Helsingborgs IF

Welcome to Helsingborg

Helsingborgs IF 1-0 IF Brommapojkarna (14:03:10)

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Someone in the EFW Brilliant Ideas Dept. is in need of a serious pay rise - again. On this chilly but sunny Spring Scandinavian Sunday, they'd suggested we visit two games, in two different countries within the space of a couple of hours. Oh, go on then, if you insist.

After a Saturday evening of football (Odense BK) and beer (Copenhagen) in Denners; Mr Fuller, Big Deaks and I were ready to give Sweden a try. A short train journey through the snow filled countryside up to Helsingør was followed by an even shorter ferry trip over to Helsingborg.

A shot of Gammel Danks isn't normally the way I choose to open my drinking account for the day but our new best friend Henrik - who was running the bar on said ferry - insisted. He gave each of us a free shot each, which we duly washed down with a bottle of Mariestads. When in Sweden as they say, or were we still in Denmark? It took less than 20 minutes to cross between the two countries.

After a very steep and sweaty climb up through the town, you arrive at the Olympia Stadium. The first thing that smacks you between the eyes is their agreeable floodlight arrangement. 2 x old skool standard coupled with 2 x beauties that angled in at 45 degrees. I'd been in Sweden a shade less than 20 minutes and I was already in love with Helsingborg and their quirky little floodlights and free shots policies.

And it's goodbye to Denners....

....and a warm welcome to Sweden...

....the home of 45 degree angle floodlights...

.....and club shops made out of footballs. What's not to like!?

EFW on the pitch again. What's Swedish for "Stewards arrest this man"!?

The love was set to extended. The three of us we welcomed with open arms by the club officials. We marched triumphantly down a red carpet (no really), picked up our press passes and were ushered into a lounge and offered some warm food by the delightful staff. It may have taken the form of the world's smallest ham and cheese toastie but this was just terrific. The only beer on offer was a low alcohol effort weighing in at 2.1%. Swedish football has recently experienced a bit of 80's style hooliganism by all accounts and as such, civilised beer drinkers have to suffer.

Inside the ground the HIF fanatics choose to sit (sit!) in section 37 of the main stand. This despite the Olympia having two small banks of terracing behind each goal. A strange choice to my mind but they get a great view from there, have a roof and made a great noise throughout the game. The attendance in total was a little disappointing at just under 7,000 but this was the earliest ever start to a Swedish football season, HIF's legendary star attraction Henrik Larsson was no longer playing and the cold may have put a few fans off.

IF Brommapojkarna (BP for short - phew!) had turned up with one (one!) away fan. Five FIFA Stars and some IKEA vouchers to him for making the long trip. Oddly enough, their number swelled to a massive four during the second half so they'll have to share the prize. BP are probably most famous for their enterprising youth system. All players tend to be home grown and they are the largest club in Europe in terms of number of active teams of all ages. So they're into playing rather than supporting down in that particular Western part of Stockholm.

As the game kicked off, it was unusually hard for me to concentrate on my job of enjoying the football and pretending to take notes. Sat two rows in front of us was actual Henrik Larsson! Big Deaks had told me he'd said hello to him about ten minutes beforehand but I just thought he was taking the piss.

The solitary away fan.

Then there was four. Clearly not the best of mates either!

Both Larsson and the vociferous HIF ultras kept us entertained for the opening 20 minutes, which was a good job because the football was a bit dull and we were Helsing-bored of that early on. That all changed 28 minutes into this opening game of the season, BP keeper (Nordfeldt) decided enough was enough already. He inexplicably handled the ball outside his area and then just for good measure, he booted the ball out of the stadium. 1 x yellow card swiftly followed by 1 x red. What a loon!

I can think of worse ways of spending half time than chatting away to "Henke" and eating free muffins but that is what we did. Larsson was a gentleman and if he's not managing either Celtic or HIF in the next year or so I'll eat my viking helmet. The muffins were great as well. Correct amount of moisture and minimal crumage.

Annoyingly, we had to leave shortly before the end of the game to get the ferry back to Copenhagen to arrive at the FCK v Brondby match in time for kick off. Inevitably, we missed a goal accordingly. So if any HIF fans out there can talk us through Mattias Lindström's 91st minute winner - can you get in touch please.

So, thanks a million to Helsingborgs and their fantastic hospitality. If you're ever in Sweden, or Denmark for that matter just nip on the ferry and go and pay them a visit. Skål!

Thanks for popping in. BP keeper blows out his cheeks after being sent off.

A bit harsh. I thought it was actually quite nice.

These guys were loving it certainly.

Henrik Larsson joins EFW (who forget to breathe in - damn).

Rasmus Jönsson - the new "Henke"?

Hejdå

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Odense BK

Everybody's Doing the Len Ganley Stance

Odense BK 1-1 SønderjyskE (13:03:10)

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A Scandinavian trilogy of football matches in Denmark and Sweden as guests of The Ball is Round was simply too good to resist for EFW. We'd be based in Copenhagen and take trips out to Odense on Saturday, over to Sweden on the ferry to Helsinborgs on Sunday morning before the pierce de resistance; the FC Copenhagen v Brondby local derby, which is the biggest game in Danish football. It didn't take too long to accept the invite.

Copenhagen looked a picture as Stuart showed us the sights of the place he calls home for three days a week. Big Deaks and I began the harsh realities of coming to terms with the infamous Nordic beer prices. Lets put this to bed early doors then; in the centre of town a pint costs 50 Danish Kr which is 6 (6!) of your English pounds. Step a shoe slightly out of the tourist boundaries however and you pay half that. You do have the option of around twelve thousand 7-Eleven shops - which sell cheep beer - if you're really desperate.

The train to Odense normally takes around 90 minutes and set us back another 35 quid. Luckily, OB were all about European Football Weekends & TBIR and as such they slipped the three of us press passes for the day. That was a gesture we could cope-enhagen with. Danish trains are pretty impressive aside from not being overly reliable. We had an unscheduled stop in Høje-Taastrup for 30 minutes but pah! We didn't care, we'd come prepared and had visited 7-Eleven for some desperately cheap beers.

A cheap childish gag for which I apologise.

Welcome to Denners.

Poetry in motion. Hans Christian Andersen returns to his birthplace.

This was my first ever game in Denners (as it is not commonly known) and so presented me with my first chance to come to terms with some of the elongated team names. Odense Boldklub are known as OB. That I can deal with. Sønderjysk Elitesport on the other hand is a bit of a mouthful. We initially opted to rename them Sønderland, later reduced that to Sønders and the OB scoreboard operator was even lazier than us and simply plumped for SJE. OB v SJE it was then.

If it moves in Denmark, it'll probably be sponsored by Carlsberg. I like to think I'm not a victim of advertising but as they let us take beers into the press box, I shipped a few in for good measure. Another wallet ouching moment at £5 a pop. After a mandatory minutes silence - which actually turned out to be a full on rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone rather than a mute minute - we were underway.

A quick glance through the OB team sheet threw up some familiar names. Their gaffer is Lars Olsen, who captained Denners to their shock 1992 European Championship win. They've also got ex-Man Utd, Derby and West Ham keeper Roy Carroll between the sticks and talking of Ex-Man Utd players, wasn't that Eric Djemba-Djemba sporting the number 19 shirt? It was indeed. Carroll actually picked up the "Det Gylduebur" before the match, which turned out to be the "Danish keepers keeper of the Year". Check him out.

As we got underway, something wasn't quite right. SJE full back Micheal Stryger and visiting boss Michael Hemmingsen were sporting white gloves (white gloves!). Hemmingsen was also wearing jeans (jeans!), my letter of protest is in the post to FIFA as I type. As usual, I've asked for a points deduction. No football manger should wear jeans to a game. It is nothing short of a disgrace. White gloves are for snooker referee's like the late Len Ganley.

Hemmingsen tries to hide his gloves from us but Stryger's are in full view.

I managed to get a close up snap of them at HT though.

Away fans in the terrace on the far corner. Those gloves again on show. Tsk.

A goal apiece in the first half and some reasonable football kept our mind off the cold. It was freezing and some the crowd were covered in actual blankets - sponsored by Carlsberg of naturally. At half time we helped ourselves to some beef and gherkin sarnies in the press lounge before sniffing around for some free beer. I eventually found a fine source in one of the sponsors boxes. That kept us going for the second half which was scoreless. No goals but free beer. Every cloud and all that...

After the game we headed into the press conference. A moody Lars Olsen batted away some questions for a few minutes before an altogether more chipper Hemmingsen waltzed in - in those jeans. He happily chatted away to anyone who would listen. Apart from his obvious misdemeanours, he was actually a really nice bloke and clearly has a sense of humour. I'll give him a couple of FIFA stars just for making us laugh.

Fans in blankets. Tick.

Big Deaks beavering away in the press box.

Even the camera man had three beers on the go (see bottom left).

FT. Sponsored by Carlsberg. Again.

Floodie marvellous.

Mr Fuller records Lars Olsens thoughts in the press conference.

Hemmingsen faces the wrath of angry anti-jeans journalists.

We managed to corner Roy Carroll for an interview. Stuart did the questions because he's good at that. I just stood there like a lemon before asking him for a photo with the EFW logo. He refused. Bloody Manchester United Media Training School. I blame them. Actually, he was alright as well actually save (save!) for that moment. In summary, he said he was just happy to be playing, doesn't gamble anymore and is very content living in Odense.

With my professional hat on and purely for the interests of research, we ended up back in Copenhagen visiting as many pubs as was humanly possible. I'm just glad we didn't end up swinging a fast shoe to the Proclaimers at silly o'clock after a battleships worth of Carlsberg. Oh, we did. Good preparation for the next day - two games in two different countries on the same day. Yeeeees. Good old life. Cheers!

Post match meal.

Big Deaks is lovin' it back in Copenhagen.

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FC Copenhagen v Brondby IF

The New Firm

You'd of heard of the "Old Firm" between Celtic and Rangers and even the "Old Farm" derby between Ipswich and Norwich but this weekend we're all over the "New Firm" derby here at EFW. The New Firm is a play on words relating to the Danish football rivalry between FC Copenhagen and Brondby IF. We're heading off to the Parken in Copenhagen this very Sunday at 18:00 to drink in the atmosphere of a derby day - Denners style.

So, who to support? To give us a better idea, we dialled up two chaps in Copenhagen who are best of mates six days a week but when Sunday comes - for 90 minutes anyway - they'll be putting their friendship firmly to one side to roar on their heroes in the "Slaget om København" (Battle of Copenhagen):

Hi lads, can you introduce yourselves and the teams you support and why.

RS: My name is Rasmus Skude. I am an IT Manager and I have been working in the IT industry since 1999. I play football myself and have done so for as long as I remember. I have also played tennis on the highest level in DK when I was younger.

I have supported Brondby since the mid 80's where I saw them the first time. The reason is that I like the fact that is a "real" club and everything is not all about business like FCK and they have always playes positive football with focus on attacking and have the ball as much as possible. I like the way they try to use the young players from their own ranks to ensure that about half the players on the first team have played in Brondby's youth teams which is one of the goals.

LM: My name is Lars Meincke and I'm nearly 38. I was born and raised on Østerbro the area where Parken is placed. Until recently I've seen my self as the typical inner city person. In the early summer of 1992, I was given a free ticket to go see the new Copenhagen team (FCK) as they where playing their first ever home game. I had at that point only been interested international games but I was captivated with the atmosphere of the stadion. Since then I've been season ticket holder but nowadays I go a few times a year with my 2 sons.

For several years, I worked for the company that sponsored FCK and have several shirts at home with Kinnarps on! Since the difference between the two clubs in the last 10 years have become more defined, I've stuck with my team.

An FCK welcome

Is the FCK v Brondby match the biggest in Danish football?

RS: By far the biggest match in Scandinavia!!

LM: Without any doubt!

What is derby day like?

RS: Normally tv starts broadcasting several hours (4-6) before the game with highlights, comments from players and experts etc. I always watch these games either live in the stadium or on tv with my friends.

LM: You'll typically have the game at 7 o'clock and all through the day Brøndby fans will be in the inner city area and have all the FCK fans in the Park the surrounds the stadion. An hour before game start people will move into the stadion.


What is the away allocation given to each team at the respective grounds?

RS: Not sure but I guess only a few thousand.

LM: In Parken there will 8.000 Brøndby fans

A Brondby welcome

Can we expect a raucous atmosphere and tifo displays?

RS: Yes for sure.

LM: The tifos always work better at Brøndby stadion but there will be some

Is it a "friendly" derby or should we expect to see a "Slaget om København" (Battle of Copenhagen)?

RS: It is always the "Battle of Copenhagen"

LM: ALWAYS the Battle of Copenhagen.

Is there an ultra culture in Danish football?

RS: Yes for at least 3 clubs. FCK, Brondby and AGF.

LM: Yes and you can find the them at far end of the park where they occasionally fight each other after the game!

FCK were only formed in their current guise in 1992 but they have a longer history than that no?

RS: I will leave that up to Lars to explain.

LM: FCK were formed after a merger of B1903 and KB - two of Denmarks oldest clubs.

FCK fans warming up before the match

How is victory in The New Firm match celebrated? Does each team's fans have a particular area to gather in or fountain to jump in - like in Spain?

RS: Some supporters go to specific pubs but most of us "normal" supporters do not do anything special unless our club wins the championship or similar. We do not have a pub culture like you have in UK.

Who has won the most trophies between the two of you?

LM: Brøndby but they are also an older club.

Does it depend on which part of Copenhagen you derive from as to whom you choose to support?

RS: No. Each club has fans all over Denmark. I believe Brondby have more fans outside the Copenhagen area than FCK but I think it is about the same in total.

LM: Yes. Inner city is FCK and the suburbs are Brøndby.

Brondby - more fans outside the Copenhagen area than FCK!?

We like a beer here at European Football Weekends and we've heard it costs an arm and leg in Copenhagen! How much is it and is it worth it?

RS: It really depends where you go. If you go to a bar in the center of Copenhagen you probably pay around 50 DKR for a pint but in smaller places no in the centre the prices are sometimes 20-25 DKR.

Which players should we be looking out for on each team?

RS: On Brondby you should look out for Michael Krohn-Dehli (Danish international) and Alexander Farnerud. They also have some young promissing talents like Jens Stryger Larsen
On FCK I think Atiba Hutchinson.

The New Firm

Can we have a score prediction please lads?

RS: FCK 1-2 BIF

RM: FCK 2-1 BIF

And finally, can you sum up your clubs in a Tweet of less than 140 characters?

RS: Great club with a proud history.

Brondby fans march to the stadium.

Thanks lads! The EFW team will be at the big match this Sunday.

Who do we support!?

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