1940

At dawn, the 9:th of April 1940 Germany goes into i Denmark and Norway. The harbour in Helsingborg is shut down at unspecified time and traffic ban is introduced at Öresund. Blackout is obligatory evening - and in the night, and the Swedish preparedness is strengthened. Many are beeing called up for military service, not least football players. The question is if there is going to be any allsvensk spring premiere against Brage at Olympia.
At Saturday afternoon the football association takes a decision after much dividing in one direction and another. Since the lack of men is great in some teams it is only friendly matches that will be valid. The Helsingborgers are requested to forget the troubles of the time and go to Olympia, but it only comes fifteen hundred persons. The matchen with allsvensk status is played instead the 27:th of May and HIF wins with 3-2 before over 6.000 spectators.

The call-ups for military preparedness strike different for different teams in allsvenskan. Because of this ” injustice” there are plans before the season 1940-41 to extend allsvenskan from 12 to 14 teams. Clubs shall be moved up from second division but no one shall need to leave the allsvenskan because the best players are called up for military service. This stays thank heavens at plans. Should man have followed this principle it would have been 22 teams in allsvenskan at war end 1945.

During 1940 it is also national marches and other that shall train vigour and physics. Man shall out and move more, which lowers the allsvenskans attendance. Also fuel rationing and other limitations makes people unable to go to the allsvenska arenas as easy as before.

The season 1939-40 HIF has less then 5.000 in average at home matches despite a third place and a small silver. Anders Pålsson wins leading goalscorers with 17 goals. But the income has fallen drastic and the activity goes with loss.

Before the allsvenska spring 1941 it is ver even at the top. HIF leads before Degerfors that has the same point but one match more played. The spring premiere is played Easter Monday, the 14:th of april, and it’s a win against Sandviken with 4-0.

The last home match is played against Norrköping Sunday the 25:th of May. HIF wins with 1-0 and the match gather 7.651 spectators, of which 775 school children that are entered free. It is a big audience for beeing ” time of crisis football”, which partly depends on the beautiful early summer weather, partly on the exciting struggle for the leadership.

The final match HIF is going to play against Gårda in Gothenburg while Degerfors goes to Norrköping. HIF has 31 points before the last round and the goal difference 45-24, Degerfors has 29 points and the goal difference 47-26. Gold or not is the big question of the week in Helsingborg. It becomes a ignominious loss with 2-1, but at the same time Degerfors looses in Norrköping and HIF has done what no other club has succeeded with, namely to win five allsvenska gold.
The team don’t have to get off in Ödåkra and sneak into the city the back way, but can go all the way in to Ångfärjestationen. The train is late but around thousand people are waiting patiently to congratulate the Swedish champions that have had the toughest spring program of all, with eight matches in 33 days. Thus match every fourth day.

Bill Pettersson is interwieved in radio after the victory. He smile contentedly and is as happy as a sandboy. On the question if it was easier in earlier years he answers:
”The first years it was harder than now, as especially the Gothenburgers and Stockholmers were hard to dispute with. It was also played more technical earlier, but one has to adjust to the conditions and follow the development.”
On the question if it is time for the veterans to end the career Bill answers that he decides and no one else. If there are no adequate successors they have to continue for a while.
Three of the veterans have won five allsvenska gold, namely outside left Knut Kroon and the backs Nils Axelsson and Arne Johansson.

Despite the gold HIF only ends fourth in the attendance league. 58.000 have been at Olympia, which is a little more then 5.200 in average. Since it is uncertain into the last, the gold medals are distributed afterwards. It occurs at Olympia the 6:th of June in connection with the ” patriotic celebration”.

The allsvenska gold HIF celebrates with dinner at Terrassrestaurangen. And it is important to eat good and much while there is time, because in the summer the food rationing hits against Swedish restaurants and Swedish culinary art. It can be ordered max six different small plates to the same meal. Only four main course with meat and pork may be on the menu, of which two clean meat courses and two simple home cooking. A buffet supper demand special permission and the smorgasbord is forbidden.

HIF starts the allsvenska autumn 1941 with dazzling play. The 25:th of August it becomes victory with 4-1 against Elfsborg. 9.131 sees the match, new record for ”allsvensk time of crisis football” at Olympia. According to all experts the team is on it’s way towards a new gold, but it doesen’t happen. In the Swedish cup it carries all the way. First in the quarterfinal awaits allsvenskt opposition. HIF encounter Landskrona at Olympia and it becomes a memorable entertainment. After 1-0 in half-time HIF wins with 9-0! Of course too large numbers, but still. The referee Tore Sjöberg means that there is hardly a Swedish football team that is so terribly effective as HIF in the second half.

Sunday the 14:th of September it is semifinal against Degerfors at Olympia and now HIF wins with 6-2. It is not HIF- weather, on the other hand it rains all day long. The ground is not wet, it is slippery. A state that is considered impossible for outside right Malte Mårtensson. He is held outside the national team by a stubborn selection committee that consider that Malte can not make himself justice on a slippery ground. Maltes reply is charming. Han scores all six goals!
The cup final is played the 25:th of October at Råsunda in Stockholm. HIF wins with 3-1 against Sleipner that on ordinary days plays in the second division. Thanks to the cup victory HIF has brought home ”the double”. It is the first year the Swedish cup is played. From 1896 to 1925 SM was played in the form of a cup, but that is another history.
Anyway 1941 becomes a glory year, the according to result best ever. HIF wins allsvenskan, the Swedish cup after five victories and the devastating goal difference 32-6 and besides the Scanian reserve team series. As a bonus the juniors becomes both Scanian champions and Helsingborg champions.

Since the return to allsvenskan HIF has, with some exception, been a top team every year. The season 42-43 it becomes a third place, one miserable point from the gold. The remarkable is that HIF only takes one point of eight possible against the two bottom teams. So close, so close a sixth gold that don’t come spring 1944 either. Quite the reverse it almost ends with a catastrophe. The team manage to stay at totally 13 points, and wins only one of 22 matches, probably an unbeatable record.

In the seasons last allsvenska match, away against AIK the 4:th of June, a certain Kalle Svensson makes allsvensk debut for HIF. He gets away from the match with honor despite the loss with 2-0.

1945 HIF is on its way to fall out of the allsvenskan again. The spring premiere at home is played first the 29:th of April after two away matches. It is bad weather and HIF looses against Elfsborg with 3-2. After 16 rounds the team is last with seven points. The situation is very critical.
The 27:th of May, it is match against future champions Norrköping at Olympia. There are a lot of spectators, fully 10.990 sees HIF play 2-2. In the five latest matches HIF has pull themselves together and the allsvenska contract is saved in the end.

After the war the allsvenskans attendance raises steadily. Sunday the 25:th of April 1948 HIF and Norrköping plays a thrilling, very well-played match even if it ends goalless. 15.669 paying mean new attendance record. Strong of HIF to play a draw against a Norrköping with among others the future Olympic champions Torsten Lindberg, Nils Liedholm, ‘Bian’ Rosengren and not least Knut and Gunnar Nordahl. The season’s audience average at Olympia is over ten thousand, almost a double since the war years.

Some weeks later it is time for a new top match. The fresh attendance record flies away. HIF-Malmö FF Friday the 14:th of May, is played before 18.653 paing plus about 500 with complimentary tickets. It is first now, at the end of the fourties that the matches against MFF starts to draw large audience. The match then? Well, rather good, HIF wins with 2-0 but the match is not as exciting and well-played as the meeting with Norrköping. Both HIF-goals are scored in the first half, the first already after three minutes. Thereoff the comment about the large Malmö- claque:
”The Malmö part kept particularly quiet with exception of the two first minutes. When HIF had taken the lead it became gloomy miens, and at 2-0 they rather didn’t want to show that they were from Malmö.”

The 15:th of May 1949 series leading Gais is outclassed by HIF with 5-1 before 16.658 paying. At the beginning of second half HIF scores four goals and that 20-minutes period is considered as one of the most beautiful and most efficient that has been seen on a Swedish football gound. Finally HIF ends second in allsvenskan after Malmö FF, but with same points. On the verge of victory again. A small comfort is that Carl-Johan Frank wins leading goalscorers with 19 goals.