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Swedish club AIK strike moving chord as elderly fans walk out with players

By on September 20, 2016

Lennart Johansson first donned the colors of Swedish sports club AIK over sixty years ago. AIK are now known primarily for their first division football team, which has won the Allsvenskan eleven times and recently appeared in the Europa League, but Johansson first joined the club’s Bandy team and went on to run the club’s administration for thirteen years before becoming Chairman and President of the Swedish Football Association and Uefa.

Yet Johansson still enjoys supporting his old team at the age of eighty-six. AIK reached out towards elderly fans in a heartwarming gesture ahead of their meeting with Gelfe FC at the weekend.

Instead of the teams walking out with young children ahead of the match (who even pay hundreds of dollars to hold the hands of their heroes in the Premier League), the home crowd was pleasantly surprised when twelve loyal fans aged eighty-two to ninety-six stepped out onto the football pitch with the players.

Led by Johansson, they were greeted with a raucous standing ovation from the crowd.

In comparison to a stuffy, corporate atmosphere permeating many of Europe’s top leagues, the gesture struck a wonderful note of inclusivity towards a demographic that is often left out of the picture. “There are a lot of us who have lived with AIK all of our lives but who can’t, for various reasons, get to the stadium these days,” said Johansson, per The Guardian. “That doesn’t mean that we care less about the club. Maybe just that we have a little bit more difficulty traveling and moving around.”

It was all a part of their campaign to attract a “lost” generation of supporters, as stated in a press release and promote discounted tickets, a retro style event with a marching band and free shuttle buses from retirement homes.

AIK Chairman Mikael Ahlerup added: “Our family section has for a long time been the biggest in Sweden and it is very important for us to get children and teenagers to the club but we can never forget about the generation that made this club to what it is. That’s why this initiative felt like an obvious thing to do.

“A family should consist of both young and old and today we completed our family by inviting and celebrating the elders. I’m proud to be a part of such an inclusive club.”

To top off the occasion, AIK defeated Gelfe 1-0 on the night.

Photo credit: Aik Play

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.