page_title: Malmö FF
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Malmö FF / History / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: The old entrance to Malmö IP Svenska: Den gamla entrén till Malmö IP
context_page_description: Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association, Malmö FF are based at Eleda Stadion in Malmö, Scania. The club have won the most Swedish championship titles and a record 14 national cup titles.
  The club won their first Championship in 1944. The powerhouse of Swedish football in recent years, Malmö FF also saw glory in the 1970s, winning five Swedish championships and four Svenska Cupen titles. They remain the only club from the Nordic countries to have reached the final of the European Cup, the predecessor of the UEFA Champions League. They were runners-up in the 1979 European Champions Cup final, which they lost 1–0 to English club Nottingham Forest. For this feat, Malmö FF were awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal. Malmö FF is also the only Nordic club to have been represented at the Intercontinental Cup in which they competed for the 1979 title.
context_section_description: The club arose from a municipal initiative in 1905 to encourage young people in Malmö to play organised football. One of the youth teams, Bollklubben Idrott, also known simply as BK Idrott, was a predecessor to Malmö FF. BK Idrott joined the newly created football department of IFK Malmö in 1909, but soon left because of issues between the two clubs. On 24 February 1910 the 19 members of BK Idrott founded Malmö FF; the first chairman was Werner Mårtensson.
  The club spent their first ten years in local and regional divisions as there was no official national league competition, playing the majority of their matches in the city division called Malmömästerskapen. They also competed in regional competitions in Scania, and played matches against Danish clubs. In 1916 Malmö FF reached the final of the Scanian regional competition (Distriktsmästerskapen) for the first time, playing against rival Helsingborgs IF but losing 3–4. The club defeated local rival IFK Malmö three times during the season, and thus earned the unofficial but much desired title of Malmö's best football club. In 1917 Malmö FF competed in Svenska Mästerskapet for the first time, a cup tournament for the title of Swedish champions, but lost their first match in the second qualifying round 4–1 against IFK Malmö. The club continued to play in the cup until 1922, reaching the quarter-finals in 1920 when they were knocked out by Landskrona BoIS. The cup was eventually discontinued and the title of Swedish champions was given to the winners of Allsvenskan which was first created for the 1924–25 season.
  In 1920 the Swedish Football Association invited Swedish football clubs to compete in official national competitions. Malmö FF earned a place in Division 2 Sydsvenska Serien. They won this division in the first season, and were promoted to Svenska Serien Västra, the highest level of competition in Sweden at the time. However, they were relegated after a single season, and found themselves back in Sydsvenska Serien for nearly a decade until they again achieved promotion to Allsvenskan, in 1931.
caption: Malmö IP, the first home stadium for the club between 1910 and 1957
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