Landskrona Boll och Idrottsällskap (, locally referred to as BoIS) is a Swedish professional football club located in Landskrona, Scania, which currently plays in Superettan, the second league tier of football in Sweden. The club was formed on 7 February 1915 through the merger of two Landskrona clubs, IFK Landskrona and Landskrona BK (earlier known as Diana BK).
Landskrona BoIS was one of the twelve teams participating in the inaugural Allsvenskan season in 1924–25. Since then, they have participated in 34 seasons in Allsvenskan and 54 seasons in the second highest division. Landskrona BoIS has won four medals in Allsvenskan, little silver in 1937–38 and bronze in 1938–39, 1975 and 1976, as well as one national cup title, in 1971–72.
The club also played ice hockey during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
History
Roots of football in Landskrona
One of the first sports clubs in Landskrona was GF IdrottÅke Jönsson "100 år av idrott" 1982, prologue and the oldest one as of today, which was founded in 1882. Another early sports club was the cycling club Landskrona Velocipedklubb. In 1893 they built a simple kind of cycle track which included a grass field in the middle, which eventually would become the first home ground of Landskrona BoIS. A year later football was introduced to a wider audience in Landskrona, at an event hosted by GF Idrott, at the pitch which the grass at Banan formed. This was an exhibition game between players of the football section of Malmö Velocipedklubb and it was attended by 700 spectators.
As a ban on totalizators was adopted in 1896, the interest of the cycling sport at tracks decreased and Landskrona Velocipedklubb whose economy already was poor, was a few years later forced to transfer their sports ground to Landskrona Town. GF Idrott formed sections of several sports: Gymnatics (1882), Athletics (1894), Football (1902), Swimming (1906). GF Idrott soon become a leading football club in Scania.
But GF Idrott would not end up becoming Landskrona's primary football club, however, which can be connected to GF Idrott's focus on other disciplines, as well as their typical middle class appeal in a town whose heavy industry was increasing.
Thus, GF Idrott's football section declined during the 1910s. In contrast, Landskrona-based competitor Diana appealed to the community's socialist and sobriety movement subcultures. Diana also had a youth association with strict rules and the club had a formal leadership structure. Not much is known about the other team, IFK Landskrona, which together with Diana would merge into Landskrona BoIS. Their main contribution to the merging seem to have been their players.
Foundation and pre-Allsvenskan era
The respective strengths led to a merger between Diana and IFK Landskrona on 7 February 1915, forming a new club, Landskrona BoIS, with IFK Landskrona's strong player roster complementing Diana's structural advantages. The former chairman of Diana, Bror Nilsson, also became the first chairman of Landskrona BoIS, a position that he held until the end of the 1940s. Until the summer of 1924, the club's home pitch was Velocipedbanan, referred to as Banan locally.
In July 1918, BoIS played their first match abroad, against Copenhagen-based KFUM.
The best player in Landskrona BoIS during the pre-Allsvenskan era was Albin Dahl, who became the club's first, and only, Olympic competitor, as he represented Sweden at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerpen. Albin played for the club between 1915 and 1921 before joining Helsingborgs IF together with his younger brother Harry Dahl in 1922. The transfer was fractious, as the clubs couldn't agree on the terms. However, unlike Albin, Harry returned to BoIS after only one season. For the following Olympics, 1924 in Paris, both brothers were nominated to play for Sweden, however, Harry's supervisor at Thulinverket refused to let him go.
1924–42
The year 1924 brought the construction of Landskrona IP, occasionally referred to as "Karlsunds IP" in reference to the beech forest located just west of the arena. The new arena enabled Landskrona BoIS to become one of twelve clubs participating in the inaugural season of Allsvenskan. The inaugural Allsvenskan matchday concluded with Landskrona BoIS as the first ever Allsvenskan table leader, following a 1–0 away victory against IFK Norrköping. (Until 1940, goal ratio was tiebreaker when separating teams with the same number of points.) The club's first Allsvenskan home game at Landskrona IP was a 4–0 defeat against IFK Göteborg. Landskrona finished their first season in Allsvenskan in 6th place.
Harry Dahl continued to play for the club until the 1931–32 season. When he left, he had scored an unmatched 334 goals in 410 matches, and he is still the club's best goalscorer of all time.
The team was relegated for the first time following the 1932–33 season, the first season following the departure of Dahl, but the club was promoted back Allsvenskan the following season. This time they had their first real manager in Nisse Svensson and he took Landskrona to the top of the league. The club won their first medal in the 1937–38 season, the Little Silver Medal as it is called in Sweden, awarded to the 3rd placed team in the league. BoIS was only a small difference in goal ratio away from the runners-up Helsingborg IF. The following 1938–39 season ended with Landskrona BoIS winning the bronze medal for their fourth-place finish. Knut Hansson (known as "Buckla") was a notable player and striker during the late 1930s, who was in the squad that finished third in the 1937–38 Allsvenskan."Ett fotbollslags historia, Landskrona BoIS 1915–1975" page 65. He later had to leave the club due to not being able to find a job in Landskrona.
BoIS participated in 17 of the initial 18 seasons of Allsvenskan, from the inaugural season in 1924–25 to the 1941–42 season.
1942–54 The 1940s were not as positive for the club as the 1930s. The team had no stability and was a yo-yo club for most of the 1940s. An exception to the otherwise mediocre performance came in the 1949 Svenska Cupen, the eighth edition of the tournament, in which Landskrona made their way to the final, defeating Mjölby, Helsingborgs IF, Råå IF and BK Kenty on the way. In the final, played on 24 July, they met AIK in front of 14,718 spectators at Råsunda Stadium in Solna. They lost 1–0, with the sole goal coming on a penalty for a handball.
After the 1941/42 relegation, Landskrona BoIS first became a top team in their Division 2 group, and on two occasions they won their group, thereby winning promotion back to Allsvenskan. On both occasions their stays were short, finishing last in both the 1944–45 and 1948–49 Allsvenskan seasons. The situation worsened in the 1951–52 season, with BoIS finishing ninth of ten teams in the second tier, and being relegated to the third tier. With Landskrona's other notable club, BK Landora, also relegated from Division 2, Landskrona now lacked any representation in the two top tiers of Swedish football. That situation would last only one year, however, as BoIS were promoted back to the second tier in 1953.
Notable players from this period include Sigvard Pettersson who scored 297 goals and Knut Hansson who had previously been in the squads that had gained two Allsvenskan medals.
Mid-1950s and 1960s
The club was relegated from Allsvenskan in 1949 and didn't return until the 1971 season, however Landskrona BoIS played qualification games for Allsvenskan in 1958, 1959, 1962 and 1968, all without success. In 1962, the qualification games took place through a four team group, with the clubs meeting each other only once . The third round was played at neutral grounds. When Landskrona BoIS game was finished, appeared to have secured promotion to Allsvenskan, but the other match, which had been delayed a few minutes, ended with a late goal, resulting in Stockholm's AIK securing an Allsvenskan spot instead. During this period the main star player was Hasse Persson. In the early 1960s, Claes Cronqvist had some success with the club, but moved after the 1965 season to Djurgårdens IF in Stockholm. The 1965 season was also the last one for the club's main star, Hasse Persson.
1970s The two following seasons ended without any notable success. But the club had for a while had their eyes on a tall and muscular youth, in the local small club BK Landora, who played their home games at the B-pitch of Landskrona IP. A very talented but heavy centre forward, his name was Sonny Johansson. He, just like Claes Cronqvist in 1966, was of interest for the Stockholm club Djurgårdens IF. Together with his father Oscar, they made the long journey up to the Swedish capital. Everything looked like Sonny should put his signature on the transfer papers, but he didn't, stating that "dad would be so lonesome without me". After his return from the capital, Sonny did instead sign for Landskrona BoIS, and he would become true to his new club for his entire career over 17 seasons.
After rival club Helsingborg IF was relegated from Allsvenskan in 1968 (for its first time ever), and after having no success in the qualification to Allsvenskan in 1969, the year 1970 became a very important one for Landskrona BoIS. To reach the promotion qualifiers, they had to win at home against Helsingborgs IF, and so they did, with a single goal scored by the Danish player Leif Carlsen in front of more than 15,000 attenders. In the home game of the qualification for Allsvenskan, more than 15,000 attenders came to Landskrona IP again, and BoIS after goals by Tommy Gustafsson and Sonny Johansson, won 2–0 against Sandvikens IF. The away game was played in the northern town Luleå, just as the winter began at the 66th latitude. BoIS managed a goalless draw as result. In the final game, at neutral Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg, BoIS had to play Skövde AIK and at least another draw was required for the promotion. It began bad, as Skövde scored twice, but by goals from Sonny Johansson and Leif Carlsen, Landskrona BoIS finally managed to be promoted back to Allsvenskan, after an absence for 21 seasons. As a result of the success, the Danish player Leif Carlsen was forced to leave BoIS. By 1971, the Swedish Football Association didn't allow foreign players in Allsvenskan. During the 1971 season Landskrona BoIS managed to finish on 6th place, but won only 5 games. Their home average attendance during the season was 8,504 presumably their best ever (by 2014).
BoIS stayed in Allsvenskan for ten seasons, which included two bronze medals 1975 and 1976 and a Swedish Cup victory in 1972. During the 1970s their former rivals from Helsingborg had no luck in their attempts to return to Allsvenskan, and the main rivals instead became Malmö FF. In 1974 BoIS beat Malmö FF, with 2–1, for the first time at Malmö Stadion, in front of 24,746 attenders. Worse was the 1975 home game against Malmö FF, as the guests won 0–5, the attendance in Landskrona that year was though as high as 17,696, the second best attendance at IP.
The club's ever main star Sonny Johansson contributed to this in a major way. Sonny played for the club from 1968 to 1984 and scored more than 300 goals. He was the highest-scoring player in Allsvenskan during the 1970s. In 1971, Claes Cronqvist returned to the club and remained until the relegation in 1980. Unlike in the 1960s when he was a forward, he mostly played as defender during the 1970s. Cronqvist holds the record for being sent off more than any player in Allsvenskan, 7 times, including 5 times while representing BoIS (1971–80) and twice during his time with Djurgården.