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Brøndby IF

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Brøndby IF is a Danish professional football (soccer) club based in the town of Brøndby, on the western outskirts of Copenhagen. The club is also known as Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening, or Brøndby and BIF for short. The club, founded in 1964 as a merger between two local Brøndby clubs, has won 10 national Danish football championship titles and five national Danish Cups, since the club joined the Danish top-flight football league in 1981. Brøndby is the most successful Danish club on the European scene, with a UEFA Cup semi-final the best ever Danish result in the European competitions. Furthermore the club is, as of the currently finished 2005-06 season, the only Danish club who have qualified for the UEFA Champions League.

Since the founding of fellow Copenhagen club FC København in 1992, the two clubs have had a fierce rivalry, and games between the two sides attract the biggest crowds in Danish football.[Attendance season records] at NetSuperligaen.dk, which dates back to the Danish Superliga 1998-99, records the biggest crowd each year has been a derby between FC København and Brøndby. With FC København, Brøndby has consistently formed a duo which have won eleven of the last sixteen Danish Superliga championships, and from 1995 to 2005, the club has not finished below second spot in the league. Brøndby IF have currently finished the Danish Superliga 2005-06 tournament in second place.

Contents

History

Brøndby IF started out in 1964 as an amateur club in the 6th of the 11 Danish leagues, the Serie 1, where they finished their two first seasons in fourth place. Among the players of the early years was team captain Per Bjerregaard, a doctor who had moved to Copenhagen from Jutland, and who would later play an instrumental part in Brøndby's success. In 1967, the club hired coach Leif Andersen whose emphasis on discipline and physicality instantly secured promotion to Sjællandsserien (the Zealand series). After a few mediocre years a new coach John Sinding was brought in, and the club won promotion to Danmarksserien (the Denmark series).

In 1973 Per Bjerregaard stopped his active career at 27 years of age, and became chairman of Brøndby IF. His first action was to sack coach Sinding. In his place, Brøndby hired former professional and Danish national football team player Finn Laudrup, who took over as head coach, while he still took actively part in the games as a player. Finn Laudrup brought, among others, his brother-in-law Ebbe Skovdahl as well as his two young sons Brian and Michael Laudrup with him to the club. Under Finn Laudrup's influence, the playing style was changed to a more attacking strategy, even though Finn Laudrup decided to fully concentrate his efforts as a player after only a year. After winning promotion in 1974, Finn Laudrup left Brøndby in the 3rd Division in 1976 to play for KB in the Danish top-flight league, then named 1st Division, and a year later Michael Laudrup, the brightest talent in Danish football, followed.

Professional football

In 1977 Brøndby moved up into the 2nd Division, and were one of the clubs who quickly adapted to the new times of paid football in the best Danish leagues in 1978. Per Bjerregaard succeeded in talking Finn Laudrup into returning to Brøndby IF in 1981 on a professional contract, and following a season of 85 goals in 30 games, Brøndby won promotion to the top-flight 1st Division under coach Tom Køhlert. Finn Laudrup subsequently stopped his career, 36 years old, but in his place, Michael Laudrup would return for the 1982 season, being one of ten players leaving KB that year.

Brøndby IF won their 1st Division debut match 7-1 over fellow promoted team B 1909, in a game that featured two goals from Michael Laudrup. He was subsequently called up for the Danish national team, and on June 15 1982 he became the first Brøndby player to win a cap for Denmark. Brøndby finished their first 1st Division season in fourth place with Laudrup the leagues third top goal scorer with 15 goals, which would earn him the Danish Player of the Year award. In 1983, Laudrup was sold to Juventus F.C. in the then biggest transfer deal in Denmark, giving Brøndby IF the economic foundation to expand further.

After only four years in the top division, Brøndby won their first Danish championship in 1985 and played its first European match when the club beat Hungarian champions Budapest Honvéd FC 4-1 in the 1986 European Cup. In 1986, Brøndby became the first Danish club of fully professionals when ten players were signed full time, and the club was introduced at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1987.

European success

Throughout the second half of the 1980s the team dominated the league and wouldn't finish lower than a second place until 1992. The team was built around talented Danish players, and from 1987 to 1991 players from Brøndby would win the Danish Player of the Year award every year. The recipients would all form the backbone of the Danish national team which would later win the 1992 European Championship (Euro 1992), and was the first goalscorer in the 2-0 Euro 1992 final win John "Faxe" Jensen (1987), national team captain Lars Olsen (1988), the World's Best Goalkeeper 1992 and 1993 award winner Peter Schmeichel (1989), four-time Danish Player of the Year award winner Brian Laudrup (1990) and the second goalscorer of the Euro 1992 final Kim Vilfort (1991). The club became used to winning the national title and turned its attention towards European success.

In 1990 Brøndby hired former Danish national team captain Morten Olsen as coach, and under his reign, the 1990-91 UEFA Cup would become the high point in the short history of the club. Especially the meriting wins over Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer 04 Leverkusen from Germany and Russian club Torpedo Moscow saw the many Danish profiles shine, and the club was minutes from qualifying for the final game of the tournament. In the 88th minute of the semi-final, a Rudi Völler goal denied Brøndby the final game of the Cup, in favour of AS Roma. Following the impressive European display by the comparatively small club, important members of the team, including Lars Olsen, top scoring striker Bent "Turbo" Christensen and the absolute star Peter Schmeichel, left the club.

The following year, 1992, was the worst year in the club's history as the intended takeover of the Danish bank Interbank went awry. It was expected that European Cup success would boost the Brøndby stock value in order to finance the buy, but as the club was beaten by Dynamo Kyiv in the European Cup 1991-92 qualification, the stocks never reached the value necessary to finalize the deal. It had been arranged for financial backers Hafnia to step in and take over the buy in case Brøndby could not finance it, but as Hafnia went bankrupt, Brøndby were forced to buy Interbank and financial collapse was imminent as club debts amassed to 400 million DKK.() Henrik H. Brandt, "Brøndby IF: Mirakelkuren", Jyllands-Posten article, June 1, 1997 A long-term rescue plan was initiated to save the club, but these events influenced the performance of the team and the championship, now called the Danish Superliga, was not won again until 1996.

Rebuilding

The rebuilding of the team was lead by head coach Ebbe Skovdahl, who deployed the team in a 4-4-2 formation. The return to the club of Euro 1992 veterans John "Faxe" Jensen and captain Lars Olsen combined with the emergence of goalkeeper Mogens Krogh and striker Ebbe Sand got the club back on its feet. The rebuilding culminated in the 1994-95 UEFA Cup elimination of the historically most successful English football team, Liverpool F.C., though AS Roma would once again knock Brøndby out. Following that year, Brøndby won three Danish championships in a row, and the next year's UEFA Cup saw one of the biggest upsets in Brøndby history, as a 3-1 home defeat to Karlsruher SC was changed to an aggregate win when Brøndby beat the team of Euro 1996 winner Thomas Hässler 5-0 away in Germany. Most importantly for the club's economy, Brøndby was the first Danish team to qualify for the new format of the European Cup, now called the UEFA Champions League.Danish club Aalborg Boldspilklub played in the 1995-96 Champions League as a result of the bribing scandal of Dynamo Kyiv, thus they did not qualify through the qualification rounds. The Champions League qualification meant six guaranteed matches in a group stage with three of the biggest teams of Europe, and when they were paired with FC Barcelona and later finalists Manchester United and Bayern Munich, Brøndby faced very economically attractive games. Despite winning 2-1 over Bayern in the first game of the group play, Brøndby would concede 18 goals in six matches and was eliminated with a single win to their name.

Skovdahl decided to take a stab at coaching in Scottish club Aberdeen F.C. and Brøndby took a more Scandinavian approach, in search of stable success in the European competitions with Norwegian club Rosenborg BK the role model.() Kurt Lassen and Thorsten Dam, "Brøndby enig med Hareide", Berlingske Tidende article, April 17, 1999 The club hired Norwegian manager Åge Hareide in 2000, who proclaimed a shift in line-up to a more attacking 4-3-3 system. With Hareide came a handful of Scandinavian players of whom especially Swedish national team player Mattias Jonson would become a fan favourite.

2000 was also the year the club finalized a planned expansion of Brøndby Stadium from a 20,000 to a 29,000 capacity, making it the second largest stadium in Denmark, only trailing the Parken stadium of FC København. At the cost of 250 million DKK, the vast expenditure was seen as a sign that the club was out of its former financial crisis.() Christian Hüttemeier, "Supertanker på succeskurs", Politiken article, October 22, 2000 The building project was finalized in fall 2000, and on October 22, 28,416 spectators saw Brøndby beat Akademisk Boldklub 4-2 in the opening game of the rebuilt stadium.

Hareide's visions of a 4-3-3 system never worked out, and the team soon returned to the well-known 4-4-2 setup. As he slowly lost hold of a 10 point lead to rivals FCK, gained in a great first half of the 2001-02 Superliga season, Hareide took his leave in spring 2002 before the last games of the season.() Mikael Børsting and Jesper Tornvig Ludvigsen, "FORUDSÅ HAREIDES FALD", B.T. article, April 16, 2002 He was replaced by youth team coach Tom Køhlert who, though reluctant to take the job, gave first team debuts to the top youth team players, most notably Thomas Kahlenberg, who would help the club narrowly secure the championship win on goal difference.

The returning son

Michael Laudrup as manager.
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Michael Laudrup as manager.

For the 2002-03 Superliga season Brøndby caused sensation as they had convinced Michael Laudrup to return to manage his childhood club, with John "Faxe" his assistant. In their first season, the 33 man Brøndby team was divided into an A-squad of 23 players for the Superliga and a U-squad consisting mainly of youth players. The coaching duo let several players go in the process, as Laudrup "looked at the names and then assessed, who fits our style of play"() Per Børding, "Halvt hold væk", B.T. article, July 2, 2002; A 4-2-3-1 formation with a short-passing possession game, deploying two wide wingers. Asbjørn Sennels, one of the newly acquired players under Michael Laudrup, became the 50th Brøndby player, since Laudrup himself in 1982, to represent his respective national team, when he played for Denmark in April 2004.

Michael Laudrup's greatest international triumph has been an aggregated UEFA Cup win against Schalke 04 in the 2003-04 tournament before being eliminated by his former high-profile club FC Barcelona in Brøndby's 100th and 101st European games. In the domestic competitions, winning The Double in the 2004-05 season is the most recent highlight for Brøndby. In May 2006, Laudrup announced that he, along with John "Faxe", did not accept the one-year contract extension offered by the club[Laudrup leaving Brondby], FOX Sports, May 22, 2006, and following three titles in four seasons, the pair left the club in June.

Stadium

Brøndby have always played their games at Brøndby Stadium. A part of the merging of Brøndbyvester IF and Brøndbyøster IF was a promise by the Brøndby municipality mayor to build a ground, and in 1965 it was ready for the club to play at. Through the first years in the secondary Danish leagues, the stadium was little more than a grass field with an athletics track circling the field of play. It wasn't until 1978 that the main stand was built, sporting a capacity of 1,200 seated spectators. As newly promoted to the best Danish league in 1982, concrete terraces opposite the main stand were constructed, allowing for a crowd of 5,000 additional people. Following the first years of success in the highest Danish league, the athletic track was discarded and a further 2,000 seats were installed on top of the concrete stands from 1989 to 1990.

When Brøndby played games against other successful European teams in the 1990-91 UEFA Cup, the then capacity of up to 10,000 spectators was quickly dwarfed by the ticket interest. As the Danish national stadium Idrætsparken in Copenhagen was being rebuilt, the club found no other way to host the games, but to get a dispensation to use scaffolding stands, which boosted the stadium capacity to 18,000 in the semi-final leg of the tournament, a 0-0 draw with AS Roma. Following the European adventure, the club inaugurated its end stands in 1992, allowing for a total of 22,000 spectators.

In May 1998, the club bought Brøndby Stadium from the Brøndby municipality for 23,5 million DKK() Christian W. Larsen, "Brøndby får eget stadion", Aktuelt article, May 14, 1998 and immediately spent the double amount to modernize the stadium. When the club qualified for the UEFA Champions League 1998-99, the stadium was still under construction and the games were moved to arch rival FC København's Parken stadium. In 2000 all stands were standardized and built to the same height, allowing for crowds of 29,000 at domestic games and 22,000 in the European games, which allow only all-seated crowds. Since then, the stadium has seen a number of lesser or larger infrastructural and technical enhancements, and the February 2004 European game against FC Barcelona was played in front of a 26,031 man crowd.

Organization

Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening was founded on December 3 1964 as a merger between two small clubs, Brøndbyvester IF from 1909 and Brøndbyøster IF from 1928, and was a broad sports association, including branches in football, handball, gymnastics and badminton among others. In 1971 the club was split off into clubs for each individual sport, and Brøndby mayor Kjeld Rasmussen became the first chairman of the footballing branch, which retained the name of Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening.

With the introduction of paid football in Denmark by the Danish Football Association in 1978, the club split into an amateur and a professional department. The amateurs consisted of the various youth departments which had been the trademark of the club since the 1964 merger, as well as the numerous volunteers who service every match of the professional club for free. In 1987 the professional department, Brøndby IF Fodbold A/S, was the second football club in the world (with Tottenham being the first) to float its shares on a public stock exchange. The shares were divided in A and B shares of equal value, with only the B shares for sale to the public. Each A share counts for ten votes and each B share counts for a single ownership vote, and the A shares were divided between three groups to prevent hostile takeovers; the volunteer amateur leaders of the club, the main sponsors of the club, and the company Euro Sportsholding, owned by Brøndby IF itself. The A shares accounted for 64% of the votes() Michael Aae, "A/S FODBOLD ET HOLD TIL 70 MILLIONER", B.T. article, August 18, 1991, and thereby the power in the club.

When the club was on the verge of financial collapse in 1992, the A shares posed as security to the creditors, until the club was saved and the shares were sold for the symbolic amount of 1 DKK() Steen Ankerdal, "Fik brøndby for en krone", Ekstra Bladet article, May 7, 1994 to the newly founded Brøndbyernes IF Fodbold Fond, which strives to keep Brøndby IF controlled by the amateur department. The shares are currently divided into 355,000 A and 3,500,000 B shares, with Brøndbyernes IF Fodbold Fond owning 300,000 of the A shares, accounting for 42.6% of the total votes.() [Distribution of shares], according to Brondby.com

Squads and players

Apart from the main A-squad which plays in the Danish Superliga, Brøndby have a reserve team, the U-squad, which plays in the Danish 2nd Division East under coach Tom Køhlert, as well as many various youth teams. The U-squad currently consists of 16 players born in the years 1985 to 1988. As only 15 players are allowed in each Superliga match (11 starting players plus four substitutes) it is common practice to have spare players from the A-squad assist the U-squad in their games.

Current A-squad

Up to date as of July 1, 2006
| width="1%" | |bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" width="48%"| |}

Departed players

More than 300 players have represented Brøndby in the Danish leagues, cups and the European competitions since 1964.
Players departed in the summer transfer window, 2006
|}

Player of the year

Starting from 1985, the club has annually named its player of the year.() [Årets Spiller] at Brondby.com Players still playing for the club are marked in bold:

Managers

Listed according to when they became managers for Brøndby IF (years in parentheses):

Achievements

Brøndby IF's most common lineup during the championship winning 2004-05 season.
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Brøndby IF's most common lineup during the championship winning 2004-05 season.

Records

References

Footnotes

External links

|- !style="background:#BFD7FF;"|

|- style="text-align:center;" | Aalborg BK | AC Horsens | Brøndby IF | Esbjerg fB | FC København | FC Midtjylland | FC Nordsjælland | Odense BK | Randers FC | Silkeborg IF | Vejle BK | Viborg FF

|- !style="background:#BFD7FF;"|

|- style="text-align:center;" |width="12%"|Denmark: |width="22%"|Brøndby IF |width="22%"|FC København |width="22%"|FC Midtjylland |width="22%"|Aalborg BK |- style="text-align:center;" |Norway: |Vålerenga IF |IK Start |FC Lyn Oslo |Lillestrøm SK |- style="text-align:center;" |Sweden: |Djurgårdens IF |IFK Göteborg |Kalmar FF |Hammarby IF

|- style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" |Eliminated clubs in italics.

|- !style="background:#BFD7FF;"|

|- style="text-align:center;" | AB 70 Amager | B 93 | BK Avarta | BK Søllerød-Vedbæk | Brøndby 2 | FC Roskilde | Glostrup FK | Holbæk B&I | Hvidovre IF | KB (FCK 2) | Næstved BK | Slagelse B&I | Stenløse BK | Værløse BK

 

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