by the Englishman Bob Houghton. After keeping six clean sheets over eight matches, Malmö made it to the final in Munich where they faced Nottingham Forrest. 

However it was a very weakened Malmö side that went out to the final. Bosse Larsson, the big star of the team and today considered the greatest Malmö FF player of all time, had tore his ACL during the quarter-finals. Another key-player Roy Andersson, father of our former player and current sporting director Daniel Andersson and our former player Patrik Andersson, woke up from an examination days before the final to the news that he wouldn’t be able to play for six months. The surgeon had found an injury on his kneecap and proceeded to have it operated on. While captain Staffan Tapper broke his toe in training the day before the final, he still went out to play and managed 34 minutes before the pain became too much. 

Without those key-players Malmö still went out and fought tooth and nail against a very strong Nottingham Forest, but the English side became too much as the heroic Malmö side lost 1-0. Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough afterwards told journalists that he had been surprised by the effort of their opponents ”I’m going to be honest, they [Malmö] played with full commitment tonight, full marks for the Malmö side. They really stretched us tonight,” he said.

The legacy from the 1979 side has lived on at Malmö and their fairytale journey inspired new generations to go against the odds in Europe.

When the impossible became the expected

In 2014 Malmö FF faced RB Salzburg for a spot in the Champions League. By then it had been over a decade since a Swedish team played in the Champions League group stage. With the significant growth of the financial aspects of modern football in Europe while we’ve held strong to the 51% rule in Swedish football, qualifying for a Champions League group stage was now seen as something impossible to achieve. Financially, Salzburg came from another world and during the first leg in Austria they had outplayed Malmö FF, even though the result luckily was only 2-1.

From the outside it was seen as an impossible mission for Malmö to turn the tie around but inside the club, among the players and its supporters the belief was very different. Staffan Tapper the captain from 1979 proclaimed on Swedish TV ”Salzburg… who are they?  We are Malmö FF!” It was with a similar attitude the team captained by Markus Rosenberg entered the pitch. Malmö wouldn’t only turn the tie around but terrorized Salzburg, making Malmö look like the bigger team of the two. A comfortable 3-0 victory, a night never to be forgotten and the start of what has now been over a decade of going against logic and beating the odds in Europe. 

Reaching the Champions League group stage on three occasions and the Europa League on four, including the knock-out phase twice. Something that not too long ago was considered impossible is now expected.