��������

STOCKHOLM: The nervousness of Hammarby and AIK fans ahead of Sunday’s Stockholm derby will pale into insignificance compared to those of Swedish minnows Mjallby AIF, who will become Swedish champions if Hammarby fail to beat their city rivals.
Should the tiny club from a fishing village on the Listerlandet peninsula do so it will be the greatest shock in the history of football, according to Torbjorn Andersson, an academic specializing in football at Malmo University.
“(It would be) completely unique in the history of football, and that it’s happening now is even more unlikely,” he told broadcaster Radiosporten ahead of what could be the decisive weekend in the Allsvenskan title race.
A combination of superb scouting and a science-based approach have helped Mjallby top the 16-team league on 63 points after 26 games, 11 points ahead of second-placed Hammarby, whose resources dwarf those of their smaller southern rivals.
Though the club draws support from all over the county of Solvesborg, the town of Mjallby has a tiny population of just over 1,200, and academic Andersson said that, on paper, a club of their stature should have no chance of winning the title.
“There’s so much money in it (football), it should be totally impossible,” he said as Mjallby look to replace Malmo, who have won the title a record 27 times, as champions.
“If you look at the annual reports the (Swedish) football association has published ... I think Malmo last year, in 2024, had eight times more and the Stockholm clubs have four or five times more turnover than Mjallby.”
Anything other than a win for “Bajen,” as Hammarby are known, at home to fourth-placed AIK on Sunday would mean Mjallby being crowned champions without kicking a ball.
AIK supporters would like nothing more than to be the team that end Hammarby’s title aspirations.
Should they do so, Mjallby’s trip to IFK Gothenburg on Monday will turn into a 300-km victory parade. The club’s “Sillastrybarna” supporters group has six buses booked for the journey, with at least 1,500 tickets sold to away fans.
Even if Hammarby win the derby, Mjallby can still secure the title with a win on Monday, which would preserve their 11-point lead with three games left to play.
“Under normal circumstances, this is a trip that would have required one bus, but we sold out more or less five buses in one day,” Kristofer Rasmusson, representative of the fan group, told broadcaster SVT as tension mounted ahead of a decisive weekend.

LONDON: Around 20 minutes. That’s how long it took Nottingham Forest to fire Ange Postecoglou after the team’s 3-0 loss to Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday.
It left Postecoglou without a win in eight matches since taking charge as the replacement for Nuno Espirito Santo on Sept. 9.
In a 39-word statement, Forest said Postecoglou was “relieved of his duties as head coach with immediate effect” after “a series of disappointing results and performances.”
British media has already been linking former Burnley and Everton manager Sean Dyche with the job, should Postecoglou get fired.