Sunday 7th June 2026 ko 13:00

Division 4 Norra Stockholm

SPÅNGA IS FF 8 (Falsen 3 Bergtoft 33 Callebro 38 46 54 Aga 55 73 Hussein 75p)

DANDERYDS SK FF 0

Att 77 at Spånga IP

Entry & Programme Free

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.

There was time when I found the final day of the Swedish Hop hard work. I know how much gets invested in 3 days and 2 nights so when I sense it all ending there was always a sense of melancholy. In recent years, I’ve dealt with it by simply extending my stay, and organiser Kim Hedwall seems to have kept us all busy in any case!

One tradition that did need to be maintained was the hoppers’ penalty shoot out. We do seem to be in the habit of making them eye-catching; remember goalkeeping legend Ronnie Hellström presenting the winner’s cup a few years ago? This time we returned to Tranebergs BP, now a public park, but once home to Djurgårdens mens’ team from 1911-1936 ; it also hosted 3 Olympic football matches in June and July 1912. This year Adrian won, and received an oh-so appropriate prize!

You may recall that on the Friday we’d had lunch in Solna, at my favourite Italian restaurant, run by Serbs, in suburban Stockholm. Part of the experience is the Pendeltåg (commuter trains) rattling past every few minutes, and if you’ve ever headed north on that particular line you’ll end up in Spånga, close to Arlanda Airport. In recent years Spånga IP has been best known for being one of a few bases for Akropolis IF, a few of us saw them here back in 2018 and of course they were the visitors on the very first game of the very first Swedish Hop at Nyköping BIS in 2007. So much water under the bridge….

Sadly Akropolis IF were bankrupted in 2024, a classic case of a club overstretching themselves- they’d reached the Superettan and were based at Grimsta IP when the house of cards collapsed.

So these days its Spånga IS FK that are the main talking point here, as should be the case really. Sport does run deep here, actor Dolph Lundgen was born here, although his sporting prowess was based around martial arts- not football! Spånga IS FK was formed in 1924 and as late as 1994 were playing in Division 1 Norra, then the second tier. These days they have regrouped in the local 6th tier and as the officials who were kind enough to introduce their club said- the focus is now on local youth- and judging by the amount of children playing on no end of side pitches- the future is bright.

We’d enjoyed visiting visitors Danderyds on the 2016 hop when we were given and wore club scarves even though the temperature was well over 30 degrees! They went into this game rock bottom of the table with just one point, and demonstrated why, as Spånga scored goal after goal with little or nothing of note coming from the visitors. I sat and enjoyed the moment as much as the game, and just when I remembered and start to miss Akropolis’ souvakis- there was dear Kim with a round of ice creams for everyone! Given the temperature that was a lot more appropriate, don’t you think?