Idrottsklubben Sirius, more commonly known as IK Sirius or Sirius, is a Swedish professional football club located in Uppsala. The club is affiliated with Upplands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Studenternas IP.

IK Sirius are currently playing in the Swedish top flight Allsvenskan for the tenth season in a row after having spent much of their history in lower divisions.

History

Founding On 9 August 1907 the sports club that would become known as IK Sirius was founded in a ditch at the side of a sporting ground in Uppsala. Names like Svartbäckens IK and IK Spurt were originally used but on 5 April 1908 the members settled on the current name. The club was originally founded for athletics, but took up football the following year.

In the 1910s Sirius started competing in Svenska Mästerskapet which was the cup competition that decided who would become the Swedish Champions at that time. In 1917 they reached the semi-finals after victories against teams such as Hammarby IF and IFK Norrköping, a feat which they would repeat again the following year. Their greatest success in the pre-Allsvenskan era came in 1924 when they made it all the way to the Svenska Mästerskapet final where they lost against Fässbergs IF.

The Allsvenskan years

After the formation of the Swedish football league system the club had spent forty years in lower divisions when businessman Owe Bergström became club president in 1964. Even though Sirius was playing in the third tier at the time he was able to use his personal wealth to sign five players from reigning Swedish champions Djurgårdens IF, three of who were part of the Sweden men's national football team. This enabled them to gain promotion to Allsvenskan in 1968, although they were relegated after just one season. The pinnacle was reached during the years of 1973–1974, when the club again gained promotion to the highest division and its squad contained a number of high-profile players, such as Roland Grip.

Obscurity and comeback

After the club's relegation from Allsvenskan in 1974, Sirius played in the second division until they plummeted all the way down to the fourth tier following a couple of difficult years in the beginning of the 1980s. The club recovered slightly and the 1990s were mostly spent in the second tier of Swedish football. However, the club had accumulated large debts and was struggling financially during those decades.

Just as the new fully national second tier Superettan was started in the early 2000s Sirius found themselves back down in the third division again. It would take until 2006 for the team under manager Magnus Pehrsson to be able to get promoted again through a promotion playoff against Väsby United where Uppsala-born team captain Olle Kullinger scored the deciding goal and the club would get to celebrate their 100 year anniversary in the 2007 Superettan.

Superettan and promotion back to Allsvenskan A big turning point for Sirius came in 2010 when businessman Bengt Ågerup started investing in the club. Even though they were at that point back in the third tier his financial backing enabled them to strengthen their organization with former player Ola Andersson as the new club president, Kim Bergstrand and Thomas Lagerlöf as first team coaches and Petter Hansson as head of the youth academy. Ågerup also paid the full salary of star signing Johan Arneng and covered any yearly losses the club had financially. His investments in the club ended abruptly in 2013 when his company was raided by the Swedish tax authorities due to around $120 million in unpaid taxes.

The investments had paid off however, as in that same year the club won the 2013 Division 1 without losing a single game and returned to Superettan. They also started seeing success in the Swedish Cup where they reached the quarter finals, and the following year the semi-finals. Sirius finished in sixth place in their first year back in the second tier and the next season they barely missed out on reaching the top division after losing the promotion play-offs on the away goals rule. Success would come though in the 2016 Superettan where they finished in first place, qualifying them for promotion with two game left of the season and returning to Allsvenskan after a 42-year-absence.

Allsvenskan and a strategy change Since returning to Sweden's top flight the club has shifted away from relying on outside investments and is instead focused on developing and giving playing time to young players. When the players eventually get sold that money is reinvested both in infrastructure for the club and the next generation of young players. In the summer of 2026 Sirius made their biggest ever transfer when Robbie Ure was sold to La Liga club Sevilla FC for £5.6m plus add-ons.

Kit

Sirius play in blue and black vertically striped shirts with black shorts and socks, although historically there have been other variations. In the early days of the clubs existence they used all black shirts and during the era of being sponsored by businessman Owe Bergström in the 1960s and 1970s they wore all white home kits as he was a fan of Real Madrid and wanted Sirius to look similar to the spanish club. The all white version is now used as the teams away kit. Sirius are also known to at times have a yellow star underneath the club badge on their shirts.

PeriodKit manufacturerShirt sponsor (chest)–2009 PumaPhadia2010–2014 NikeUNT2015–2017Volkswagen2018–2019Byggconstruct2020– Select

Recent seasons Summary of the ten most recent seasons for IK Sirius: Season Division Tier Pos Pl W D L + - P Cup Attendances2016Superettan2 1301875542361Group stage2,9162017Allsvenskan173011712465140Group stage5,174201813308616376130Group stage3,998201911308517345129Group stage4,2882020103091110435138Group stage02021113010713395337Group stage4,580202211309813314235Group stage5,614202383012612514442Group stage6,329202493012513474641Group stage7,033202593011613535139Semifinals6,742

Stadium Sirius play their home games at Studenternas IP located at the side of the Fyris river running through central Uppsala. It was originally built in 1909 as a sports ground funded collaboratively by the Students' union and the government. Designed to also host a variety of other activities besides football the stadium opened with a game of bandy and also hosted athletics. In 2018 work began to gradually demolish the old stadium and replace it with a newly built football stadium with the same name which was finalized before the start of the 2020 Allsvenskan season.

Players Current squad

Out on loan

Notable players The following players are either included in the top ten of the Uppsala Nya Tidning article series on the greatest Sirius players of all time, or in the list of the supporters' favorite players from the official IK Sirius website.

NameYears Leif Eriksson1967–1968, 1976–1979 Roland Grip1971–1975 Hans Selander1973–1974 Stefano Vecchia2017–2020 Klebér Saarenpää1993–1994 Björn Carlsson1969–1974 Ola Andersson1990–1994, 2001 Moustafa Zeidan2021–2022 Hans Nilsson1966–1968, 1974–1975, 1979 Moses Ogbu2010–2015, 2017–2018 Sigge Parling1961–1962 Jano Alicata1966–196? Morgan Hedlund1968–1970 Henrik Östlin1973–? Gholam Hashempour1980–1981, 1984–1985 Darren Foreman1995 Kjell Johansson1997–2001

Management

Technical staff

NameRole Jonathan EderströmSporting director Andreas EngelmarkHead coach Max WesterbergAssistant coaches Henrik Åhnstrand Petter HanssonTransition coach Karim FegrouchGoalkeeping coach John SwärdHead of scouting Fredrik LeierdahlScout Tobias MyhrbergAnalyst Diarmuid ClancyFitness coach Jakob JohanssonTeam doctor Oskar WidlundChiropractics Petter Isaksson Gert AnderssonEquipment manager

Managerial history Sigge Parling (1965–1966) Sid Huntley (1972) Torsten Furukrantz (1974) Alan Ball Sr. (1975–1976) Per Hansson (1987–1992) Dan Sundblad (1997) Kjell Jonevret (1998–1999) Stellan Carlsson (2000–2003) Zaine Söderlund and Per Widén (2004) Zaine Söderlund (2005) Magnus Pehrsson (2006) Pär Millqvist (2007–2008) Andreas Brännström (2009–2011) Kim Bergstrand and Thomas Lagerlöf (2012–2018) Henrik Rydström and Mirza Jelečak (2019) Henrik Rydström (2020) Daniel Bäckström (2021–2022) Christer Mattiasson (2023–2024) Andreas Engelmark (2025–)

Honours

Cup Svenska Mästerskapet: Runners-up (1): 1924

League Superettan: Winners (1): 2016 Division 1 Norra: Winners (1): 2013 Runners-up (2): 2006, 2010 Division 2 Östra Svealand: Winners (1): 1997

Footnotes

References

External links

IK Sirius – official site (archived 17 April 2017) Västra Sidan – supporter site