The Swedish top division, Allsvenskan, has been operational for more than a century now. Never in its history has Sweden been considered a powerhouse of the club game. Among its clubs, only Malmö FF has been sporadically present at European competitions, but even they don’t boast any real achievements to show for, except once reaching the final of the UEFA Champions League, which was then the European Cup, in the 1978/79 season. Malmö FF are the reigning champions of the Swedish top flight, winning their record-extending 27th title in 2024, their fourth in the last five seasons. But this season has been one of underachievement. They are fourth in the league, and there is only a slim chance that they will go on to play in the qualifying rounds of the conference league. The club that is racing to the title with only a handful of matches to go is Mjallby AIF. And their story is really worth telling.
Mjallby AIF was founded in 1939 in the village of Hallevik in southern Sweden. It took them more than four decades to reach the top flight for the first time. But for the next forty years, they mostly remained outside the Allsvenskan. As recently as 2016, they were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Only a final-day win helped them escape what would be a disastrous relegation to the fourth tier. They had to operate on a shoestring budget by focusing on youth development. That paid off in spectacular fashion. Mjallby turned a corner, securing a back-to-back promotion with first-place finishes and reached the Allsvenskan.
In their first season back at the top flight in 2020, Mjallby finished fifth, just two points off the European qualification place. That was in itself a huge success for a club based in a small fishing village with a population of less than one and a half thousand people. Mjallby is by all accounts a very small club. They shocked football fans by consistently punching above their weight in the Allsvenskan, never finishing lower than 10th in a 16-team league. They even reached the final of the national cup competition for the first time in their history in 2023.
Mjallby AIF had started this season with back-to-back draws. They followed that up with a five-game winning run that propelled them to the top of the table. They lost the next match, but that has yet been their only loss in the league this season, where they have won 19 games and drawn 6. They have constantly stayed at the top of the league since the 15th round. They have defeated their only credible competitors in the league, Hammarby, both home and away. Mjallby had been known for their defensive resilience and pragmatic long-ball tactics in the last few years, but more recently, they have worked on perfecting their offensive game.
The man whose contributions have revolutionised the effectiveness of Mjallby’s attacking unit is Karl Marius Aksum. Aksum, who attained his PhD degree working on visual perception of football, had no experience of coaching at the senior level when he joined Mjallby in 2024. Aksum’s academic interest in the head movements of players while receiving the ball has helped him maximise Mjallby’s chance-creation. This year, they have both scored and prevented way more than what xG models had predicted, prompting the notable football tactics writer Michael Cox to conclude that Mjallby’s exploits have seemingly broken the xG.
Deploying a minutely data-driven approach, Mjallby now emphasise building from the back and keeping long stretches of possession. They have also mastered the art of winning the ball back close to the opposition’s goal. In a 3-2-4-1 shape, they have used cutbacks to great success to open up opposition defences. In the other box, Mjallby has conceded only 17 goals in 26 matches, the lowest in the league by some margin. Such a record feels even more impressive given that they operate on a budget that amounts to just 15% of what clubs like Malmö operate on. 9 years on from near bankruptcy, they are a very profitable institution with an inspiringly low wage-to-turnover ratio.
With the league all but sewn up, Mjallby’s focus will certainly be on the very achievable target of winning at least five more points from their four remaining matches, which will further cement the miraculous nature of the campaign by establishing a new record of the highest points gathered by any club in a season in the history of Allsvenskan.
Sweden prides itself on their insistence on the 50+1 rule. The club football in Sweden is remarkable in its robust and active fan culture. The fans of the small village club of Mjallby enjoy an enviable proximity to players, several of whom are residents of the same building complex. While analysts are never late to point out the difficulties of maintaining such dizzying standards, Mjallby AIF reminds us how fairytales live on even at a time when football has become increasingly predictable.
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