In Stockholm, there are three clubs the two biggest, most popular, and successful being AIK and Djurgården. These two teams also have what is considered the biggest rivalry between any two clubs in the Nordic countries. Their rivalry often even ranks in the European lists for best rivalries. According to Wikipedia
"They are historically Stockholm's biggest and most successful clubs with both having won a total of 11 Swedish Championships each. The rivalry has existed since 1891, the year which both clubs were founded in, separated by just three weeks. Thereby known as Tvillingderbyt (the Twinderby). Since 1891, 220 fixtures have been contested in all competitions with both clubs winning 80 games each. Both clubs have gained a large amount of support throughout the city. Though there is a certain geographical divide as well, with AIK's heartland being in the Northwestern part and Djurgården's heartland being in the Eastern part of the city. This rivalry is also found in ice hockey which further aggravates tensions between both sets of fans and shapes the rivalry as quite unique in Swedish sport. In general, the supporters of these two clubs consider the other team to be their biggest rival."
So with this rivalry, there is obviously a lot of tensions when it comes to this game. This causes there to be a lot of precautions. For example, the respective fans of each team are told to go to different metros stops, entrances, and parts of the stands. The police are also out in full force for this game. They had riot police, canines, mounties, etc. you name it they had it at the game to keep the peace.
I went to the game with my host brother, his friend, and another exchange student who is really into soccer, and really wanted to go, like me, to experience the crazy rivalry. We all met at the metro station not too far from the stadium. Even from here you could already hear the massive chants and yelling going on between the two supporters. As we got closer and closer to the arena, there were more and more police and more evidence of unrest in the area. Once we finally got to the ticket admission area everyone had to be thoroughly searched, imagine TSA style search. They were looking for weapons, anything that could be a makeshift weapon, flares (will make sense later), etc. Once emitted we made the way to our standing area and waited for the chaos to erupt.
The pre-game was ridiculous with the opposite sides of the arena screaming back and forth to each other, chatting slurs about the other team, and waving enormous flags at each other. The first half didn't go very well for our team, Djurgården. Halftime was when the real madness erupted. All of a sudden on my side of the stands blue smoke was coming from everywhere, this is what the police were looking for. Some people then started to light flares to add to the scene. Afterward a giant picture of hoisted up in front of us. I found out later this was to hide the people with the flares changing of clothes from the police. Once we were done with our demonstration AIK did the same on their side. The smoke was so bad in the arena that they had to postpone the game after halftime warmups because of all the smoke.
Eventually, the game resumed, and we played as poorly as we did the first half and ended up losing
0-3. I luckily brought clothes to cover up after the game otherwise I would have been subjected to harassment from the AIK fans on my way home.
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