Allmänna Idrottsklubben (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

: ''the Public Sports Club''), usually referred to as just AIK and internationally known as AIK Stockholm, is a professional

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 ...

from

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden. Founded in 1891, at the downtown address of

Biblioteksgatan Biblioteksgatan ( Swedish for "Library Street") is a street in Norrmalm in central Stockholm. The street starts out as a pedestrian street at Norrmalmstorg until it passes Stureplan, whereafter it continues towards Humlegården and the Royal L ...

8 in the district of

Norrmalm Norrmalm is a city district in Stockholm, Sweden. History Norrmalm is a part of the larger borough of Norrmalm (''Norrmalms stadsdelsområde''). The southern part of the district, Lower Norrmalm (''Nedre Norrmalm''), also known as the City, ...

, the club is the largest in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. The club's achievements include Swedish championship titles in a slew of sports:

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 ...

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 ...

floorball Floorball (also known by other names) is a sport played with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. It is played indoors with sticks and a hollow plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three periods. The sport of bandy also playe ...

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 ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

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 ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

, and many other sports, as well as the

Wimbledon Championships The Wimbledon Championships, commonly called Wimbledon, is a tennis tournament organised by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Association annually in Wimbledon, London. It is chronologically the ...

and

French Open The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

(through

Sven Davidson Sven Viktor Davidson (13 July 1928 – 28 May 2008) was a Sweden, Swedish tennis player who became the first Swede to win a Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam title when he won the French Championships in 1957 French Championships – Men's singles ...

Lennart Bergelin Sven Lennart Bergelin (10 June 1925 – 4 November 2008) was a Swedish tennis player and coach. As a player, for AIK, Bergelin won nine Swedish championship singles titles between 1945 and 1955, and the French Open doubles title in 1948. Bergeli ...

, and

Ulf Schmidt Ulf "Uffe" Christian Johan Schmidt (born 12 July 1934) is a former Swedish tennis player. He competed for AIK from Stockholm. He won 14 singles' tournaments, among them the International Swedish Championships in Båstad in 1957 and 1961. In 19 ...

Founding

The idea to start an athletic association began when the brothers

Isidor Isidore ( ; also spelled Isador, Isadore and Isidor) is a masculine given name. The name is derived from the Greek name ''Isídōros'' (Ἰσίδωρος, latinized ''Isidorus'') and can literally be translated to 'gift of Isis'. The name has survi ...

and Paul Behrens were taking a walk through Hantverkargatan, in central

. They were walking pretty fast; and noticed that there were two other youngsters behind them who also walked quickly. The strangers tried to walk past the Behrens, so they had to speed up to keep the lead; but the strangers did the same. Finally all of them started to run in what now looked like an improvised competition. When Isidor and Paul were far away from the unknown youngsters, Isidor said that they should start an athletic association and compete with others. So the brothers gathered their friends, who had strong athletic interest, and held a meeting at Behrens' on 15 February 1891, on Biblioteksgatan 8, in central Stockholm. Isidor introduced his idea to everyone, and they liked it. Since the boys agreed that every thinkable sport should be practiced, they decided that “Allmänna Idrottsklubben” (The General Sports Club) would be a suitable name. The name also had other meanings: AIK allowed anybody to become a member; and at this time many athletic clubs were limited (e.g. the military).

Colours and badge

AIK's primary colours are black and yellow. White is the secondary colour. The club's crest is dark blue, yellow and gold. The crest's style is arguably

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

, the predominant style at the turn of the 20th century. AIK's crest was created by Fritz Carlsson-Carling, a runner and football player. Contrary to popular belief, the sun has nothing to do with the coat of arms of

Solna Municipality Solna ( or , ), also known as Solna Municipality, is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in central Stockholm County, Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockh ...

. Solna was not a city until 1943, i.e. six years after Råsunda Football Stadium was completed and 52 years after AIK was founded in

Stockholm City Centre Stockholm City Centre (, , ) is in Stockholm Municipality, also known as the City of Stockholm, part of the Stockholm urban area in Sweden. Since 2007, Stockholm City Centre has been organized into four (sometimes translated as "boroughs"): K ...

Departments

American football

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

became a part of AIK in 2020, when it took over the organization of Northside Bulls. They compete in the second tier, Swedish American Football Division 1.

Athletics

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

was the original sport practiced by the club in 1891. The Swedish term used for athletics at the time was ''allmänn idrott'', from which the club's name is partly derived. Athletics was discontinued in 1916, but reintroduced as a department in 2012.

Bandy

Basketball

In 2016 AIK merged with Solna based

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

club

Solna Vikings Solna Vikings was a Swedish professional basketball club with a men's team and a women's team. Both played in their respective top leagues: the women in the Damligan, and the men in the Swedish Basketball League. History The Solna Vikings was ...

, champions of

Basketligan Svenska Basketligan, or the Swedish Basketball League (SBL), is the premier league for professional basketball in Sweden. The league was originally established in 1992 as Basketligan and was known as that prior to the season of 2006–07, but whe ...

in 2003.

Boules

Bowling

Floorball

Football

Golf

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

was added as a department in 2004.

Handball

Ice hockey

Wrestling

AIK competed in

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

as early as 1893. It is unknown when wrestling was folded. In 2017 several professional wrestlers from

Huddinge Huddinge Municipality () is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Stockholm County, east central Sweden. Its seat is located in Huddinge (), which is a part of Stockholm urban area. The municipality is, with its approximately 110,000 inhabit ...

enquired to create a wrestling department in AIK.

Defunct departments

Media

On 5 February 1995, AIK became the first non-

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

sports club to promote an Internet website.

Support

Fans of the club are referred to as ''AIK:are'' or ''gnagare'' (meaning ''

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

''); both words are the same in singular and plural. Although AIK fans can be found all over Stockholm and Sweden, the northwestern central

Stockholm urban area The Stockholm urban area () is the largest and most populous of the statistical localities or urban areas in Sweden. It has no administrative function of its own, but constitutes a continuous built-up area, which extends into 11 municipalities in ...

is considered the club's stronghold. Black Army – Stockholm was formed in 1981 and is today the biggest supporter group of AIK. During the 1980s and 1990s, Black Army wrought havoc around the country, making national headlines, as a result of which another supporter group, Allmänna Supporterklubben ''(the General Supporters Club)'', was created in 2000 as an alternative. In 2002 Allmänna Supporterklubben was renamed to the much more AIK related name "Smokinglirarna" ''(roughly, "The Players", literally "the Black Tie Players")''. In 2002 an

ultras Ultras are a type of association football fans who are known for their fanatical support. The term originated in Italy, but is used worldwide to describe predominantly organised fans of association football teams. The behavioural tendency ...

group was formed, Ultras Nord ''(Ultras North)'', and two years later, 2004, Sol Invictus was formed. Black Army, Smokinglirarna, Ultras Nord, and Sol Invictus together with AIK-Tifo form the so-called AIK-Alliansen ''(the AIK Alliance)''. In 1907, the Crown Prince of Sweden Gustaf Adolf became patron and first honorary member of the club. This has since been in line with family tradition, and today the

King of Sweden The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the #IOG, Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional monarchy, constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parl ...

Carl XVI Gustaf Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. Having reigned since 1973, he is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history. Carl Gustaf was born during the reign of his paternal great-grandfather, K ...

is patron of the club. From time to time the royal family of Sweden visits the club's home matches. Prince Daniel is a well-known AIK fan even before his marriage to the Crown Princess

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

.Derby-sessorna
Notable fans of AIK include songwriter and producer

Max Martin Karl Martin Sandberg (born 26 February 1971),Max Martin
AllMusic known professional ...

; DJ

Sebastian Ingrosso Sebastian Carmine Ingrosso (born 20 April 1983) is a Swedish DJ and record producer. He is a member of Swedish House Mafia, together with Axwell and Steve Angello. Career 1999–2007: Career beginnings Sebastian Ingrosso entered the music indu ...

; swimmer

Sarah Sjöström Sarah Fredrika Sjöström (; born 17 August 1993) is a Swedish competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer specialising in the sprint Freestyle swimming, freestyle and Butterfly stroke, butterfly events and one of the most decorated swimmers of all ti ...

; former leader of the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressiv ...

Mona Sahlin Mona Ingeborg Sahlin (; ; born 9 March 1957) is a Swedes, Swedish politician who was leader of the opposition and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2007 to 2011. Sahlin was a Parliament of Sweden, Member of Parliament, represen ...

; and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

founder

Daniel Ek Daniel Georg Ek (; born 21 February 1983) is a Swedish businessman and technologist. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of music streaming service Spotify. As of May 2025, his net worth was estimated at $9.2 billion by ''For ...

. Former president of

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

Lennart Johansson Nils Lennart Johansson (5 November 1929 – 4 June 2019) was a Swedish sports official who served as the fifth and, to date, longest-serving president of UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations. He served in the position from his elec ...

was a supporter since childhood. The

Wallenberg family The Wallenberg family is a prominent Swedish family of bankers, industrialists, politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats, present in most large Swedish industrial groups, including EQT AB, Ericsson, Electrolux, ABB, SAS Group, SKF, Atlas Copco, ...

are also closely attached with AIK, being one of the major shareholders. The club's hymn is ''"Å vi é AIK"'' (meaning "Oh we are AIK"), a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

-lyric cover of the 1971 song "

The Last Farewell "The Last Farewell" is a song by the British folk singer Roger Whittaker (music and vocals on the original recording) and Ron A. Webster (poem and lyrics). Whittaker hosted a radio programme in the United Kingdom, backed by an orchestra with arran ...

" by

Roger Whittaker Roger Henry Brough Whittaker (22 March 1936 – 13 September 2023) was a Kenyan-born British singer-songwriter and musician. His music is an eclectic mixture of folk music and popular songs, the latter variously in a crooning or in a schlager ...

Rivalries

AIK's main rival is

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

, also formed in 1891 in Stockholm, just three weeks after AIK. AIK also maintains a strong animosity towards the third major Stockholm side

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differ ...

. The club's biggest rival outside the

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

Leksands IF Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. The team plays in the top-tier league, Swedish Hockey League (SHL), after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus ...

, and

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

References

External links

AIK
– official site
Black Army - Stockholm
– AIK's official fan club {{DEFAULTSORT:Allmanna Idrottsklubben Sports clubs and teams established in 1891 Multi-sport clubs in Sweden Association football clubs established in 1891 1891 establishments in Sweden Figure skating clubs in Sweden Sports clubs and teams in Stockholm 1890s establishments in Stockholm ca:AIK Solna pl:AIK Solna zh:AIK足球俱乐部