From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Hugo Keto
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Marcus Antonsson takes the afternoon — 9.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcus Antonsson provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match31 Oct 2026
Level with 96 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon IFK Värnamo had all but put away. Halmstad will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The award goes to Marcus Antonsson, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at IFK Värnamo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sigge Jansson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match31 Oct 2026
It needed Marcus Antonsson to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Halmstad, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marcus Antonsson is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.87, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Souleymane Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with IF Elfsborg leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Martin Larsson chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a IFK Värnamo man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Marcus Antonsson was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Johan Rapp
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Halmstad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.57, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Axel Bertelsen is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Marcus Antonsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcus Antonsson. 3‑2 against IFK Norrkoping, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Hugo Keto
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Souleymane Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
Carl Johansson has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IFK Värnamo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stephen Bolma is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marcus Antonsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at IFK Värnamo
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Antonio Kujundžić is on it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Simon Thern’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and IFK Värnamo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what IFK Värnamo could get for him.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcus Antonsson signs something — a contract at IFK Värnamo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Marcus Antonsson takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcus Antonsson provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
The game went through Carl Johansson — 7.49
Marked 7.49 on 19 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Logi Hrafn Róbertsson is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at IFK Värnamo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; IFK Värnamo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match3 Oct 2026
Mjällby made IFK Värnamo work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Souleymane Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Axel Björnström at his very best
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at IFK Värnamo.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Carl Johansson knocks on the manager’s door
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The dugout
The form table has caught Johan Rapp
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to IFK Värnamo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at IFK Värnamo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marcus Antonsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
No clean sheets in sight for IFK Värnamo
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match26 Sep 2026
GAIS left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market28 Sep 2026
Fred Božičević is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at IFK Värnamo has been clear about where Fred Božičević stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; IFK Värnamo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sigge Jansson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Marcus Antonsson's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Martin Larsson left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by IK Sirius, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Marcus Antonsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alexander Lundin has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means IFK Värnamo have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the IFK Värnamo dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Hugo Keto knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at IFK Värnamo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Frederik Mortensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Fred Božičević dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Beaten 4 times: a bad day for Hugo Keto
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
Carl Johansson has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around IFK Värnamo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
IFK Goteborg will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jonathan Rasheed has pre-agreed a move to IFK Värnamo, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eirik Holmen, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at IFK Värnamo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Souleymane Coulibaly is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Souleymane Coulibaly falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at IFK Värnamo, another week without a signature from Douglas Bergqvist.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and IFK Värnamo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad7 Sep 2026
IFK Värnamo will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Marcus Antonsson has moved up it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against BK Hacken in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market7 Sep 2026
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs IFK Värnamo money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
11 saves: Hugo Keto was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match29 Aug 2026
IFK Värnamo throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Djurgarden the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that IFK Värnamo will enjoy reviewing.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.98, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tromso keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mohammed Mahammed has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means IFK Värnamo have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Marcus Antonsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Martin Torp, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. IFK Värnamo have done the hard part with Tromso, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Haugesund keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Marcus Antonsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Hammarby, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Souleymane Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Logi Hrafn Róbertsson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.70. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
In brief
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The dugout
Eirik Holmen dropped after a run of poor form
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Kai Meriluoto was unplayable
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Aug 2026
Mjällby ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
IFK Värnamo close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $950.0K — a club that wants Elliot Stroud enough to be asked twice.
Match15 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for IFK Värnamo
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around IFK Värnamo are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kai Meriluoto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ishaq Abdulrazak did the work nobody counts — 6.92
12 combined actions and 6.92. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kai Meriluoto and IFK Värnamo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Douglas Bergqvist and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Andreas Linde has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means IFK Värnamo have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
IFK Värnamo asked and BK Hacken said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Hugo Keto
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hugo Keto, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Isak Tankovic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sam Lindelof is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nils Augustinsson has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrik Forsberg has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
Simon Thern and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at IFK Värnamo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Douglas Bergqvist is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Legia have kept their man, and IFK Värnamo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kai Meriluoto has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match1 Aug 2026
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon IFK Värnamo had all but put away. Öster will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Calle Johansson and IFK Värnamo agree another 3 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and IFK Värnamo know it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.79. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.