Saturday 6th June 2026 ko 17:15

Division 3 Norra Svealand

IFK UPPSALA 1 (Vahedi 86)

ÖSTERÅKER UNITED 1 (Bechtel 65p)

Att 69 at Lötens IP

Entry & Programme 60 sek

The Swedish Hop cost £360 which included all transport from and to Arlanda Airport and between games, 2 nights bed and breakfast, and any admission fees.

If there’s one road we’ve seen the most of during the 19 years of the Swedish Hop it’s the E4. It runs north from Stockholm passing by Arlanda Airport then heading on to the far north, eventually reaching the border with Finland at Haparanda. But we were heading to the first major city north of the capital – Uppsala.

It’s a place of learning with Uppsala University dating back to 1477, and a place of antiquity- Old Uppsala was the main pagan centre of Sweden in Viking times. The Swedish Hop was based in Uppsala back in 2015 and we stayed very close to Lötens IP, and I’m sure we all wondered when we’d ever take in a game there? Just the 11 years then….

These days the famous side from Uppsala is IK Sirius who we visited in 2016 and as I write are top of the Allsvenskan, but historically IFK Uppsala were the main team in the city.  The club, formed in 1895, was one of the leading Swedish clubs in the early 20th century. They played two seasons in the highest league at the time the Svenska Serien, and also played in three Swedish Championship finals, losing them all. The club’s now defunct Bandy section was perhaps the more successful, they won the championship 12 times. Those halcyon days seem a long way behind them, the altogether more humble Lötens IP is the club’s home these days, with the railway trains heading to and from Gefle as a backdrop and a mosque behind a goal. As a hop party we did have one small issue…

It was the weather, we’d all expected it to rain more or less the entire weekend, and we’d been extremely fortunate- bright sunshine from the moment our plane landed on on puddle-marked runway at Arlanda. We arrived in Uppsala, and with a little time to spare decided to have an early evening meal, at the local “Max.” For those not in the know, Max could be described as like McDonald’s but a million times better. We ordered, yes there is an English button, but those who opted to eat outside quickly had to move inside as it absolutely chucked it down with rain! With little to time to spare we dashed back to the minibus and the rain stopped as we arrived at the ground, talk about lucky! We used a beer towel to wipe down the bleachers!

We’d visited visitors IFK Österåker back in 2013 and on a personal level it was where I first met Per and Bettan Söderström who have turned out to be wonderful friends over the years. Their son played for Åkersberga BK when I ran the line and ended up in “Offside” magazine, they saw me in the magazine and you know the rest! IFK Österåker and Åkersberga BK merged in 2023 as Österåker United with Åkersberga renamed Österåker United BK acting as their B-team. And for the record another Söderström son is playing for the B-team, so the family are clearly rather talented! And yes, that does mean at some point I need to catch the Roslagsbanan to watch him play!!

We got an entertaining game too, albeit with the inevitable pastime of getting no end of different trains in the background! For long periods Österåker looked the better side, but in a classic case of not taking all of your chances, the hosts nicked a point with a late strike.

We headed south, back to our base in Hammarby Sjöstad, enjoying the irony of leaving somewhere with thousands of years of history in favour of just tens. Kim dropped us off, then headed back north to spend time with his dad, these are the compromises you make with elderly parents. The rest of us spent the evening at the Allé Kök & Bar close to the hotel. The beers are excellent, they do an excellent planksteak and there’s football on the telly- what could be better?