Gefle IF

This article is about Gefle IF's football section. For other sections of the club, seeGefle IF (disambiguation).

Gefle IF

Full name	Gefle Idrottsförening
Founded	5 December 1882(1882-12-05)asGefle SK
Ground	Gavlevallen,Gävle
Capacity	6,500
Chairman	Malin Rogström
Head coach	Mikael Bengtsson
League	Superettan
2023	Superettan,9th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Gefle Idrottsförening,also known simply asGefle IF,Gefle(pronounced[ˈjɛ̌ːvlɛ],as if spelledGävle), or locallyGif(pronounced[ˈɡɪfː]), are a Swedish professionalfootball clubbased inGävle.The club is affiliated withGestriklands Fotbollförbundand play their home games atGavlevallensince the 2015 season.The club colours are blue and white. Formed on 5 December 1882 asGefle SK,the club have played fifteen seasons in Sweden's highest football leagueAllsvenskan,with the first season being1933–34.The club is currently playing inSuperettan,the second tier of Swedish football.

History

Gefle IF was originally formed as Gefle SK in December 1882 but changed the name to its current form only months after.The name "Gefle" is one of the old variations of spelling for the townGävlewhich was used from the 1500s to the early 1900s.The multisports clubmainly focused onwinter sportsduring its early years, withrowingbeing their only summertime activity. In 1896 the club started having regular football training sessions under the guidance of an English accountant by the name of Robert Carrick. Born inEngland,he had grown up in Gävle but returned to his homeland for a few years as a student. There he had picked up the new sport which he brought back with him to Sweden and introduced at Gefle IF.

The Gefle IF team of 1902 with Robert Carrick holding the Rosenska Pokalen-trophy.

The club found early success at the turn of the century by winning one of the biggest swedish cups at the time,Rosenska Pokalen,three times.Due to high travel costs Gefle declined to participate in the other major swedish football tournament,Svenska Mästerskapet,during those years. Therefore, the clubsgolden generationnever got the chance to play against the nations other dominant team at the time,Örgryte ISfromGothenburg.

An ever-increasing number of football clubs were starting up in the early 1900s and Gefle were not able to maintain its dominant position among all the new competition. When the first swedish leagueSvenska Serienstarted in 1910 Gefle IF were not included and when they entered into the second tier of the league system in1912–13they finished dead last.

A chart showing the progress of Gefle IF through theswedish football league system.The different shades of gray represent league divisions.

During the rest of the 20th century the club mostly moved up and down between the second and third level of theSwedish football league system.They only managed two short lived stints at the top levelAllsvenskan,one in the early 1930s and one in the early 1980s. Between the 1979 and 1981 season Gefle IF andBrynäs IFmerged and played under the name Gefle IF/Brynäs, but the merger split up again in 1982.In 2004 managerKenneth Rosénwas finally able to bring the club back to the top division after finishing second in the2004 Superettan.Rosén had missed part of the previous season due to illness and after the club was promoted he again had to be hospitalized and died soon after.Long-time club servantPer "Pelle" Olssonimmediately stepped in and took over as manager during the off-season and managed to keep the club at the top level. Olsson would remain as the manager until 2014 when he was announced as Djurgårdens IF:s new manager.

Supporters

Gefle IF supporters during an away trip in 2012 toRåsunda Stadiumwhere they played againstAIK.

Due to their status as a second or third division club the Gefle supporters were late starters in creating an organized supporters club. After some fledgeling attempts in the mid-1990s when the interest in traveling to away games increased, the "Sky Blues" was finally founded in 2001 as the official supporter group.

In 2009 Gefle IF caused controversy among its fans by changing the sky blue home shirt to white, the color which the club played in during its first 80 years. This caused groups of fans to boycott the singing sections of the home stadium. Eventually before the start of the 2011 season a compromise was reached where they kept the white shirt for their home kit but brought back the sky blue as their new away kit.Further compromise was then reached for the2015 Allsvenskanseason when a new sky blue and white striped kit was launched, inspired by theArgentina national football team.A decision that satisfied both the fans and the club.

Stadium

Gefle IF played atStrömvallen,built in 1923, for 92 years. On 30 May 2013 it was announced that the club had agreed withGävle Municipalityto build a new stadium in the Sätraåsen area of Gävle. The stadium,Gavlevallen,was ready for the 2015 season.

European Cups history

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2006–07	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round	Llanelli	1–2	0–0	1–2
2010–11	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	NSÍ Runavík	2–1	2–0	4–1
		Second qualifying round	FC Dinamo Tbilisi	1–2	1–2	2–4
2013–14	UEFA Europa League	First qualifying round	Narva Trans	5–1	3–0	8–1
		Second qualifying round	Anorthosis	4–0	0–3	4–3
		Third qualifying round	Qarabağ FK	0–2	0–1	0–3

None of Gefle's appearances in European competition have been due to cup wins or their league positions (11th, 10th and 11th in the respective years). Instead they have qualified through theFair Play initiativeeach time.

Players

First-team squad

As of 16 July 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules.Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	SWE	Oscar Jonsson
2	DF	SWE	Izak Ädel
3	DF	SWE	Jesper Merbom Adolfsson
4	DF	SWE	Philip Ekman
5	DF	SWE	Niclas Håkansson
6	MF	SWE	Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt
7	MF	SWE	Adrian Edqvist
8	MF	SWE	Anton Lundin
9	FW	SWE	Jacob Hjelte
10	FW	SYR	Antonio Yakoub
11	FW	SWE	Leo Englund
14	MF	SWE	Sebastian Friman
16	DF	SWE	Kevin Persson
18	MF	SWE	Constantino Capotondi

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
19	DF	SWE	Christoffer Aspgren
20	MF	SWE	Albin Hjelm
21	DF	SWE	Nils Eriksson
22	GK	SWE	Noel Sallum
23	FW	SWE	Alvin Lättman
24	DF	RWA	York Rafael
27	GK	SWE	Tobias Johansson
29	DF	DEN	Martin Rauschenberg
37	MF	SWE	Samuel Adrian
44	MF	ESP	Iu Ranera
—	DF	SWE	Gustav Friberg(on loan fromHalmstads BK)
—	MF	SWE	Henrik Bellman
—	GK	SWE	Mathias Nilsson

Managers

Source:

Pelle Olssonwas in charge of Gefle IF for a large part of the past two decades.

• Robert Carrick(1900–07)
• Sven Klang(1933–34)
• Erik Nilsson(1935)
• Václav Simon(1945–46)
• Erik Norin (1960)
• Matts Larsson (1961)
• Sven Bergsten (1963)
• Sigge Parling(1965)
• Jörgen Stark (1970–71)
• Lennart Söderberg(1972–75)
• Peter Antoine(1976)
• Rune Karlsson (1977)
• Bo Andersson (1978–79)
• Leif Widén(1980–81)
• Stefan Lundin(1982–83)
• Björn Bolling(1984)
• Bo Andersson (1985–86)
• Lennart Söderberg(1987–89)
• Marek Skurczyński(1990–92)
• Stefan Lundin(1992–96)
• Pelle Olsson(1996–02)
• Kenneth Rosén(2003–04)
• Pelle Olsson(2005–13)
• Roger Sandberg(2014–2016)
• Thomas Andersson (2016–2017)
• Poya Asbaghi(2017)
• Johan Mjällby(2018)
• Marcus Bengtsson(2018–2019)
• Mikael Bengtsson(2020–present)

Achievements

League

• Superettan:
  • Runners-up (1):2004
• Division 1 Norra:
  • Winners (1):2022
  • Runners-up (1):1995

Cups

• Svenska Cupen:
  • Runners-up (1):2006
• Rosenska Pokalen:
  • Winners (3):1899, 1900, 1902

External links

• Gefle IF– Official site
• Sky Blues– Official supporter club site
• Himlen är ljusblå– Supporter site
• Gefle Blue Boys– Ultras site