Sweden, 18th by UEFA ranking, was changing the format for the next championship, so the 1981 season was a bit strange. The First Division was to be reduced next year from 14 to 12 teams, so promotion and relegation was affected. The general records are a bit shy today, but it looks like the winners of Second Division went to play-offs against the 11th and the 12th from First Division.
IFK Eskilstuna won 2nd Division Norra (North) and BK Hacken won 2nd Division Södra (South) – both winners were far above the others in their groups. But that was all either club could brag about, for neither got promoted.
The 1st Division championship was perhaps a bit unusual by Swedish standards – normally, it was a championship of fairly equal teams, so no big gaps occurred, but this year the league – at least at the end – was practically divided into 3 quite distinct groups of teams, topped by solitary leader. Two outsiders settled at the very bottom, one of them may be a surprise.
Djurgardens IF finished last with 16 points. Since Sweden had no really big dominating clubs, practically no club was safe from, but Djurgardens was one of the most stable and hardly one to go down. But they did.
IFK Sundsvall finished 13th with 18 points – now, this was a club one would expect to go down.
Above the doomed 6 clubs struggled to avoid play-off zone – Hammarby topped this group and finished 7th with 25 points. Atvidabergs FF breathed easier at the end, clinching the safe 10th place on better goal-difference. IF Elfsborg was 11th and Kalmar FF was 12th and in danger – if there were play-offs, both teams managed to beat their respective 2nd division opponent, so both teams remained in the league, but there was more to hear of these lowly teams in typical Swedish manner.
The next group was rather loose and there were additional gaps between the teams, but those were the stronger teams this season, having nothing to do with fears of relegation, but competing for top places and hoping for UEFA Cup spots. Malmo FF apparently finished its great winning cycle, taking all the 1970s – they ended 5th with 27 points and ahead of Örgryte IS only on better goal-difference. However, it looked like just a season of uncertainty, not a blooming crisis: the new team was strong.
As for Örgryte IS, they should be singled as an example of typical Swedish club – among largely unknown outside Sweden players, there was often a famous name: Bjorn Nordqvist here. 39 years old, but not ready to retire at all.
IF Brage finished 4th with 30 points, missing European spot by little. A curious picture for the 80s: players with spectacles practically disappeared after mid-1970s, so it is even odd to see two of the rare kind here: Rolf-Ola Nilsson and Goran Lindberg.
With 32 points IFK Norrköping secured 3th place – no higher aims, but bronze gave them a UEFA Cup spot.
IFK Göteborg was 2nd with 36 points, perhaps the single Swedish club on gradual ascend in the last few years. Sven-Goran Eriksson steered his squad well, it was getting stronger and had a number of players, who will be famous soon – Glenn Hysen, for example – but the team was not yet at its peak. They were the top-scoring team this year, but belonged more to the group of solid teams – yes, they outrun IFK Norrköping by 4 points, but in the same time were not a real title contender. Still not ready.
So at the end Östers IF won the title rather easily – 19 wins, 2 ties, 5 losses, 57-20 goal-difference, 40 points – 4 more than IFK Göteborg, second-best attack and best defense in the league. Second title in a row and 4th in total. The best period in the history of the club – champions of 1978, 1980, and 1981. Good work of their coach Bo Johansson, no doubt, but perhaps the aging Hungarian Vilmos Warszegi laid the foundations for the years of success: he coached the team from 1967 to 1973, but was still around as an assistant-coach. As for the squad, it was remarkably modest – yes, Peter Utriainen played for the national team of his home country, Finland, and Teitur Thordarsson was a staple for Iceland, but both represented the typical foreigners playing in Sweden: may be solid, but hardly famous. The only famous player the champions had is famous today, but not back then – Thomas Ravelli. He was only 22 years old at the time and just made his debut for the national team of Sweden, but already was three-times champion of the country. However, he would be a familiar name across the world many, many years later.