Welcome to sixth chapter of our journey with Kiruna FF.

The Swedish football season traditionally runs from spring to autumn, starting in late March or early April and concluding in November. If a Swedish team has won the league title or qualified for a European competition in the previous season, they would begin their new Allsvenskan season while their previous year’s European competition is still ongoing. This situation arises because the European competitions typically start in the summer and continue into the following year.

Let’s take a look at how the 2026/2027 Champions League season finished, our attempt to win three titles in-a-row, the Svenska Cupen, and our 2027/2028 Champions league campaign.

2026/2027 Champions League

At the end of last season, we found ourselves in 7th place with 12 points. We had two matches left in the League Phase. We continued our Champions League campaign with a tough match against Liverpool, which we lost (1-3). It was a disappointing result, but we managed to bounce back in our next match against Juventus. We won that game (3-2), thanks to goals from Damjan Dakić and two from Petar Ratkov. Helping us qualify for the Knockout Play Off Round.

In the Knockout Play Off Round, we faced AC Milan in a two-legged tie. In the first leg, we lost (2-5), despite goals from Richard Bengtsson and Brandon Aguilera. We had hoped to turn things around in the second leg, but unfortunately, we lost again (2-3), despite Richard Bengtsson scoring twice for us.

Overall, our Champions League campaign season was a success. We punched way above our weight securing some fantastic results against big European teams like Celtic (5-1), Rennes (5-1), and Italian giants Juventus (3-2).

Domestic Competitions

Svenska Cupen

We started our campaign in Group 1 with a convincing (3-0) win against Skövde AIK. Marko Petrović led the way with two goals, and Akinkunmi Amoo added the third. In our second group game, we faced Örebro SK and secured another a (2-0) victory. Oscar Aga opened the score in the 10th minute, and Jorge Gárate sealed the win with a goal in the 37th minute. Our final group game against Vasalunds IF was a dominant display, resulting in an (8-0) win. Brandon Aguilera started the scoring early with a goal in the 6th minute, followed by three goals from Petar Ratkov, one goal from Marko Petrović, and a hat trick by Richard Bengtsson.

In the quarter-finals, we faced IK Sirius and continued our winning ways with a (3-1) victory. Ramon-Pascal Lundqvist got us off to a great start with a goal in the 3rd minute, followed by a goal from Enrico Dueñas and Petar Ratkov sealed the win with a goal in stoppage time. We faced Halmstads BK in the semi-finals, Honduran international Pedro Green opened the scoring early with a goal in the 6th minute, followed by a Michal Sáček goal, and Richard Bengtsson added a goal from the penalty spot to secure our place in the final to finish the match (3-0)

In the final, we met Djurgårdens IF. Richard Bengtsson opened the scoring with a goal in the 23rd minute, and Svit Sešlar sealed the win with a goal in the 38th to secure our first Svenska Cupen with a (2-0) victory.

Allsvenskan

We started off the season with a decent start of the season winning nine of the first 12 matches, drawing one, and losing two matches vs IFK Götenborg (0-1) and IF Brommapojkarna (2-3) between April and May. In June and July, we won five and drew two matches, keeping us in first place six points ahead of Malmö.

Our winning streak continued in August with three comfortable wins, we faced IF Elfsborg in my favorite match of the season, coming back from 0-3 at halftime to win the match (5-3). By September we had gone 17 matches unbeaten. However, back-to-back losses against Malmö (3-4) and Helsingborgs (0-2) in October meant that we were unable to catch up with Malmo, who went three points ahead of us. We ended the season on a high note with a (6-1) win against Djurgårdens IF, and a (4-0) win against Landskrona BoIS. Unfortunately, we finished the season in second place, with a total of 70 points. Some may say that we’ve pulled an Arsenal but hey, that’s neither here or there.

Despite finishing in second place, we had an impressive season, scoring 92 goals. Petar Ratkov was the top scorer with 19 goals, while Mirsad Ziba and Richard Bengtsson scored 18 and 15 goals respectively. Defensively, we suffered from losing our best defenders during the summer window. We conceded 33 goals this season, 14 more than the last.

Next season we will enter the Europa League League Path Qualifiers. This might be our first proper chance to win an European trophy.

2027/2028 Champions League

Our second go in the Champions League went almost the same as last campaign by winning three rounds of qualifying matches versus Sarajevo, Dinamo Zagreb, and Ludogorets. 

We began the league phase by picking up three consecutive (3-3) draws against Borussia M’gladbach, Real Sociedad, and Man City. We came back to tie from being down in the last 20 minutes in all three matches, I am still now sure how that even happen! The first lost came against Borussia Dortmund (0-1) from Karim Adeyemi penalty in the 38th minute, not a bad result after being down a man in the 23rd minute after Michael Sáćek was sent off.

We bounced back against Galatasaray (5-2). This was another fun one, with the scoreline being (4-2) at half time. The second half didn’t have the goals but it was quite fun to watch as there were a lot of silly open goal off target shots from both teams. We continued with back-to-back wins versus RB Salzburg (4-2) and Monaco (3-0). Both of these wins were on home turf, which meant we were still unbeaten at home (including the qualifying phase). 

Our hopes to skip the knock out round were damped as we travelled to Bergamo in the final league phase match, losing (1-4) vs Atalanta. This meant that we would face KRC Genk in the Knock Out Play Off Round.

As you can see above, we gave it our best shot! We dominate Genk in both matches. We continued the momentum in the home match against Man City; dominating in possession, shots, and xG. Our hopes sky high in the second leg as went ahead after a goal from Ludvig Nåvik in 16th minute, unfortunately that was it for us. Man City decided to stop toying with us and scored five goals in the second half.

In terms of individual performances, Richard Bengtsson and Mirsad Ziba continued their fantastic form in Europe, scoring 14 and 16 goals respectively.

Youth

Last season, I recruited Sweden’s top Head of Youth Development from Hammarby. A year later, the impact of Joakim Rydberg became evident as we achieved our best youth intake to date. These “elite” youngsters are quite versatile across in various positions, and possess the potential to compete at a high level, not far from Superettan. It looks like the future is bright in Kiruna, as we are covered for the future in most positions from goalkeeper to striker.

Finances & Infrastucture

Despite our notable successes both on and off the pitch, it is important to acknowledge that Kiruna FF remains a relatively small club in Sweden. Our average attendance currently stands at a modest 2,242, making it the third lowest in the league. Even when playing in Europe, we struggle to sell out our stadium. Furthermore, commercially, the club has been facing challenges, only securing £250K in sponsorship deals, which once again places us as the third worst in the league. As a result, we have heavily relied on the transfer market to generate income.

Our financial situation is quite healthy, with £101M in the bank. Through the sale of an impressive 37 players, we managed to accumulate a total of £135M. We have brought in 43 new players for a total of £16.25M, including 24 youngsters from Central America. This influx of players, overall count of 125 players throughout the club, has led to Kiruna FF surpassing Malmo FF in terms of having the highest salary expenditure, amounting to £8.42M per year.

A portion of the funds generated has been dedicated to improving our training and youth facilities with the training facilities being regarded as “great” and the youth facilities as “good.” Moreover, our junior coaching and youth recruitment programs are now “exceptional.” Lastly, the chairman has outlined a plan to construct a new stadium with a proposed capacity of 16K, although this figure may seem ambitious to say the least, it is better than not having a plan.

Reputation

After back-to-back titles in 2025 and 2026, and a second place finish in 2027. We’ve solidified our reputation as the 11th most reputable team in Sweden. Still, we’ve yet to reach the level of clubs like Malmo FF, Djurgårdens IF, and Hammarby IF. My focus for the rest of the save is to win more titles and hopefully join their ranks.

While we’ve had relative success in Europe, making it to the Champions League knockout rounds two season’s in-a-row, we haven’t cracked the top 75 clubs. Also, there are no Swedish teams are mentioned in the rankings, and the Allsvenskan hasn’t secured a spot in the top 20 leagues either. My aim is to improve Sweden’s position in the nation club coefficients and the Allsvenskan in the club rankings.

Even though we lost bottled the title, it was definitely my favorite season thus far. Managing in Sweden continues to keep me on my toes as we’ve continue to lose our best players. Some of them didn’t even make it through the entire season.

As there’s been a ton of playing staff turnover in the last couple of seasons, I will be breaking down some of the more notable transfers that we’ve had. I will also take a look at the 2028 Allsvenskan season as well as our time in the Europa League.

Feel free to reach out on Twitter, and if you want to stay up to date with the save, come say hi on Slack.
Thanks for making it to the end! 

Thanks again for making it all the way through.
Best,
José