Swedish Professional Football Leagues (, the Swedish Elite Football Association, SEF) is a Swedish interest organisation that represents the 32 elite

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 ...

clubs in the top two divisions (

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 ...

and

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 ...

) of the

Swedish football league system The Swedish football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. ...

. SEF does not administer the divisions but acts in cooperation with the

Swedish Football Association The Swedish Football Association (, SvFF) is the governing and body of football in Sweden. It organises the football leagues – Allsvenskan for men and for women – and the men's and women's national teams. It is based in Solna and is a ...

, the member clubs, sponsors and partners. The goal is to develop Swedish elite football resultwise, economically, commercially and administratively.

History

Swedish Professional Football Leagues was founded in 1928 (under the name ''Föreningen Svenska Serien Division 1'') as a counterpart to the Swedish Football Association, with which top division clubs did not have a well-functioning relationship at that time. The organisation was initially only for clubs playing in the top division Allsvenskan, but in 1939 it was changed so that former top division clubs relegated to Division 2 could remain members. The current name of the organisation was adopted in 1972, and the membership at the time included 14 Allsvenskan clubs, 28 clubs playing in Division 2 and an additional five clubs playing in the third division, Division 3. From 1986 on, it was decided to only give membership to clubs either playing in the top division or the second division (then called Division 1, which became

in 2000).

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References

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External links

* {{Football in Sweden Allsvenskan Superettan 1928 establishments in Sweden Sports organizations established in 1928 Sports organizations of Sweden