Hammarby

In 1889, Hammarby Roddförening ("Hammarby Rowing Association") was established in Södermalm, with engineer Axel Robert Schönthal, the first chairman, being credited as the founder. By 1897, it had diversified into different sports, and was renamed Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), or Hammarby IF for short.

1915–1940s: Establishment of football club

In 1915, the sporting ground Hammarby IP was built in Södermalm. Due to a lack of football pitches in Stockholm, several other clubs proposed to merge with Hammarby IF to get access to the stadium. An offer from Klara SK was accepted and Hammarby officially established a football department on 13 August 1915. The club played its first competitive game two days later, and won 5–0 against Västerås SK in the "Östsvenska serien", a local league, with Ragnar Gunnarsson scoring the inaugural goal. In 1916, Hammarby competed in Svenska Mästerskapet, a cup by then held to decide the Swedish Champions, for the first time. In 1918, Hammarby also merged with Johanneshofs IF, a club from the neighbouring district Johanneshov.

In 1920, Hammarby first competed in the Svenska Serien, by then the highest league in Swedish football, with key players like goalkeeper Victor Olsson, defender Gösta Wihlborg and forward Gustav Björk. During the upcoming years, Hammarby had a strong showing where they went to the finals of Svenska Mästerskapet in 1922, losing 1–3 to GAIS.

Hammarby qualified to compete in Allsvenskan's inaugural season in 1924. On 3 August said year, Rikard Larsson became Hammarby's first goalscorer in Allsvenskan, and also the first goalscorer in the league's history, in a 1–5 loss against Örgryte IS. The club would eventually finish last in the 1924–25 Allsvenskan, and were relegated to Division 2, which was then the second highest league in Sweden.

During the upcoming years, Hammarby failed to produce any sort of challenge in Swedish football. Several star players emigrated to the United States, transferred to other clubs or opted to instead play ice hockey for Hammarby. In 1936–37 and 1937–38, the club won the second division, but lost the playoff matches that would have promoted them to Allsvenskan. Instead, Hammarby got promoted in 1938–39, where they knocked out IFK Norrköping following outstanding performances from goalkeeper and star player Sven Bergqvist.

Hammarby would, however, suffer from another relegation, finishing last in Allsvenskan in 1939–40. Back in Division 2, the club finished in the top four for the next six years. In the 1946–47 season, the club finished at the foot of the table, and because of a restructuring of the league system, the club got relegated to Division 4.

1950s–1960s: A period of yo-yoing

Hammarby did not return to the second highest league until the 1950–51 season. In the 1954–55 season, the club returned to Allsvenskan, but this time it finished sixth and managed to stay for another season. However, the club underwent yo-yoing, having been promoted and relegated between Allsvenskan and Division 2 seven times until 1970. Nacka Skoglund, one of the league's top players who played for Hammarby from 1944 to 1949, returned to Hammarby to play from 1964 to 1967. In his return debut, he landed a corner kick into the goal minutes into the match; in 1984, the club erected the Nackas Hörna (Nacka's corner) statue with his kick as the pose.

1970s–1980s: Stable Allsvenskan years

In the 1970 Allsvenskan season, Hammarby had acquired only 3 points in the spring portion of the season, but during the autumn, showed a dramatic improvement. With star players Kenneth Ohlsson and Ronnie Hellström, and with a crowd that tried out supporter songs for the first time, the club went through the autumn half undefeated and finished in fifth place, its best showing in Allsvenskan. The club would stay in Allsvenskan through the rest of the 1970s, attracting large crowds, despite not returning above fifth place. Also in 1978, the club changed from black/yellow to green/white colours.

In the 1982 season, Swedish football introduced a playoff system for the top 8 teams in Allsvenskan to decide a champion. The playoffs consisted of two matches in which the aggregate score would determine who would advance. The club had placed second overall that season and had not lost a home game. After defeating Örgryte in the quarter-finals, and coming back from a 1–3 deficit to beat Elfsborg 4–3 in the semi-finals, Hammarby was in the final against IFK Göteborg. Hammarby won its away match 2–1, but lost 1–3 in its home match to a sold out crowd.

In the following year, Hammarby finished fifth in the league, but lost to AIK in the play-offs. In the Svenska Cupen tournament, Hammarby reached the finals but lost against IFK. However, since IFK qualified for the UEFA Cup that year, Hammarby qualified for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, its first major international competition, where the club lost to Finland's FC Haka in the second round. The Hammarby squads finished consistently in the top six in the league every year through 1987.

In 1988, Hammarby finished last in the standings and were relegated to the second tier. Although the club placed first in 1989, it finished last in 1990.

1990s–2000s: Tough nineties, restructuring, champions

Hammarby would stay in the second tier in 1991 and 1992, but in 1993, the team finished in first place and were promoted to Allsvenskan. In 1995 Allsvenskan, the team finished last and were relegated, but returned to the 1998 Allsvenskan with a third-place finish.

Prior to the 2001 Allsvenskan season, the club had financially tough times, leading experts to conclude that the team was weak, and one journalist predicted a last place finish.^[] Halfway through the 2001 season, manager Sören Cratz was informed that his contract would not be extended because the club's board wanted Hammarby to play a positive, attacking and fun football, something the board did not think that Cratz did. However, the club took the lead in the standings and in the second-to-last match, which was against Örgryte IS on 21 October, the club won 3–2 and secured its first ever Allsvenskan championship.

Hammarby stayed in Allsvenskan for the rest of the 2000s: In 2003 Allsvenskan the club finished second, and participated in the second qualifying and first rounds of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup. In 2006 Allsvenskan, Hammarby placed third overall and advanced to the UEFA Intertoto Cup, where they won their third round match, which advanced the team to the second qualifying and first rounds of the 2007–08 UEFA Cup.

In 2007, Bajen finished on the sixth place, and didn't qualify for any European cups. In 2008, Hammarby finished ninth, but 2009 was a disastrous year where the team finished last in the league and was relegated to the second tier known as Superettan.

2010–2014: Superettan

The 2010 Superettan was a letdown for supporters who had hoped to make the visit to Sweden's second tier short, as the team finished 8th. In the 2010 Svenska Cupen, Hammarby fared better, winning against multiple Allsvenskan opponents, until the finals where the team lost 0–1 to Helsingborgs IF. In the 2011 Superettan season, the club finished in a tie for 11th, its worst overall ranking in 64 years. The club was almost relegated to the third tier, until a game-winning kick in the season's final match against Ängelholm. After the season of 2011, Hammarby dismantled their development team HTFF, which was established in 2003. In 2012 Superettan, the club finished fourth, and in 2013 Superettan the club finished fifth. In 2014, in the last round of the season, Hammarby were promoted to the first tier, Allsvenskan, by finishing first in Superettan.

2015–: Top-flight comeback and cup title

The 2015 season started off well, with Hammarby managing an impressive 1–2 away win against local rivals AIK in the 2015 Swedish Cup, which also was the first Stockholm derby involving Hammarby since 2009. This was followed up with a 2–0 win in the season opener against BK Häcken, and in the fourth round Hammarby defeated their other local rivals Djurgårdens IF with 2–1. The summer was, however, tougher for the club, with Hammarby playing 10 consecutive league games without winning, before managing to defeat Falkenbergs FF at home with 3–0. Eventually, Hammarby finished at 11th place in their first Allsvenskan season since 2009.

The 2016 and 2017 seasons showed only a slight improvement for Hammarby, with the team ending in the 11th and 9th position respectively. Hammarby fared better in the local derbys. In 2016 Hammarby defeated the local rival Djurgården in all three fixtures. In 2017 the first encounter ended with a draw and the second with a Hammarby victory. The second local rival, AIK, managed to defeat Hammarby by 3–0 in the first encounter in the league and a draw (0–0) in the second. Hammarby however beat AIK in the Swedish cup, earlier in the year. In 2017 the Hammarby – AIK encounters ended with one Hammarby win and one draw. Both Djurgården and AIK, however, fared much better overall than Hammarby in the league.

The club fared much better in 2018 under the reign of new manager Stefan Billborn, finishing 4th in the league. In 2019, Hammarby started the league play in a mediocre fashion, but made a strong finish to the season (with eight straight wins in the final eight games of the season) and ultimately finished 3rd in Allsvenskan. This meant that the club qualified for the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League, their first continental competition in over ten years.

Hammarby IF won the 2020–21 Svenska Cupen, their first title in the main domestic cup, through a 5–4 win on penalties (0–0 after full-time) against BK Häcken in the final. On 11 June 2021, Hammarby decided to terminate manager Stefan Billborn's contract, with the club placed 8th in the 2021 Allsvenskan table after eight rounds. On 13 June, Miloš Milojević, most recently an assistant at Red Star Belgrade, was appointed new head coach. Under the leadership of Milojević, Hammarby nearly reached the group stages of the first edition of the UEFA Conference League, only being defeated on penalties by FC Basel in the playoff. Nevertheless, Milojević was fired following the conclusion of the 2021 Allsvenskan, and Martí Cifuentes was hired as head coach in January 2022.

Cifuentes led the club to a 3rd place finish in the 2022 Allsvenskan. On 30 October 2023, with two fixtures left of the 2023 season, he left the club for Queens Park Rangers. Hammarby ended the season in 7th place.