Kiruna IF is an

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 ...

club based in

Kiruna (; ; ; ) is the northernmost Stad (Sweden), city in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland, Sweden, Lapland. It had 17,002 inhabitants in 2016 and is the seat of Kiruna Municipality (population: 23,167 in 2016) in Norrbotten County. The c ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. , they will play in

Hockeyettan Hockeyettan is the third tier of ice hockey in Sweden. As of the 2015–16 season, the league consists of 39 teams divided geographically into four groups. Hockeyettan operates a system of promotion and relegation with HockeyAllsvenskan and D ...

(formerly named Division 1), the third level of

ice hockey in Sweden Ice hockey in Sweden has a history going back to at least 1912 and is one of the country's most popular sports. The sport was first organized in the country by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF), which was a member of the IIHF in 1912. The i ...

. Their home arena is the Lombiahallen. The club was founded in 1988 as Team Kiruna IF, a merger of the hockey departments of Kiruna AIF and IFK Kiruna. They made their debut playing in Division 1 when it was the second tier of Swedish hockey. Following the 2002–03 season, the club voluntarily withdrew from the second-tier league

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 ...

due to financial problems. They have competed in the third-level league

(formerly named Division 1) since the 2003–04 season. In June 2014, Kiruna IF announced that they would play the 2014–15 season with rainbow-coloured match jerseys to support the

LGBT community The LGBTQ community (also known as the LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, or queer community) comprises LGBTQ people, LGBTQ individuals united by LGBTQ culture, a common culture and LGBTQ movements, social movements. These Community, comm ...

, becoming the first LGBT-certified

sports club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

in Sweden.

References

External links

Official website
on eurohockey.com
Team profile on Eliteprospects.com
Sport in Kiruna 1988 establishments in Sweden Ice hockey clubs established in 1988 Ice hockey teams in Norrbotten County 20th-century establishments in Norrbotten County {{Europe-icehockey-team-stub