The police: "We can't work in the football stands"

A thunderstorm moves over Gothenburg. Lightning, thunder and black clouds and people rush towards the arena Gamla Ullevi's entrances to take shelter from the torrential rain.

Soon it is time for kick-off in the Allsvenskan between IFK Gothenburg and Elfsborg from Borås.

There, a match awaits down on the pitch - and another up in the northern stands. It is called the Command Bridge and is a kind of home for the most dedicated supporters.

But also, according to the police, a base for serious crime.

Two symbols set a sort of framework for the conflict:

● A guy wears a shirt with a cross over a police badge and the message "1312", which usually reads "All cops are bastards".

● A fabric flag hangs above the entrance to the stand. It has a large crossed police emblem facing the corridor where officers are stationed.

- It will be too risky to go out on that stand. It's both about the police's working environment and that an intervention must not create greater risks than the problems it is intended to solve, says Fredrik Ohlquist, operations manager during the match and everyday sports coordinator at the police in Region West.

What is unfolding this Sunday is nothing unique.

Out of 25 matches last year in the big cities and in a smaller town that DN asked about, in 18 cases the police put a cross in the no box in match reports under the question "Could the police work in all places at and/or in connection with the sports facility?"

- Our picture is that it is almost a normal situation in the big cities and to varying degrees also in all arenas where elite football is played, in which case in certain sections of the stands, says Emanuel Alvarez at the police's national media center.

It is sensitive for some fans that the police move in "their" stands. Much depends on the image that is set. About a concern about being taunted by opposing clubs' heels. That's what Martin Arkdal, an experienced police officer in Gothenburg and deputy operations manager during the meeting between IFK Gothenburg and Elfsborg, thinks.

- Other groups in other teams see it and there is a fear of losing prestige and respect, he reasons.

Arkdal points to a situation during the Häcken-AIK match last summer when he and a colleague stood in the aisle next to AIK's heel section. They felt pushed back.

- I asked one of those who pushed us why it was sensitive that we were standing in the aisle and that we had no intention of going up to the stands. He then replied that it could be seen on television that the police were in their stands.

In order to get a comment from the stands, DN has sought contact with a man whom the police describe as a leader within the IFK Gothenburg-connected Wisemen, a group that markets itself as "IFK Gothenburg's more hard-driving guys".

The man is charged with assault and for having lured minors into class action lawsuits. He confirms the fights but describes them as legal martial arts. Via his lawyer, he declines an interview about the stand situation.

DN has also applied for IFK Gothenburg's so-called SLO Elliot Holmlund. The SLO function is a link between supporters and the club. He doesn't want to participate.

IFK Gothenburg's supporter club Änglarna has 3,000 members. There, Elsa Alm is vice president. She is also a member of the board of the Swedish Football Supporters Union. She says:

- From the supporters' union, we can be critical of what is perceived as a confrontational mood from the police. They proceed with what they call Operation Leo and enter the stands. It has ruined the good relationship and dialogue.

Operation Leo takes its name from IFK Gothenburg's club symbol, the lion, and was added after the club reported threats to the police against former club director Håkan Mild.

Elsa Alm believes that the association Änglarna cannot evaluate the police's working methods. But she says that "there is an atmosphere in the stands that many people do not like the police".

- It is not unique to football, but this kind of thing also exists in, for example, autonomous groups in society.

In the situation room, Gamla Ullevi's command center, the work is supervised this day by Jonas Arlmark, IFK Gothenburg's head of security who has 16 years as a police officer behind him.

There, operators sit at monitors and point cameras at interesting people in the stands - but no interventions are required.

On DN's question how the police handled the relationship with the "heels", Jonas Arlmark says in his written answer:

- During the year, there have been situations where the police's actions have been perceived as disproportionate and where we see that mistrust from parts of the supporter environment has increased. It is unfortunate.

The police feel that they do not have full access to all parts of the stand.

- That is partly true. Our experience is that supporter police with good knowledge of the environment and great personal knowledge can usually move around the arena without problems, especially when the work is done in collaboration with us.

- Problems arise above all when interventions or police presence are not perceived to have a clear purpose. This is why collaboration and dialogue are so important.

Is it sensitive for some on the Command Bridge that police officers move there?

- Yes, there are parts of the supporter culture where the relationship with the police is complicated. This applies, among other things, to questions about pyrotechnics and masking, where our and the police's stance is clear, while parts of the supporter environment have a different view.

In the past year, the police in the West region have put on a kind of leadership shirt to advance the positions. The presence on and around the stand is described as part of a task on organized crime that the police received in the latest regulation letter from the government.

The strategy has sparked debate and questions have been asked about why the working method differs in different parts of the country.

In Western Sweden, the spring was turbulent, where the authority tried to place police officers in the stands even before kick-off. It met with strong protests. "Standing and watching sports instead of preventing real crimes", read the text on a long banner.

The Swedish Football Supporters' Union has in turn notified the police and prosecutors.

Their criticism applies in part to the well-known descriptions of three IFK Gothenburg-connected groups – Wisemen, Ultras and Supras – as criminal networks. That announcement was clarified in June to the effect that the classification applies to a criminal network consisting of individuals from different groups.

In part, the decision on preventive stay bans in and around football stadiums for about ten people who the police assess poses a risk of committing crimes "intended to seriously damage the safety of the public in the area".

Although the message about the three designated groups was reformulated, the head of intelligence in the West region, Jens Ahlstrand, told DN in June:

- We are identifying more and more criminals. In addition, it is a business that seems to attract young people. Insocialization is something that we as citizens should take extremely seriously.

Fredrik Ohlquist explains that the police moved the positions forward with what they see as links to serious organized crime, extremism, the new crime called involving a minor, to criminal finance, player agents in a gray zone and match-fixing.

- We also see signs of a kind of parallel administration of justice, that they themselves and internally want to punish whoever is considered to be doing wrong, we see connections to NMR and other right-wing groups, and we see how the so-called Aktivklubbarna are entering football and around teams here in Gothenburg.

Part of the strategy is thus to "get into" the heel stands.

The first step was taken two years ago with standing at the gates, the public admission. Today, the police feel fairly accepted there, and now also in the corridor behind the stands.

- A few years ago we wore helmets up here. They are not normally needed now. Maybe you can see it a bit like the drop that erodes the stone, says group manager Jonas Hedén.

Operations manager Fredrik Ohlquist says that the Kommandobryggan is still perceived "as a zone protected from the police".

- But precisely with the idea of ​​this socialization of young people, we need to see what else we can do.

The police's way out into the stands meets ups and downs. During the IFK Göteborg-Djurgården match last May, an attempt was made.

- It was not preceded by any particular incident, you just had to get a picture of the situation at the site, says Fredrik Ohlquist.

As can be seen on the film from one of the police's body cameras, parts of which DN is publishing today, men in Wisemen and Ultra shirts, with sound support from the stands, can be heard and seen pushing the police away.

It is shouted "out!, out!" and “release!” and "not be here during the match!"

Then the conversation in the film turns into a dialogue where the supporters are willing to discuss with the police - but only after the match, and not in the stands.

Police officers tell DN that they are sometimes met with the reaction that they would be against the supporter culture itself.

- We think it's nice with the song and the flags in the stands, many people put in an incredible job with their fans, says police officer Martin Arkdal.

The term tifo comes from Italy and is a visual arrangement meant to signal the supporters' collective identity.

- But we want to be able to be there, as if the stands were an ordinary town square.

Within the police, a frustration is also heard over what is perceived as a lack of support from the players on the pitch.

- We feel that they often downplay the problem, like we should have other things for ourselves, says Fredrik Ohlquist.

As with the Örgryte-IFK Gothenburg match last spring, the one that was stopped and played the next day - without an audience.

- There were open flames in IFK's stands. Then the discussion becomes that we stopped the match, we became the bad guys.

Colleague Martin Arkdal fills in:

- We hear players and coaches talking about how they understand that strong emotions arise in the stands. It is played down. Like when flaming flares were thrown onto the field and a player states that it is "not optimal". But it's illegal.

Arkdal senses a reason for the players' defensive stance.

- They would immediately get the risk supporters on them if they spoke out more critically, so I think there is a certain fear among them.

IFK Göteborg's head of security Jonas Arlmark says that his club has no difficulty in clearly marking against disturbances.

- Every year we spend significant resources on security and on identifying and suspending people who commit crimes at our events. Our stance is clear.

- At the same time, Swedish football and the police need to be able to handle several problems in parallel. We are particularly concerned about organized crime's attempts to gain influence over football. There, the clubs, football and the authorities need to put a lot of effort together.

Police officer Fredrik Ohlquist is open that it was unfortunate with the image that was put up last spring that well-known groups on the stand were classified as criminals, rather than specific individuals.

Could it be that the resistance you face is due to irritation at that classification?

- No, replies Ohlquist.

- For example, we have the film from last year that shows the resistance that existed even then. It has looked like this for several years, and you can say that both the organizer and we in the police have accepted this.

The Swedish Football Supporters' Union believes that the preventive stay bans that prosecutors in Gothenburg decided on this spring are not in reasonable proportion to the acts that were later presented in the courtrooms.

The District Court and in some cases the Court of Appeal has subsequently rejected most of the stay bans. In one case, the district court admittedly writes that it does not dispute that there are violent supporter groups around IFK Gothenburg. But the prosecutor had not shown that the group to which the suspended person belongs will commit crimes intended to "seriously harm the safety of the public (...)", which the law requires.

- I understand that they have reported and now the decisions have been rejected, then we have to learn from what the Court of Appeal writes. But the supporters' union does not have all the information, there is information we cannot present openly, says Fredrik Ohlquist.

Several who have been banned from staying have been represented by lawyer Emma Persson. She does not want to comment on the relationship between the police and supporters in the stands, but is clear that she supports the JO notification.

- In general, I can say that the residence bans have been negative for the supporters' private and professional lives. Their freedoms and rights were restricted and they were portrayed as network criminals by the police and prosecutors, says Emma Persson.

IFK Göteborg-Elfsborg is not considered a so-called high-risk match, and when it is over, the police consider that it has been comparatively calm.

Just four spectators are reported to have breached the masking ban and 13 banned flares have been burnt - all on Elfsborg's short side.

Operations manager Fredrik Ohlquist and colleague Martin Arkdal ponder why no flare was lit on the Command Bridge this day. Perhaps it has to do with a fine of SEK 641,000, which the club has just received.

A couple of days earlier, the club had published a statement about "extensive vandalism" in the away section, where IFK's fans were standing, during the match in the Conference League against FCI Levadia in Tallinn.

IFK Göteborg wrote that they, in turn, would "direct compensation claims against the people who have caused" the costs.

- We hear that there is irritation among Blåvitt's fans for that Tallinn invoice. I don't know why no bengal was burned at Blåvitt today, but the threat of a fine may have played a role, says Fredrik Ohlquist.

This Sunday, which starts with torrential rain and turns into sunshine, IFK Göteborg cruises against Elfsborg, 1-1.

The police also cross, in their report. Not even today can they "work in all places at and/or in connection with the sports facility".