‘Everyone in Gothenburg smells like fish!’: With just EIGHT fans allowed to attend football games in Sweden, supporters are forced to come up with maverick chants to create atmosphere
- Coronavirus restrictions mean just eight fans are allowed at games in Sweden
- The Allsvenskan started last weekend and fans came up with imaginative chants
- AIK supporters sung ‘Everyone in Gothenburg smells like fish!’ at the opposition
- The rules caused outrage given numbers at shopping centres and animal parks
Swedish football supporters were forced to come up with inventive ways to generate atmosphere at the weekend with just eight fans allowed into games.
Only eight people are allowed to meet outside in Sweden under coronavirus restrictions and top-flight football has not been exempt.
That meant AIK’s 50,000-seater Friends Arena in Stockholm and other stadiums were eerily quiet as the Allsvenskan, the Swedish first division, returned for the 2021 season.
Eight Swedish supporters were forced to come up with inventive ways to create atmosphere
Only eight fans are allowed at venues such as the 50,000-seater Friends Arena in Stockholm
AIK won 2-0 against Degerfors and their opponents’ lineup contained striker Victor Edvardsen, who previously played for AIK’s fierce rivals IFK Goteborg.
That led to chants of ‘Everyone in Gothenburg smells like fish!’ from the eight-strong home support, who were undeterred by the lack of other fans joining in.
Edvardsen seemed to take the chants in good spirit and lamented there weren’t more supporters there to sing it.
‘It was a shame it was only eight, it would have been much better if it had been 50,000 people shouting it,’ Evardsen told Fotbollskanalen in quotes carried by the Guardian.
‘But I did hear that they were shouting it. It was pretty funny actually.’
The restrictions on football supporters in Sweden have been criticised given shopping centres, bars and animal parks are all open to far greater numbers of people.
Sweden had the highest number of new coronavirus infections per head in the last week
On the same day AIK took on Degerfors with eight fans at the Friends Arena, 5,000 people were allowed at a nearby animal park.
Swedish football authorities had come up with a plan to bring fans back safely but this was seemingly not taken into account as the top-flight returned.
Last August the country’s Health Agency approved plans to allow up to 500 supporters back after raising the limit on public gatherings from 50.
But Sweden’s coronavirus situation has worsened in recent months and it reported the highest number of new infections per head over the past week.