page_title: GAIS
section_title: Formation and early glory
hierarchical_section_title: GAIS / History / Formation and early glory
caption_attribution_description: English: Sune Sandbring in a game with Frank "Sanny" Jacobsson from Gais in allsvenskan 1953 Svenska: Sune Sandbring i kamp med Frank "Sanny" Jacobsson från Gais i allsvenskan 1953
context_page_description: Göteborgs Atlet- och Idrottssällskap, commonly referred to as GAIS or Gais, is a Swedish football club based in Gothenburg. The club is affiliated to the Göteborgs Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Gamla Ullevi. Fans also refers to the club as Grönsvart or Makrillarna because of the traditional shirt colours.
  GAIS is one of the oldest football clubs in Sweden. The club was a founding member of Allsvenskan and also the first champions of the league. They have won a total of four national championship titles, five league championship titles and one national cup title. Even though GAIS have played 49 seasons in Allsvenskan they only spent six years in the top division during a 30-year period from 1976 to 2005, with another six seasons of that time spent as low as the third division. The club thus gained the reputation of being a yo-yo club, constantly going up and down through the league system. After their promotion in 2005 the club played seven straight seasons in Allsvenskan which was a feat not achieved since the degradation in 1955. After relegation in 2012 they finished seventh in Superettan in 2013 and has remained there since.
context_section_description: GAIS was founded 11 March 1894 at Ehdlunds Café in the Gothenburg city centre. The founders had created the club for "patriotic purposes and to promote all kinds of sports". Its main activities were athletics and an assortment of strength sports. The football department was formed in 1897 and played their first official game against local rivals Örgryte IS in 1903. GAIS first appearance in the highest league at the time, Svenska Serien, was in 1915/16 where they finished in fourth place. In 1919 the club won its first national championship beating Djurgårdens IF away in the finals. The same procedure would be repeated in 1922, this time against another Stockholm team, Hammarby IF. GAIS won the first season of the new first tier league Allsvenskan in 1924/25, two points ahead of local rivals IFK Göteborg. The feat was to be repeated in 1926/27, this time three points ahead of IFK Göteborg. The league champions was not recognised as national champions until the 1930/31 season. GAIS won this year as well, six points ahead of AIK and IFK Göteborg.
  During the 1930s GAIS slowly lost the dominance the club had exercised over Allsvenskan since its foundation and in 1938 the club was relegated. Having spent three years in the second division GAIS returned with a vengeance for the 1941–42 Allsvenskan where the club finished in second place. Later in 1942 they won Svenska Cupen for the first, and until today, only time.
  The club then stayed in Allsvenskan throughout the 1940s and the early 1950s. They quite unexpectedly won their fourth national championship one single point ahead of Helsingborgs IF in the season of 1953/54. The clinching game was the last one of the season; a nail biting no score draw at Stadsparksvallen in Jönköping. The following year, equally unexpectedly, when the club finished third last and was relegated.
caption: Sune Sandbring, Malmö FF in a game with Frank Jacobsson, GAIS in 1953.
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