Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known as Östers IF or simply Öster, is a Swedish sports club located in

Växjö Växjö () is a city and the seat of Växjö Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden. It had 71,282 inhabitants (2020) out of a Municipalities of Sweden, municipal population of 97,349 (2024). It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial ce ...

, specializing in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. For the 2025 season the club is back in the top tier,

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

, after achieving promotion from

Superettan Superettan (; ) is an association football league and the second highest league in the Swedish football league system, league system of Swedish football, Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and rel ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. It will be the club's first season in Allsvenskan since

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

. The club has previously also competed in

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

( see separate article),

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

, and

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

. Öster was formed on 20 April 1930 as Östers Fotbollförening, before adopting the name "Östers IF" in 1932. The club is affiliated to the

Smålands Fotbollförbund The Smålands Fotbollförbund ''(Småland Football Association)'' is one of the 24 district organisations of the Swedish Football Association. It administers lower tier football in the historical provinces of Småland and Öland. Background S ...

. In

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

, their first season in

, Öster became the first team ever to win the national title at their first attempt (newly promoted

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

won the league in

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

but had played in, and been winners of, the championship in the past). This win ignited the team's '

golden age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...

' which lasted until the early 1980s and saw them win a total of four Swedish championships. On 31 March 2011, Öster broke ground on their new arena, Myresjöhus Arena, which was inaugurated in August 2012. The arena hosted four games of the

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for List of women's national association football teams#UEFA, women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament ...

tournament.

History

Öster (English: "

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

") was named after a district in the city of

. They were not part of the upper divisions in the early days of swedish football and only made their first appearance in the third tier in 1947. During the 1950s and early-1960s the club made a push to raise the level of football by inviting and playing against foreign teams such as

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

and Fluminense. This coupled with an increase in the amount of training helped the team establish themselves in the second tier. In 1961 Öster had their first chance ever to qualify for

but ended up in last place in the four team promotion playoffs. Success in the promotion playoffs would instead come six years later in 1967 when they beat

IK Brage Idrottsklubben Brage, also known as IK Brage or simply Brage, is a Swedish Association football, football club located in Borlänge. The club is affiliated with Dalarnas Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Domnarvsvallen. The club colou ...

in the deciding game in front of a home crowd of 26,404 people. Öster defied the odds during their first season in the top division and won the league on goal difference after a total of four teams had ended the season on exactly the same number of points. Following their championship title the club had ten years of solid Allsvenskan finishes before becoming dominant in the late-1970s and early-1980s where they won the league three times in four years. After that successful era followed a slow decline over the next couple of decades which culminated in their relegation to the second tier in 1998. After that the club has found it hard to reestablish itself in Allsvenskan and has only made short one year appearances.

Current squad

Out on loan

Personnel

Current technical staff

Coaches

* Bertil Bäckvall (1958–1963) * Vilmos Varszegi (1967–1973) * Bengt "Julle" Gustavsson (1973–1974) * Gunnar Nordahl (1975–1976) * Lars "Laban" Arnesson (1977–1980) *

Bo Johansson Bo "Bosse" Johansson (born 28 November 1942) is a Swedish former football player and former football coach. Career Johansson was a player for fourteen years with Kalmar FF and Lindsdals IF, though he did not win any trophies as a player. In 1 ...

(1980–1982) * Leif Widén (1982–1985) *

(1986–1988) * Peo Bild (1988–1989) *

Hans Backe Hans Roland "Hasse" Backe (; born 14 February 1952) is a Swedish football manager and former player who most recently led Finland's national team. Prior to this he managed the New York Red Bulls. He has coached clubs in Sweden, Norway, Greece ...

(1989–1994) * Nanne Bergstrand (1994–1996) * Andreas Ravelli (1997–1998) * Bo Axberg (1998) * Jan Mattsson (1998–2001) * Yevgeni Kuznetsov (2002–2003) * Leif Widén (2003–2004) * Lars Jacobsson (2005–2006) *

Giles Stille Giles Kevin Stille (born 10 November 1958) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder in the Football League for Brighton & Hove Albion. He went on to coach and manage in Sweden. He is the manager of Swedish Divi ...

(2007 – 2008) * Yevgeni Kuznetsov (2008–2009) * Andreas Ottosson (2009–2010) * Ludwig Ernstsson (2010) * Hans Gren (2010) * Roar Hansen (2011 – 2012) * Andreas Thomsson (2013) * Roberth Björknesjö (2013 – 2014) *

Thomas Askebrand Thomas Askebrand, born ''Johansson'' 23 January 1969 in Åsa, is a Swedish football manager. He is the sporting director and formally manager of Varbergs BoIS. Management career Thomas started out his managing career for small local clubs in ...

(2015 – 2017) * Christian Järdler (2018 – 2019) * Denis Velic (2019 – 2021) * Srdjan "Tufa" Tufegdzic (2022 – 2023) * Martin Foyston (2024 –) *Sourse:

Achievements

* Swedish Champions ** Winners (4): 1968, 1978, 1980, 1981

League

: ** Winners (4): 1968, 1978, 1980, 1981 ** Runners-up (3): 1973, 1975, 1992 *

: ** Winners (2): 2002, 2012 ** Runners-up (2): 2005, 2024 * Division 1 Södra: ** Winners (3): 1989, 2009, 2016 ** Runners-up (1): 2008

Cups

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. ''Svenska cupen'' usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also ...

: ** Winners (1): 1977 ** Runners-up (4): 1974, 1982, 1985, 1991 * Allsvenskan play-offs: ** Runners-up (1): 1983

Attendances

In recent seasons Östers IF have had the following average attendances:

Footnotes

:A Current youth players who at least have sat on the bench in a competitive match. :B. The title of "Swedish Champions" has been awarded to the winner of four different competitions over the years. Between 1896 and 1925 the title was awarded to the winner of Svenska Mästerskapet, a stand-alone cup tournament. No clubs were given the title between 1926 and 1930 even though the first-tier league

was played. In 1931 the title was reinstated and awarded to the winner of Allsvenskan. Between 1982 and 1990 a

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

in cup format was held at the end of the league season to decide the champions. After the play-off format in 1991 and 1992 the title was decided by the winner of Mästerskapsserien, an additional league after the end of Allsvenskan. Since the 1993 season the title has once again been awarded to the winner of Allsvenskan.

References

External links

Östers IF
nbsp;– official site
Östers IF
nbsp;– supporter site {{DEFAULTSORT:Osters If Football clubs in Kronoberg County Allsvenskan clubs Sport in Växjö Defunct bandy clubs in Sweden Bandy clubs established in 1930 Association football clubs established in 1930 1930 establishments in Sweden Svenska Cupen winners 20th-century establishments in Kronoberg County