As usual, I arrived in good time at Gamla Ullevi, and my bag was checked in the entrance where players, VIPs and the media would enter. There is a ban on bags, and then our bags that work at the games are always checked.
Or as one could also say: the discipline that football ultras groups avoid (?), journalists have to live with instead. At least the Blåvitt supporters had run straight into the stands with their bags past all controls, SVT reported the hour before kick-off.
Well, my bag was accepted, and although I wasn’t the first one to the news coffee, at least I was early. As usual, when Blåvitt slips in the table, a large buffet is offered. All to at least keep the residents of the town in a good mood in a stressful time. There was sliced watermelon, apple cake with custard and various snacks. Four strong extra…f’let four strong fours.
I settled for two cups of cucumber water. If the goal is to be the fittest 50-year-old in Sweden, there are no shortcuts – even when balanced blood sugar is an important part of the preparation in this profession. It is important not to for frustrated when the news focus shifts from football to riots. That is, when I manage to delete a half-finished football column in order to put new paper in the machine, and instead focus on views, interruptions and a forever long wait for a final product.
Who the hell became a sports journalist to write about bangers, emergency flares and fireworks?
There’s probably nothing I’m more tired of than bang shots. Yes, in that case it is the ultras supporters who plan to smuggle, light and throw the bangers inside football stadiums to disrupt and destroy matches football.
These ultras groups hide in the crowd, and they are also hidden so that they do not take responsibility for their actions. The hide itself is at the heart of the sorry state Swedish football has been in. Hiding in the stands is not Allsvenskan worthy, and legislators, police and clubs have to deal with it. Tighten the penalties for masking, stop the games when people in the audience are joking. That’s my suggestion.
Strengthen the penalties for masking
After mingling among old colleagues such as Simon Bank from Sportbladet and Oskar Månsson from Fotboll Sthlm in the press room (good visit!) it was time to take a seat in the media center.
In a discussion in Bengali on SVT last week, Calle Schulman said for me, you will be sitting soft, nice and comfortable on padded seats in the press center, but Schulman never visited Gamla Ullevi press center, that case is clear. Anyone who’s done it knows that you basically have to be an acrobat to maneuver your way between hard plastic chairs and angular table tops.
In the heel AIK tifo with the text “On a day in November“, wink to the Blåvittklakkan verse”One day in October, at Café Olivedal, a peer society is created, which we love today“. Just as AIK was referring to on 1 November 2009, when Gnaget beat Blåvitt 2–1 in the most classic golden final in Swedish football. Yes, they had even copy the IFK verse, but with different words.
From the heels of IFK, they responded with a more navel-gazing tifo that drew attention to the 20th birthday of one of the ultra groups. It was burning and smoking, but no worse than that.
On the field, both teams were very focused on defending their respective penalty areas. Neither team chose to attack with many players. Blåvitt’s performance was a stark contrast to that against Gais in the victory derby the previous week. AIK was generally vacant to represent a top team. It was a poor football game in terms of quality.
After almost a quarter of an hour, the announcer announced that BP had taken the lead against IFK Norrköping, a favorable result for Blåvitt in the bottom battle (even if “Peking” co -same later). At the same time, the announcer asked the audience to stop lighting flares (emergency flares), which a supporter never listened to. The Bengals continued to shoot in both heels despite the hopes of the announcer “thanks for the cooperation”.
A spark was needed
As for the game, it felt like it needed – pardon the expression – a spark to get the game off. 20 minutes without a scoring chance for either side became 30 minutes without scoring chances.
Then, in the 31st minute of play, AIK got a long throw-in, without blue and white on the second ball, Eskil Edh, two chances to finish. He didn’t get a real hit either, but the ball went into the net through teammate Dino Besirovic. Soccer goals can be beautiful and ugly. This was quite an ugly football goal, to be fair.
But spark was not the goal. Not in any direction.
Instead, a loud protest ensued where sections of the heels took turns singing the well-worn “Police – Football killers” chant. As the rest of the field was largely silent, he died quickly. Far from the power that was reached during the protests against the conditional staircase. Today, the living room didn’t have a seat with him in the same way.
The second half also started with a protest of some kind, or whatever that represented. Scores of flames were lit at IFK’s heels, but they went out. Meanwhile, the game went on. Laurs Skjellerup had an open equalizing chance early on, but he kicked a hole in the air.
It was such an evening for Blåvitt, another man. Because although IFK managed to equalize (Sebastian Ohlsson), Benjamin Tiedemann headed in AIK’s winning goal in the sixth extra minute. It may not have been entirely fair, but that is also the story of Blåvitt’s 2024 season – goals conceded in extra time.
With some speed, I think most people can agree that it was a good evening inside the arena anyway. Football had to take center stage. The game went on without interruption. It started and ended properly. 17,165 spectators combined to create a mostly positive situation, although more needs to be done regarding the emergency lighting and concealment, as stated.
It must have been a huge disappointment for IFK Göteborg, but not everyone is as bad as Djurgården’s ultras in handling defeat. The shortcomings and problems of Djurgården, as well as the organizer Hammarby, were made even more visible as IFK Göteborg and AIK together acted much more mature and grown up at Gamla Ullevi tonight.
READ MORE:AIK won a crazy big meeting at Gamla Ullevi
2024-10-22 04:03:00
#Finally #Football #center #stage #IFK #Göteborg #AIK
