SleipnerGround: Nya Parken (formerly Norrköpings Idrottspark) Visits: 2 Date: 9th June 2011 Match: Sleipner - Sylvia 0-5 (Division 1 Södra) Attendance: 1 304
With 12 league titles IFK Norrköping are considered to be one of the biggest clubs in Swedish football. The first club from Norrköping to win the Swedish league title was not IFK though. In 1938 Sleipner won their, so far, only Allsvenskan title. The club was founded as early as 1903 and is a club with a long footballing history. In the early 70s they were managed by Sweden´s greatest ever footballer (Gunnar Nordahl) and outside the ground there is a statue of him. He was of course playing for IFK Norrköping long before that, winning 4 league titles with them in the 1940s. When you visit Nya Parken in Norrköping you can feel it is a place with a lot of history.
Norrköpings Idrottspark, also known as Idrottsparken or Parken, was opened in 1904 and hosted three matches in the 1958 World Cup as well as three matches in Euro 92. Originally the ground had an athletics track but this was removed when the ground was redeveloped for the Euro 92 tournament. The record attendance is 32,234 from 1956 (IFK Norrköping - Malmö FF). Norrköpings Idrottspark was almost completely redeveloped during 2008 and 2009. Building works on Idrottsparken was finally completed in September 2009 reducing the capacity to around 15,000 which is less than before but with much improved facilities. The stadium was also renamed to Nya Parken. The pictures below are from the "new" ground. Visit the IFK Norrköping page for pictures from the "old" ground.
I visited the "old" ground in 2008 but since I wanted pictures from the redeveloped ground I wanted to visit it again. With crowds normally being around 400 I was lucky to be able to visit Nya Parken for the Sleipner-Sylvia derby. After visiting Skövde a couple of weeks ago Nya Parken was my last remaining ground in this division (although I am not counting it as a new ground). Before tonights match Sleipner were in second place and with Sylvia being in the relegation zone most of us was expecting an easy victory for Sleipner. That was not to happen though. Sylvia had a couple of new players and they seemed like decent signings. Sylvia were all over the place and won by 5-0. At least an entertaining match (and interesting result) to finish off Division 1 Södra with!
Nya Parken, rear of the North Stand
Statue of Gunnar Nordahl
North Stand
East Stand
South Stand
West Stand
Big flag
Sleipner fans
West Stand
View of play
Kick-off
Pano
Pano |