Halmstads BK
Four-time Swedish champions based in Halmstad, Halland.
Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish professional football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club was formed on 7 February 1914 and approved membership in the Swedish Sports Confederation on 6 March the same year. HBK competes in the highest tier of Swedish football, Allsvenskan, and has won four national championship titles and one national cup title. The club is member-controlled. It gained some European recognition in October 1995, when they defeated the successful Italian club Parma A.C. 3–0 at Gamla Ullevi (in Gothenburg) in the first of two matches in the Cup Winners' Cup. However, their second encounter, in Parma in November of the same year, ended with a crushing 0–4 defeat, eliminating them from the tournament.
Quick Facts
- Club
- Halmstad
- Full name
- Halmstads Bollklubb
- Nickname
- Bollklubben (The Ball Club)
- Founded
- 7 February 1914
- Ground
- Örjans Vall, Halmstad
- Capacity
- 10,873
- Chairman
- Pelle Nilsson
- Manager
- Stuart Baxter
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- In 1929, Halmstads BK celebrated 15 years with a match against SpVgg Sülz from Cologne, Germany; 1600 people watched in heavy rain as SpVgg Sülz won 5–2.
- Sylve Bengtsson returned from the 1952 Summer Olympics with a bronze medal.
History
In 1913 a group of youngsters calling themselves Viking met at Hotel Lugnet and decided to form an organization, naming it Halmstads Bollklubb and electing Axel Winberg as the first chairman. They applied for membership in the Swedish Sports Confederation, which was granted on 6 March 1914. Besides football, the club played bandy in its early years. In 1917 the club defeated Halmstads Kamraterna twice to finish second behind IS Halmia, and an athletics department was added.
The district championship final was reached in 1918 but lost to IS Halmia. In 1919 the club beat IS Halmia for the first time, with Gustav "Pytt" Söderholm as top goalscorer, and a swimming department was added. The first district championship title came in 1920 with a 4–0 win over Falkenbergs FF in the final, and boxing was introduced. In 1921 the club won the district championship again by defeating IS Halmia, also winning Hallandspostens pokal against Halmstads IF 5–0, and a women's section was added to athletics.
In 1922 Halmstads BK won the Bernhard Aronssons vandringspris by beating IS Halmia and won tournaments in Jönköping, Malmö and Ängelholm, though the district championship was lost to Varberg. The first recorded bandy game between organised teams in Halland is thought to have been played between Halmstads BK and IS Halmia in 1922.
Supporters
The official supporter group is Bollklubben Support, previously known as Kvastarna, founded in 1995, and located in the centre of the terrace section at Örjans Vall during home games. Two other groups, Ultras Halmstad (established 2023) and Boys In Blue (formed 2021), belong to the ultras category. Home attendance historically averaged 4000–6000, rising to 8000–10000 for matches against Djurgårdens IF, IFK Göteborg or Malmö FF partly due to away supporters; currently attendance reaches a maximum of 5000–6000 on big games.
Match programmes and newspaper
In 2006, when Aftonbladet offered to print match programmes for all Allsvenskan clubs, Halmstads BK rejected the offer and continued printing its own match programme, making it the only top-league club to do so at the time. The club also publishes a minor newspaper called Tidningen HBK, containing interviews with players, fans and others connected to the club, which appears as a supplement to the local newspaper Hallandsposten and is available for download on the club's homepage.
More in Allsvenskan Clubs
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced