places to go

AIK
Damallsvenskan newcomers 2007 that in spite of an expensive effort just barely managed to hang on. Member of a huge multisport club, great website: http://www.aikfotboll.se/Sidor/Start.aspx

Bälinge IF
One of Sweden's main employers of American talent. In spite or becuse of this constantly battling to keep away from the relegation competiton. Basic website, updated not often enough: http://www.bifdam.se

Djurgården/Älvsjö
Merged tradition (Älvsjö) with new money (Djurgården) and became immediately successfull. Perennial contenders. Small, usually up-to-date website: http://www.difdam.nu/index.php

Hammarby IF
Damallsvenskan's oldest club, has played in the top flight every single season since it was introduced 1978. New ambitious and well run website with lots of pictures for you foreigners: http://hammarbydamfotboll.se/

Kif Örebro
Transformation of the small suburb club Karlslunds IF into an ambitious want-to-be championship contender. Still a few years from being there, and so is their website: http://www.kiforebro.se/

Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC
Transformation of the small suburb club Kopparbergs/Landvetter into an ambitious want-to-be championship contender. Still a few years from being there, but their website is getting close: http://www.goteborgfc.se/

Kristianstads DFF
Newcomers. Successor of the now defunct Kristianstad/Wä, a club that played 15 seasons in Damallsvenskan and nurtured players like Therese Sjögran, Sara Johansson and Nilla Fischer. Completely dominated their 1st division with an 18-0-4 record. Website: http://kdff.nu/

LDB FC Malmö
Used to be Malmö FF, but found a generous sponsor. Perennial winner of the close-but-no-cigar award the last few decades, but still undisputed leaders of the marathon series. Offspring of Sweden's wealthiest club, but came into money when they broke the ties. The website is growing too: http://www.fcmalmo.se/

Linköping FC
Transformation of the small club BK Kenty into an ambitious want-to-be championship contender with the help from the local hockey club (one of Sweden's best). Getting really close to contending for the championship: Good, usually well updated, website: http://www.linkopingfc.com/

Sunnanå SK
Traditional small-town club that dominated women's football in Sweden when it still was possible for small-town clubs to do that. Simple website that too often lacks in up-dates and content: http://www.sunnana.nu/

Umeå IK
At least one of the best clubs in the world, if not the one. Good website with lots of content, but does not always live up to the club's success on the field. What about getting a real webshop, for instance: http://uik.se/

Umeå Södra FF
Newcomers. The other club in Umeå, from the south side of the river, hence the name. Won a tight 1st Division North with only 12 victories over 22 matches. Will be interesting to see if the relatively small town of Umeå (about 100,000 inhabitants) can support two Damallsvenskan teams: http://www.usff.se/

.

The fan culture in Swedish women's football is ways behind that of the men's sides, but it's slowly coming along. All in swedish on these sites. But if you find the link Forum anywhere (and you will) and navigate through the registration process (usually pretty straight forward), chances are you will find people that will talk to you in english. Or simply try to figure out the mail address to the webmaster - they are usually thrilled to get in touch with new fans.


Supporterklubben Kopps
Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC fanclub.
http://kopps.se/


UIK Fans
Umeå IK fanclub.
http://www.uikfans.se/


LdB hooligans
An LdB FC Malmö fan blog.
http://ldbhooligans.blogspot.com/

.

.

Damfotboll.com
The original, the since ever one-stop internet spot for everything in Swedish women's football news, and some international too. If it isn't here, it probably hasn't happened. Mainly in Swedish, but now also with a small news service in English.
http://www.damfotboll.com/


Svensk Damfotboll
The website of the bi-monthly magazine with the same name. They have news coverage, but the main attraction is their longer interviews and reports. In Swedish.
http://www.svenskdamfotboll.se


Fansoccer
Fansoccer is a fansite, that covers German and International women's football. You will get both match reports, in-depth analysis and small news snippets. Among other things, they covered the entire swedish season with reports from every Damallsvenskan game. Impressive! Only downside is, that it is in German.
http://www.fansoccer.de/


Damallsvenskan Soapbox
One American's commentary on Swedish women's soccer. Usually updated whenever there has been a Bälinge or Sweden match. Essential reading
http://damallsoapbox.blogspot.com/


Svensk Fotboll
The official website of the Swedish Football Association. The pages in english are pretty basic, but helps you find tables, results and things like that.
http://www.svenskfotboll.se/t2e.aspx?p=165572


Elitföreningen Damfotboll
An association of the clubs in Damallsvenskan and the 1st divisions, aiming to promote elite women's football in Sweden. In Swedish.
http://www.efd.se/

.

Several club sites have picture galleries (Djurgården, Göteborg, Sunnanå, Umeå IK and probably some more) - just look for a link that says anything with the Swedish word for picture; Bild, Bildgalleri, Bildarkiv. LDB FC has a lot of pics on their site, but you have to skim through their news archive (Nyheter) and look for headlines that contains the words bild or bilder.

The sites I list here are maintained by fans, but these fans are often more or less professional photographers. Please ask permission before you use their material for any kind of publication, on the web or otherwise.

AIK - Magnus Neck
One of the best Damallsvenskan photographers in my opinion. You have to skim through a lot of icehockey, floorball, bandy and whatnot to find the football playing women, but it's worth it.
http://magnusneck.se/gallery2/v/AIK/

AIK - anders-h
Another prolific AIK photographer, who covers just about anything AIK and then some. Not really as good a photographer as Magnus Neck, but he covers more events.
http://www.anders-h.nu/

Djurgården - Erik Muskus
A professional photographer, that has an big Djurgården archive with match pictures from 2005 to present.
http://www.damfotboll.terrapix.se/photos/index.php

Hammarby - kjellf
Mostly photos from Hammarby home matches plus the occasional youth and/or indoor tournament.
http://kjellf.se/minigal/index.php?twg_foffset=0

Linköping FC - Jon Sjöberg
No football available in his gallery at the moment, since it is icehockey season, but there are some great LFC shots in his portfolio. I'm guessing there'll be more football once the season starts.
http://www.rifotech.se/gallery.php5 (gallery)
http://www.rifotech.se/showgallery.php5?set=0000-00-00_portfolio (portfolio)

Linköping FC - Filip Oskarsson
Covers local women sports, mostly football. His gallery contains just about every LFC home match 2006 and 2007. For those of you that read Swedish it can be nice to know, that he actually comments on every match.
http://www.pixbox.se/usr_show_id31334_page0_order1.html

Qbik - Thomas Berglund
Lots of sports pictures by a Karlstad based photographer. Qbik is no longer in Damallsvenskan, but there is a lot of premier league match pictures from 2006 and 2007.
http://pixelbild.se/damfotboll.htm

Umeå IK - Kalle Prorok
There is a collection of Umeå pictures on his pbase site, mostly from 2005 and 2006. On his newer picasa site, you might run into some football pictures, but he seems to be mostly in to dance and theatre now.
http://www.pbase.com/kallepro/uik_06

I'm keeping this to sites, where the player herself is involved. That means official sites and sites, that the player manage on their own, but usually not fan-sites.

Ariane Hingst
Defensive player for Germany and Djurgården. Official website, huge job by the webmaster to cover anything Ariane Hingst. From time to time also a message from Ari herself. In German only.
ariane-hingst.de


Aylin Yaren
LDC FC Malmö's newly signed Turkisk-German 18 year old talent. Official website.
http://www.aylinyaren.com/


Hedvig Lindahl
Linköping and Sweden goal-keeper. Official site, that she regulary updates herself. Both Swedish and English versions.
hedviglindahl.se


Marta
The world's best player has to have an official website. Finally, there is one. Portugese and English versions. www.marta.fobazo.com/en/default.aspx


Ramona Bachmann
Umeå's Swiss prodigy, official website with news, pictures, videos and the works. German and English versions.
ramonabachmann.ch/


Victoria Svensson
Sweden and Djurgården forward. Official site, Victoria contributes fairly regulary. In Swedish.
www.victoriasvensson.com


.

EUROPEAN SITES

Kvindefodbold
Published by the Danish national team's main sponsor, the trade union 3f. The site covers news about the game in Denmark and Danish players wherever they are. All in Danish of course.
http://fusion.3f.dk/fodbold


Kvinnefotball
The site is published by Serieforeningen for kvinnefotball, an association of the elite clubs in Norwegian women's football. Covers Norway in detail, as well as international football. All in Norwegian.
http://www.kvinnefotball.no/Default.asp


Womensoccer.de
The "Frauenfussball-Blog auf Ballhöhe" offers detailed and well-informed coverage of German and international women's football. In German.
http://www.womensoccer.de


USA SITES
There is a fairly large stream of American players to Damallsvenskan and several players on the US national teams are, have been or might be playing in Damallsvenskan.

Ussoccer
This is the official website of the U.S. Soccer Federation and you will find extensive match reports and video clips from national team matches on all age levels.
http://ussoccer.com/teams/womens/index.jsp.html


Women's Professional Soccer (WPS)
The official website for the new professional women's league in USA. This is where you keep up with any news concerning the development of the league, clubs, player signings etc, while waiting for the first match in April 2009.
http://www.womensprosoccer.com/


USA Women's Soccer
Covers the US national teams, with some looks at the international scene, with a detailed and daily updated newsblog. Also keeps an extensive archive of historical data over the US national team's matches and players since 1985.
http://www.ooosasoccer.com/index.html


FC Indiana
Ambitious WPSL club located in Goshen, Indiana that joins the W-league 2008. Also part of the Chicago venture to field a team in the new USA professional league 2009. Big ambitions and extensive international network. Have been in talks with Kopparbergs/Göteborg about possible cooperation and at least once a year tries to persuade Marta to join the club.
http://www.fcindiana.com/women/index_E.html


Sky Blue Soccer
New Jersey club, that played their first season in the W-league 2007 and will field a team in the new professional USA league 2009. Extensive Swedish connections through former and/or future Damallsvenskan players (Denise Reddy, Formiga, Erla Arnardottir, Fanta Cooper, Kim Brandao, Susanna Lehtinen).
http://www.skybluesoccer.com/

.

Bigsoccer
Bigsoccer is a huge, USA-based soccer/football discussion forum. It's big enough to accomodate a section for women's football. You can find both news and, if you're lucky, intelligent and entertaining discussions. There are usually threads about or related to Damallsvenskan in the International and Rivalry subfora.


Football.co.uk
This British site has a forum with a surprisingly active women's section. Another surprise: there are a lot of Sweden fans there. You can usually find threads both about Damallsvenskan and the Swedish national team. Clubs here and Internationals here.


Women's Football Forum
Recently started forum with focus on the English scene, but also a vast international section. A European section with a subfora for Sweden and UEFA Women's Cup as well as a World section.



.