Scandic Jarva Krog

Råsunda football

by Sjalen

Along with Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg, this arena from 1937 is where Sweden play its international games and it is also home to Solna club AIK in yellow and black (ladies play at nearby Skytteholm). Sometimes when other Swedish top clubs need to use a bigger arena than their own, they too play here. In football history, it is mostly famous for the World Championships in 1958 when Pele made his breakthrough.

Merged with Stockholm

by Sjalen

Solna is a place many people have been to without realising it, as it is so intertwined with Stockholm itself. The border runs right along the main roads in and out of Stockholm's northern city centre and there are some sights you might have come across here without realising you visited Solna, especially the main Stockholm football stadium at Råsunda and Hagaparken with its palaces. Solna also houses the Stockholm region's most famous hospital, Karolinska, which is a huge academic research hospital with plenty of international staff. As a town, Solna has 61000 people living within its boundaries and they live on as little as 19 square kilometres but still have a third of the National City Park shared with Stockholm and including Haga. The hospital and lots of companies here mean that even more people work than live here.

I have spent a fair bit of time here since childhood for several reasons. When I was a child, my mum worked in the Filmstaden (see tip) and nowadays, my parents live so that it is convenient to go shopping here if we've got nothing better to do. Sometimes, I also force my family to go for walks in the many fantastic cultural heritage areas here.

Football at Råsunda

by vec

Råsunda in Solna is the Swedish national football station, and also the home station for the team AIK.

Each year a number of international matches and big local matches are played here, some matches even fills up the 36800 seats on the stadion.

This day was such a day with the station filled with people comming to watch the big match between the local team AIK and the guests IFK Göteborg (from Gothenburg).

As usual on big fights, the police is preparing with fences to keep the supporter teams apart.

Some links

AIK football

IFK Göteborg

Råsunda football station

I must though confess something, I have never ever been on football myself. But it was cool to watch the people and feel the tension in the air, even though I just happened to pass by just before the match.