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Will we be a ‘Danish team’?
Main Post:
So in recent years Wolves have been called a Portuguese team or something like that because their coach was Portuguese and they have lots of Portuguese players.
So will we be a Danish team since Thomas Frank is Danish and we have several Danish players, and we also play in red and white which are the colours of the Danish flag.
Top Comment:
Yeah fuck it, Scandinavian takeover. I don’t think we’re gonna go as far as Wolves though.
Every Team that was Relegated from the Danish Superliga Once and Never Came Back: Where Are They Now? (Part 1)
Main Post:
Welcome to entry no. 7 of the "Where Are They Now?" series, a series of posts on this sub looking at clubs across various leagues who were relegated from that country's top flight and never came back. This post will be covering the Danish Superliga (Superligaen in Danish), formed in 1991.
Previous Leagues:
Bonus: FIFA Men's World Cup
Every Team that was Relegated from the Danish Superliga Once and Never Came Back: Where Are They Now?
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Næstved Boldklub
- Full Name: Næstved Boldklub A/S
- Founded: 1939
- Time in the Danish Superliga: 1991-1996 (Five seasons)
- as Næstved Idræts Forening
- Current Status: 1. Division (2nd Tier)
The Danish Superliga was the fourth iteration of a national league tournament (assuming you don't include the war tournaments from 1940-1945), brought about by the rise of professionalism in Danish soccer and the push towards a more commercialized product. The inaugural 1991 Superliga season (which was a truncated edition to facilitate a change to an autumn-spring format) had just ten teams. Not amongst this cohort, however, was Næstved Idræts Forening, who at the time were competing in the Danish First Division - the previous Danish top flight before the Superliga supplanted it. Hailing from the island of Zealand, Næstved IF were founded just six months prior to the breakout of World War II via a merger between Næstved Boldklub and Næstved Idræts Klub. Following the restructuring of Danish football after the war, the club began life in the Third Division. De Grønne won promotion to the Second Division in 1948, falling back to the third tier in 1960 before earning promotion again in 1963. After eight more seasons, Næstved finally won promotion to the First Division in 1971, kicking off the most successful period in the club's history. Næstved would spend every season between 1972 and 1990 in the top flight (save for the 1977 season), and on two occasions the club nearly won the league title, finishing runners-up in 1980 and 1988. This level of success also meant access to European competitions. In their debut top flight campaign, the club finished third, qualifying them for the next season's UEFA Cup, where they went out in the first round to Fortuna Düsseldorf. Næstved's first win in a European competition was their 2-1 home win over PSV Eindhoven in the 81/82 UEFA Cup, but by that point the aggregate score was 8-2, which meant another first round elimination. The club competed in the UEFA Cup two other times in 76/77 and 89/90, also going out in the first round to Belgian side RWD Molenbeek and Soviet Zenit Leningrad (now Zenit St. Petersburg) respectively. Næstved missed out on the 1991 Superliga after getting relegated from the top flight in the 1990 season due to the league contracting from 14 teams to ten. Like in 1977, though, the club's absence would be short-lived, as de Grønne won promotion to the 1991-92 Superliga season after winning the First Division on goal difference.
Næstved struggled in their return to the top flight. Though they won their opening game 2-0 over Aarhus, the Zealanders struggled for form in the first round. In the first half of the season the club remained around midtable, but a six game winless run between September and October saw Næstved hover narrowly over the bottom two spots. The club managed to avoid entering the Qualification round (which would determine promotion and relegation between the Superliga and 1. Division) with an emphatic 6-0 win over Odense on the final matchday of the first round, finishing the phase in 7th on 16 points. Even so, their poor form carried over into the second round, where they could only muster two wins from 14 games with a string of heavy defeats, including a 6-1 loss to Aarhus two 4-0 losses Lyngby, finishing at the bottom of the table. Season two started off even worse, losing four and drawing one of their first five games, including back-to-back 4-0 losses to Odense and Silkeborg. Again, the club managed to survive on the final day of the first round by drawing fellow Qualification candidates BK Frem 2-2, but again they finished bottom in the second round with a –20 goal difference. De Grønne could not avoid the Qualification round in the 93/94 season, finishing 9th in the autumn table, and thus entering their first fight for survival, which they managed after topping the Qualification round table. A bright spot in this season was the club's run to the Danish Cup final, though they lost to Brøndby on penalties.
The 1994-95 season saw a notable improvement from Næstved. Though the club were still prone to leaking in goals, this time enough results went their way (including an 8-2 demolition of Lyngby) to finish the autumn round in sixth. A subsequent fifth place finish in the spring round saw the club qualify for the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup - their final European tournament. Grouped alongside Dutch side Heerenveen, Portugal's U.D. Leiria, Hungarian side Békéscsaba, and Welsh outfit Ton Pentre, Næstved won one, lost one, and drew two games, but that was only enough for third in the group, unable to advance to the knockouts. The 95/96 season saw a change to the Superliga format; now with 12 teams, the bottom two spots are now automatically relegated with no second chances. Næstved, however, didn't seem to get the memo. The club failed to win their first seven games of the season, already putting them bottom of the table. There was a brief rebound after de Grønne won back-to-back matches, including a 6-2 victory over Viborg, before they were smacked 6-1 away to Brøndby. After wins over Ikast and Herfølge in October, Næstved embarked on a horrid run of form, losing 11 and drawing two of their next 13 matches, failing to score on nine occasions and suffering consective losses to Viborg (4-0), Odense (4-0), and Silkeborg (5-0) in the process. The clubs fifth and final win of the season came against Velje in May with six games still to play. Næstved's relegation was finally confirmed on matchday 32 following a 4-0 home defeat to Herfølge, and after drawing Silkeborg 1-1 in the final game of the season, the club finished on 23 points with just 29 goals scored and a whopping 80 conceded.
Throughout their time in the Superliga, Næstved had been facing serious financial struggles. In 1989 the club had outstanding debts of roughly 4 to 5 million Danish kroner. Because of this, the club restructured following their relegation from the top flight, with Næstved Boldklub becoming the club's superstructure. Agreements were made to the club's creditors to reduce the debt, bringing it down to 1.5 million by 2001, but by that point the club had already dropped to the 2. Division. The club's insolvency ran afoul of the Danish Football Union's (DBU) regulations, often resulting in them being barred from signing players. Næstved won promotion back to the 1. Division in 2004, were relegated back to the 2. Division in 2005, and were promoted back to the 1. Division in 2006. While their performances in the second division were stable, though, the club were in dire financial straits, with debts having grown again to upwards of 5.6 million koner by 2009. Bankruptcy seemed imminent at this point, but the club was pulled from the brink thanks to the influx of 2.5 million koner from five investors, chief among them Peter Birk Pedersen, the former owner of the hardware store Kop & Kande. Pedersen subsequently became the club's owner and chairman. Næstved lasted in the second tier until 2012, where it was once again relegated to the 2. Division. From this point the club bounced between the second and third tiers, nearly qualifying for the promotion playoffs to the Superliga in the 2018-19 season but missing out by two points behind third place Lyngby. Today the club plays in the 1. Division, having won promotion from the 2. Division in the 2021-22 season.
B 1909
- Full Name: Boldklubben 1909
- Founded: 1909
- Time in the Danish Superliga: 1992-1993 (One season)
- Current Status: Danmarksserien, Pulje 3 (Fifth Tier)
Moving westward to the island of Funen we find Boldklubben 1909, founded in the year (you guessed it) 1909 in the city of Odense. Since there was no national league competition at the time of Nierne's founding, the club would have to settle for the regional league, the Fynsmesterskabet. There the club was quite successful, winning seven regional titles between 1909 and 1939. 1909's first foray into national level football were the 1927-28 and 1928-29 championships, though in both cases they failed to get past the first round. After the war, the club was assigned to the top flight 1. Division, but they were immediately relegated. For nearly the next decade the club would bounce between the first and second divisions before beginning an extended period in the top flight in 1954, starting the club's most successful period in its history. In 1959 they won their first 1. Division title ahead of perennial champions Kjøbenhavns BK, later repeating the feat in 1964. In between those they won the 1961-62 Danish cup, beating Esbjerg fB 1-0 in the final, doing so again in the 1970-71 edition over BK Frem. These titles would of course mean getting to participate in continental competitions.
The club qualified for the 1959-60 European Cup first round where they lost to Austria's Wiener Sportclub (5-2 agg.), and in the 64/65 and 65/66 European Cup preliminaries the club again fell at the first hurdle, losing to European Giants Real Madrid (9-2 agg.) and Romanian side Dinamo București (7-2 agg.) respectively. Nierne's greatest European success came in the 1962-63 European Cup Winner's Cup, reaching the quarter-finals where they fell to German side Nürnberg 7-0. They weren't able to replicate this in the 71/72 edition, though, going out in the preliminaries to Austria Wien on away goals. Boldklubben couldn't build on their success, and ended up getting relegated to the second division in 1977. Once again the club was bouncing through divisions, even ending up in the 3. Division in 1987, but they returned to the 2, Division in 1989, and after losing the pro/rel playoff to Silkeborg in the 1991 season, the club qualified and won the 1991-92 Qualification round, promoting them to the Superliga.
The 1992-93 Superliga season would see the Niners make history; unfortunately, it would be for all the wrong reasons. Boldklubben opened the campaign with a 0-0 draw to Silkeborg, followed by consecutive losses to FC København, Brøndby, Lyngby, and Aarhus. The month of September saw the club pick up just two more points through draws against BK Frem and Næstved, and following another draw to Næstved in the start of October, the club suffered a 6-0 battering in the reverse fixture against Silkeborg. B 09 were now well bounded to the foot of the league table, but surely they would get a win at some point, right? Cue a 4-2 loss to København, a draw against Brøndby, a 4-1 loss to Lyngby, another draw to Aarhus, and three consecutive losses to Aalborg, Frem, and Odense to end the season. For those keeping score, this meant that B 09 became the first and to date only club in the history of the Danish Superliga to fail to win a single game. The club finished the autumn phase with a measly six points - the worst points haul for any team, and with 18 games played this gave them the joint-worst points per game ratio (0.333) of any team in the history of the competition, tied with Sønderjyske Fodbold in the 2000-01 season (then as HFK Sønderjylland). Thus the club were sent to the Qualification round for the spring portion of the season. Yet despite being awarded seven bonus points due to their league position, B 09 could only manage four wins and four draws in 14 matches to finish the round on 19 points, causing the club to finish 4th in the group and officially confirm their relegation back to the 1. Division.
B 09 adjusted to life outside the Superliga fairly poorly. The club had already been suffering from financial problems for quite a time, and their relegation from the Superliga, coupled with a mass exodus of players, was too much to take. After finishing bottom of the 1. Division, the club filed for bankruptcy and were forced down to the fourth tier Danmarksserien. They won promotion to the 2. Division after just a season, and for over a decade they oscillated between the second and third tiers. Their financial struggles would persist, however, and the club nearly went into bankruptcy again in 2003 were it not for a loan given to them by city giants OB. As it happened, though, Nierne were not the only club in the city struggling, as fellow Odense clubs Dalum IF and longtime archrivals Boldklubben 1913 had their own problems. By 2005, all three clubs had found themselves in the 2. Division. Realizing that their current finances weren't enough to progress them beyond this point, talks began that year on possibly merging all three clubs together.
Now, the idea of merging clubs in Odense is by no means a foreign concept; collaborations between city clubs had been a thing since the 1960s, and a first attempt to create a superclub came in 1989 with a proposal to merge B 1909, B 1913, and OB under the name "Odense United", but nothing came of it after OB (who won the Danish 1. Division that season) refused to hand over its license. A second attempt was made in 1991 between the same three clubs, but this time it was the members of B 1913 who rejected it. This time, however, all parties involved were in broad agreement, and on July 1st, 2006, following DBU approval, the three officially combined to form FC Fyn. The three clubs would still exist, but would be demoted to the lower levels of Danish soccer, whereas FC Fyn would begin life in the 2. Division. The original goal was to get the club promoted to the 1. Division after just one season, but Fynboerne would make it to the second tier until 2009. The club could never establish a foothold, bouncing between the First and Second Divisions. By 2013, it was apparent that the project was a failure. Facing mounting debts, Fyn (at this point back in the 2. Division) made several attempts to secure investments to save the club, but to no avail. On January 31st, 2013, the club announced that the club would file for bankruptcy and cease all operations. Their remaining results in the league were awarded as 3-0 forfeits and the license for the Fynsserien (Funen's regional league) was handed to B 1913 for the 2013-14 season. Today, B 1909 plays in the Danmarksserien, now the 5th tier of Danish soccer, having won promotion from the Fynsserien in the 2021-22 season after years of bouncing between the two divisions. As for the other members of FC Fyn, B 1913 also competes in the Danmarksserien, while Dalum has fared slightly better, currently playing in the 3. Division - Danish football's recently established 4th tier.
BK Fremad Amager
- Full Name: Boldklubben Fremad Amager
- Founded: 1910
- Time in the Danish Superliga: 1994-1995 (One season)
- Current Status: 1. Division (2nd Tier)
Founded in 1910 at the Alhambra Cyclist Pavilion on the island of Amager, BK Fremad Amager were founding members of the Amager Football Union, but switched affiliation to the Copenhagen Football Union in 1920 in search of better competition. The club made its first appearance in the Danish national leagues in 1927 and by the 1930s had become somewhat of a regular in the competition. To date, the club's runners-up finishes in the 1939-40 Danish Championship and the 1940-41 War Tournament remain their best league performances. Like B 1909, Englene were assigned to the First Division in 1945, finishing as high as third in 46/47, before being relegated to the 2. Division the following season. This began a period of decline for the club, moving between the second and third divisions between the late 40s and early 70s. Things seemed to look up in 1972 when the club, at this time in the 2. Division, reached the Danish Cup final, where they lost to league champions Velje BK. Because Velje already qualified for the 1972-73 European Cup, this meant that Fremad Amager (again, a second tier side) go to participate in the 72/73 European Cup Winners' Cup, where they were eliminated in the first round by Albanian outfit Besa Kavajë on away goals (1-1 agg.). The club managed to return to the First Division in 1975 and 1981, but they only lasted two and one season respectively. By this point (in what seems to be a recurring theme), the club were struggling financially and twice had to declare bankruptcy, first in 1985 and again in 1990. The club were not deterred, however, and after having rejected an offer to merge with the likes of Kjøbenhavns BK and B 1903 to form a superstructure in the capital city (with those to going on to form FC Copenhagen in 1992), the club won the 2. Division Øst in 1991-92. Back in the 1. Division, Fremad Amager finished bottom in the Qualification league of the 1992-93 season, but in 93/94 the club finished 2nd, and so as promised by then former player and Danish legend Ivan Nielsen, Fremad Amager reached the Superliga.
The 1994-95 Superliga campaign started off with a 1-2 loss to Næstved IF at home, though Fremad Amager followed it up with consecutive 3-2 wins over Copenhagen and Ikast. Just three games in and Englene had already gone up to third in the standings. Unfortunately, it was pretty much all downhill from there. Four back-to-back defeats sent The Angels down to ninth. Another 3-2 (this time over Lyngby) in September brought a brief reprieve from the bottom two spots, but it wasn't long before two more losses sent the club to the foot of the table. A fourth win came in October, once again getting the better of capital city rivals Copenhagen, and for the fourth time doing so by a score of 3-2. That, though, would be the last win Fremad Amager earned in the autumn phase. The club lost their remaining six games in the first half of the season, including 5-0 and 6-1 home losses to Lyngby and Brøndby. With just eight points to their name, Fremad Amager would have to fight for survival in the Qualification league. The club were unable to make a turnaround, as the poor display in the Superliga carried over to the Qualification League. After 14 games played and despite being granted seven bonus points thanks to their being in the top flight, the club could only manage three wins and three draws. With that they finished in sixth position, confirming their relegation from the Superliga.
Fremad Amager had rather middling performances back in the 1. Division following their relegation from the Superliga, finishing no higher than seventh in the six seasons they were there before being relegated to the 2. Division in 2001. After a poor first season in the third tier that saw the club go through four managers in the span of three months (including one interim), the club won promotion back to the 1. Division in 2003. The capital side managed to reach as high as fifth in 2005-06 (despite having a –1 goal difference), only to be relegated back to the third tier in the 06/07 season. In 2007, four investors from the Faroe Islands led by Faroese footballer Todi Jónsson (who was playing for Fremad Amager at the time) acquired a 51.7% stake in the club, and the new ownership announced at a press conference on March 20th that the club would be entering a merger with two other Copenhagen clubs - Kløvermarkens Forenede Boldklubber and Amager Fodbold Forening - to form FC Amager, with the goal of reaching the Superliga by the 2010-11 season. From the beginning, though, things did not go according to plan. The club was supposed to begin play in the 07/08 season, but those plans had to be postponed for a year because Fremad Amager had debt of over 3 million kroner that couldn't be paid out by the former majority share holder before a March 31st deadline set by the DBU. Additionally, none of the clubs involved in the merger had the organization or facilities to handle promotion to the Superliga.
Regardless, the club tried anyway. FC Amager was officially founded on July 1st, 2008, and thanks to Fremad Amager's promotion to the 1. Division in the 07/08 season, FC Amager started out in the second tier of Danish football. The season would end up being an utter disaster. Despite the heavy investment, Amager could only manage two wins between August and March, in total picking up just 11 points from 15 games. The club was simply far too ambitious for its own good and coupled with the effects of the 2008 Great Recession, it became financially unsustainable. Thus, on March 28th, 2009 - just eight months after its founding - Jónsson told the DBU that the club would be filing for bankruptcy and immediately withdrawing from the 1. Division. Amager's players revolted upon hearing the news, going on to steal and destroy much of the club's equipment from the dressing room. FC Amager's license was returned to Fremad, and the club had to start life over down outside the national leagues in the Københavnsserien - the fifth tier of Danish soccer. Back-to-back promotions brought Fremad Amager back to the 2. Division by 2011. The club nearly got relegated in 2012, but managed to keep their place in the division after winning a relegation playoff against Kjellerup IF. Since then their performances in the league had improved, and the club won promotion back to the 1. Division in 2017, now going on for a sixth straight season in Denmark's second tier.
Hvidovre IF
- Full Name: Hvidovre Idrætsforening
- Founded: 1925
- Time in the Danish Superliga: 1996-1997 (One season)
- Current Status: 1. Division (2nd Tier)
Though they were founded in 1925, Hvidovre IF didn't join an association until 1928, initially becoming a member of the Arbejdernes Boldspil Union (Worker's Ball Game Union) before switching to the Kjøbenhavns BU in 1934. For the next few decades, Hvidovre remained a low level Danish club, but in the 1960s the club embarked on a rapid ascent up the footballing ladder. In 1962 the club had reached the 3. Division and just three seasons later already found themselves in the top flight. Then in 1966 HIF won its first 1. Division title. That year also saw the club enter its first continental competition, playing in the 1966-67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, where they lost to German side Eintracht Frankfurt in the second round. Then in the 1967-68 European Cup, the club upset Swiss champions Basel before holding Spanish giants Real Madrid to a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the second round, though they lost the tie 6-3 on aggregate. Hvidovre would win two more league titles in 1973 and 1981 (coming very close in the '70 and '71 seasons). The 74/75 and 82/83 European Cups weren't as successful as the 67/68 campaign, with the club going out in the first round to Polish side Ruch Chorzów and Italian giants Juventus respectively. A Danish Cup title in 1980 also earned Hvidovre the right to compete in the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Iceland's Fram but falling to Dutch side Feyenoord. While the club was successful throughout this time, it wasn't alwasy smooth sailing. The club were relegated from the 1. Division in 1974, one year after winning the title, failing to return until 1979. They were relegated again in 1985, promoted again in 1986, and relegated again in 1987 after the departure of Danish goalkeeping legend Peter Schmeichel who departed for Brøndby following promotion. This began a downward spiral that saw the club end up back in the Danmarksserien by 1991. As quickly as they went down, however, they would almost just as quickly rise up again, returning to the 1. Division in 1994, and later winning the division title in 1996, returning them to the top flight.
Hvidovre had an okay start to the 1996-97 season, picking up a win over Viborg following a narrow opening day loss to FC Copenhagen. However, it became pretty clear that wins would be few and far between for the club, and though the club managed a respectable draw against reigning Danish champions Brøndby, it came in a string of six games without a win, sending HIF into the relegation zone. They briefly came out of the drop thanks to a 3-2 win over Aarhus in late September, but 2-1 losses to OB and Aalborg dragged them right back in. HIF didn't win again until November, getting revenge on OB before the winter break. Fast-forwarding to March, they started the second half of the season just like how they started the first half - with a loss to Copenhagen. Though a 2-1 win over Aalborg following that wasn't enough to get them out of the relegation zone, they were only one point adrift from safety. Unfortunately, one point would eventually become 13, as Hvidovre suffered a 12 match winless streak stretching from April to June, topped of by an embarrassing 7-1 defeat to AB Copenhagen, who themselves had been fighting relegation for much of the season. It was the match before that one - a 1-0 home loss to Silkeborg on matchday 31 - that confirmed their return to the 1. Division, though. The biggest issue that plagued HIF during the season, likely much to the frustration of their fans, was the club's inability to maintain a lead. Of the 18 matches Hvidovre failed to despite scoring, ten were from winning positions, including two games where they had a two goal lead (2-2 draw vs Velje in August, 3-2 loss vs Aarhus in May).
The club established itself as a lower mid-table side in the Danish second tier following their relegation from the Superliga. In 1999 the club's ambitions would change with the return of Peter Schmeichel - this time as an investor purchasing a majority stake in the club. Despite the investment, however, the performances on the field saw practically no improvement, and in June 2002 Schmeichel pulled out of the project. With the financial basis for a return to top flight soccer now gone, Hvidovre plummeted, suffering back-to-back relegations and returning to the Danmarksserien in 2004. They returned to the 2. Division Øst in 2005, and in the following season they won promotion back to the 1. Division after winning a promotion playoff against FC Fyn. HIF's second stint in Denmark's second tier since the Superliga days was pretty much the same as their first one. The club could only manage mid-table finishes at best, and they were eventually relegated from the division in the 2010-11 season. A third stint in the 1. Division in 2013 would be their worst performing one, suffering relegation at the end of the 13/14 season. After three seasons in the third tier, the club hired their current manager Per Frandsen June 2017. The former Danish international had an immediate impact; after winning their 2. Division group, Hvidovre won the promotion group with relative ease, returning them to the 1. Division. The club barely survived the 2018-19 season, staying up only thanks to FC Helsingør failing to win on the final game of the season. They improved their position by two spots up to 8th in 2019-20, and in 20/21 they topped their relegation group. A chance at promotion came in the 2021-22 season when the club qualified for the promotion round for the first time, finishing 3rd - on spot away from promotion. This season, though, they currently find themselves in second with a nine point lead over Sønderjyske, meaning that a return to the Superliga for the team hailing from the Capital Region could be imminent.
AB Gladsaxe
- Full Name: Akademisk Boldklub Gladsaxe
- Founded: 1889
- Time in the Danish Superliga: 1996-2004 (Eight seasons)
- as AB Copenhagen
- Current Status: 2. Division (3rd Tier)
One of the founding members of the Danish Football Association, Akademisk Boldklub København immediately established themselves as one of the premier clubs in Danish football. The first decade and a half saw AB dominate the Copenhagen Championship, and the late 30s to early 50s would see the club enter its golden era, winning six more national titles between 1937 and 1952, with multiple second and third place finishes to boot and failing to finish outside the top four between 1950 and 1958. AB's trajectory would take a massive detour, though, when in 1958 the Danish Ministry of Education terminated the lease on parts of AB's training facilities at the State Gymnastics Institute at the University of Copenhagen (which AB had been using since 1924). Without help from the Ministry, AB had to negotiate with municipalities in the area to help facilitate a move, with the municipality of Gladsaxe ultimately accepting the club's request. This was largely due to the desire of Gladsaxe's mayor Erhard Jacobsen to bring an elite sports club to the area, though now the club had to establish itself with a new community as revenue began to drop due to falling attendance. AB spent another season in the 2. Division in 1965, but in 1967 the club won its third and final 1. Division title, qualifying for the 1968-69 European Cup, where they got the better of FC Zürich before falling to AEK Athens in the round of 16. After narrowly losing out on the division title in 1970, the club experienced a major downturn, spending another season in the 2. Division in 1972 and, following a fourth relegation from the top flight in 1973, spending a further 12 seasons in the second tier before falling down to the third tier by 1986 and nearly falling to the Danmarksserien in 1987. In the 90s, though, the club had begun assembling a talented team, complete with the likes of midfielder Peter Rasmussen and future Danish national team captain René Henriksen. These players stuck with AB despite offers from some of the best clubs in Denmark, and by 1994 the club had returned to the now second-tier 1. Division. After a decent 7th place finish in the 1994-95 season, AB Copenhagen were runners-up behind Hvidovre in the 1. Division standings, meaning a return to the top flight for Akademikerne for the first time in 23 years.
Being a club newly promoted to the top flight nearly 20 years following the introduction of professionalism, AB knew it was important to start off the season well, which was perfectly encapsulated by the club losing away to Lyngby 6-1 in the season opener (you know, if by "perfectly encapsulated" you mean completely cast to the wayside). AB's first win came against Odense BK in August on matchday three, which was also the last win they would earn for the next twelve matchdays, going winless from August 11th to November 6th. The club were by no means fantastic, but they did manage to get good results when the opportunities came, and frankly the main reason why they stayed up in the 96/97 season was the fact that the two clubs that ultimately finished below them (Hvidovre and Viborg) were just that much worse, demonstrated by the aforementioned 7-1 shellacking AB dealt to Hvidovre on the penultimate matchday. Akademikerne were much improved in 97/98, jumping up five spots compared to last season to finish fifth and qualifying for the second round of the 1998 Intertoto Cup, where they lost to Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltava on away goals. The 1998-99 season would see the culmination of AB Copenhagen's rise. A fantastic league campaign that even saw the club ship seven goals past league newcomers Boldklubben 93 brought them up to third in the league table. Even better was to come in the 98/99 Pokalen; upon entering the fifth round they defeated 1. Division side Svendborg fB, city rivals FC Copenhagen, and reigning Superliga champions Brøndby to face off against Aalborg in the final, which they won after beating AaB 2-1 at Parken Stadium
Back in 1997, three new members were introduced to AB Copenhagen's board of directors: Bent Jakobsen, Denis Holmark, and Torben Mærsk. Their arrival marked a rapid change in AB's strategy, becoming a limited company, introducing full-time professionalism and implementing a business plan based on buying and selling players, investing in talent development, and maximizing revenues through TV deals and merchandizing. The CEO of AB, Henrik Mostrup, was pushed out in 1998, replaced by former AB player Per Frimann, and shortly after the club had been put on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. At first, this strategy seemed to pay off, demonstrated by the success of the 98/99 season. While AB's time in the 1999-2000 UEFA Cup was short, being dumped out in the first round by Swiss side Grasshopper, they remained strong in the league, earning another third place finish (just four points off top spot) and qualifying for another UEFA Cup. There they brushed aside Faroese outfit B36 9-0 in the qualifying round, but were then blanked by Czech side Slavia Praha 5-0 soon after. AB reached another Danish Cup final in 2001 (this time losing to Silkeborg 4-1), but a 10th place finish in the league that season were showing signs that the board's strategy was not going to plan. The club had bought too many players on too high of wages, and despite the large equity and the sale of players like René Henriksen for millions to international clubs since '98, the club was hemorrhaging money. In the 2000-01 season, AB had an annual account deficit of ~36.4 million kroner. In the wake of the financial crisis with rumors of bankruptcy and a possible merger with FC Copenhagen (which the board rejected), Frimann resigned as CEO in 2001, moving to the sporting director role - which he would also resign from a year later. Despite efforts, the deficit only fell to ~21.5 million kroner in 2002 and nearly 16 million in 2003. Therefore, serious downsizing had to occur, which unfortunately meant selling many of the club's best players like future Danish international Nicolai Stockholm and future Egyptian international Mohammed Zidan. Another merger was explored by the AB board, this time with Farum Boldklub (now FC Nordsjælland), but Farum rejected the possibility, resulting in the chair and vice-chair of the club resigning . AB still had a good 01/02 season, finishing 5th and qualifying for the 2002 Intertoto Cup (losing to Belarussian side BATE Borisov in the first round), but they slumped down to 9th in 2002-03, and following the mass exodus of players in 2003, it was impossible to compete in the top division. In a 03/04 campaign rocked by bad results (including a 6-0 loss to FC Midtjylland) and a 9-point deduction incurred due to them fielding the Kenyan Emmanuel Ake who was playing under the false name Ali Akida and possessed a fake passport, AB finished bottom of the Superliga on 17 points and were relegated.
AB spent the first three seasons back in the 1. Division struggling in the lower half of the table while the club continued to work to fix its finances. Soon enough the club was able to stabilize itself, and in 2007 the board embarked on a new initiative known as Vision 2010, with the stated goal being a return to the Superliga by 2010. Fueled by a very talented youth department, the club went from 10th in 06/07 to 6th in 07/08. Vision 2010 was almost fully realized in the 08/09 season when AB finished 3rd, though they were eight points behind Silkeborg. The 09/10 season was the last chance to meet the self-imposed deadline, but a disappointing close to the campaign saw Akademikerne slip to fourth. Yet it was clear that on the field things were on the right track and that it would surely return to the top flight someday. Off the field, however, it was a different story. The push to get the club up to the Superliga by 2010 required heavy investment, and after failing to win promotion the club once again found themselves in financial trouble. It got so bad that in June 2012 the club was once again flirting with bankruptcy before the Gladsaxe city council voted to bail them out. In September that same year, because of their association with the municipality, the club changed their name from AB Copenhagen to AB Gladsaxe. For three consecutive seasons between 2011 and 2014 the club could only manage survival in the second tier on the final matchday, but luck had finally run out in 2014-15 when they were finally relegated to the 2. Division. They bounced back to the second tier in 2016, but were relegated again after just one season and have been playing in the 2. Division since.
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That concludes part one. Part two will be posted shortly.
Top Comment:
I really appreciate that you take the time and make all these posts OP. How much research do you spend on each post?
A shout out to the Danish national WTC team! 🇩🇰🇩🇰
Main Post:
Hello hobby friends 👋
Here are a few close-up photos of one of the Thousand Sons miniatures I painted for my good friend @entropyminiatures
Juan piloted the Thousand Sons to the most recent Warhammer 40,000 World Teams Championship as part of the Danish national team @teamdenmark40k
Super exciting to follow along on their journey! 🇩🇰
The team ended on an impressive 13 out of 36 of the world's best 40k team (litter the very best players on the world!).
Great job 👏👏
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Yooo. That cape goes hard. Amazing job!
Reddit, I present the female Curling master, Madeleine Dupont of Denmark.
Main Post: Reddit, I present the female Curling master, Madeleine Dupont of Denmark.
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Here is my gift to you. Warning link NSFW.