Since the founding of fellow Copenhagen club F.C. Copenhagen in 1992, the two clubs have had a fierce rivalry, and the so-called "New Firm" games between the two sides attract the biggest crowds in Danish football. With F.C. Copenhagen, Brøndby has consistently formed a duo which have won eleven of the last sixteen Danish Superliga championships, and from 1995 to 2006, the club did not finish below second spot in the league. Brøndby IF are currently taking part in the Danish Superliga 2008-09 tournament.
In 1973 Per Bjerregaard stopped his active career at 27 years of age, and became chairman of Brøndby IF. His first action was to sack coach Sinding. In his place, Brøndby hired former professional and Danish national football team player Finn Laudrup, who took over as head coach, while he still took actively part in the games as a player. Finn Laudrup joined his brother-in-law Ebbe Skovdahl in the Brøndby team, and he brought his two young sons Brian and Michael Laudrup with him to the club. Under Finn Laudrup's influence, the playing style was changed to a more attacking strategy, even though Finn Laudrup decided to fully concentrate his efforts as a player after only a year. After winning promotion in 1974, Finn Laudrup left Brøndby in the 3rd Division in 1976 to play for KB in the Danish top-flight league, then named 1st Division, and a year later Michael Laudrup, the brightest talent in Danish football, followed.
Brøndby IF won their 1st Division debut match 7-1 over fellow promoted team B 1909, in a game that featured two goals from Michael Laudrup. He was subsequently called up for the Danish national team, and on June 15, 1982 he became the first Brøndby player to win a cap for Denmark. Brøndby finished their first 1st Division season in fourth place with Laudrup the league's third top goal scorer with 15 goals, which would earn him the Danish Player of the Year award. In 1983, Laudrup was sold to Juventus F.C. in the then biggest transfer deal in Denmark, giving Brøndby IF the economic foundation to expand further.
After four years in the top division, Brøndby won their first Danish championship in 1985 and played its first European match when the club beat Hungarian champions Budapest Honvéd FC 4-1 in the 1986 European Cup. In 1986, Brøndby became the first Danish club of fully professionals when ten players were signed full time, and the club was introduced at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1987.
In 1990 Brøndby hired former Danish national team captain Morten Olsen as coach, and under his reign, the 1990-91 UEFA Cup would become the high point in the short history of the club. Especially the meriting wins over Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer 04 Leverkusen from Germany and Russian club Torpedo Moscow saw the many Danish profiles shine, and the club was minutes from qualifying for the final game of the tournament. In the 88th minute of the semi-final, a Rudi Völler goal denied Brøndby the final game of the Cup, in favour of AS Roma. Following the impressive European display by the comparatively small club, important members of the team, including Lars Olsen, top scoring striker Bent "Turbo" Christensen and the absolute star Peter Schmeichel, left the club.
The following year, 1992, was the worst year in the club's history as the intended takeover of the Danish bank Interbank went awry. It was expected that European Cup success would boost the Brøndby stock value in order to finance the buy, but as the club was beaten by Dynamo Kyiv in the European Cup 1991-92 qualification, the stocks never reached the value necessary to finalize the deal. It had been arranged for financial backers Hafnia to step in and take over the buy in case Brøndby could not finance it, but as Hafnia went bankrupt, Brøndby were forced to buy Interbank and financial collapse was imminent as club debts amassed to 400 million DKK. A long-term rescue plan was initiated to save the club, but these events influenced the performance of the team and the championship, now called the Danish Superliga, was not won again until 1996.
Skovdahl decided to take a stab at coaching in Scottish club Aberdeen F.C. and Brøndby took a more Scandinavian approach, in search of stable success in the European competitions with Norwegian club Rosenborg BK the role model. The club hired Norwegian manager Åge Hareide in 2000, who proclaimed a shift in line-up to a more attacking 4-3-3 system. With Hareide came a handful of Scandinavian players of whom especially Swedish national team player Mattias Jonson would become a fan favourite.
2000 was also the year the club finalized a planned expansion of Brøndby Stadium from a 20,000 to a 29,000 capacity, making it the second largest stadium in Denmark, only trailing the Parken stadium of F.C. København. At the cost of 250 million DKK, the vast expenditure was seen as a sign that the club was out of its former financial crisis. The building project was finalized in fall 2000, and on October 22, 28,416 spectators saw Brøndby beat Akademisk Boldklub 4-2 in the opening game of the rebuilt stadium.
Hareide's visions of a 4-3-3 system never worked out, and the team soon returned to the well-known 4-4-2 setup. As he slowly lost hold of a 10 point lead to rivals FCK, gained in a great first half of the 2001-02 Superliga season, Hareide took his leave in spring 2002 before the last games of the season. He was replaced by youth team coach Tom Køhlert who, though reluctant to take the job, gave first team debuts to the top youth team players, most notably Thomas Kahlenberg, who would help the club narrowly secure the championship win on goal difference.
For the 2002-03 Superliga season Brøndby caused sensation as they had convinced Michael Laudrup to return to manage his childhood club, with John "Faxe" his assistant. In their first season, the 33 man Brøndby team was divided into an A-squad of 23 players for the Superliga and a U-squad consisting mainly of youth players. The coaching duo let several players go in the process, as Laudrup "looked at the names and then assessed, who fits our style of play"; A 4-2-3-1 formation with a short-passing possession game, deploying two wide wingers. Asbjørn Sennels, one of the newly acquired players under Michael Laudrup, became the 50th Brøndby player, since Laudrup himself in 1982, to represent his respective national team, when he played for Denmark in April 2004.
Michael Laudrup's greatest international triumph came in Brøndby's 100th European cup game, when Schalke 04 was eliminated on aggregate in the 2003-04 UEFA Cup. Brøndby then faced Laudrup's former high-profile club FC Barcelona, and was eliminated from the tournament. In the domestic competitions, winning The Double in the 2004-05 season is the most recent highlight for Brøndby. In May 2006, Laudrup announced that he, along with John "Faxe", did not accept the one-year contract extension offered by the club, and following three titles in four seasons, the pair left the club in June.
René Meulensteen resigned after six months, leaving Brøndby at a 7th place halfway through the 2006-07 Superliga season. The official explanation for his departure was that his family couldn't settle in Denmark, but soon after, the former coach revealed major infrastructural problems in the club's organization calling the club "a very sick patient requiring immediate attention as well as cliques inside the first team. In order to solve the clique problems he had gone to director Per Bjerregaard to fire three key players - Marcus Lantz, Thomas Rytter and one club man Per Nielsen in order to reestablish the balance in the first team squad. A demand Danish football experts later described as the quickest way of getting sacked.
Tom Køhlert took the managerial reins once more, this time as a permanent solution on a 2½-year contract.
After losing 2-4 to Horsens on August 26, their 23rd continuous away game without a victory, the team was greeted by approximately 200 furious fans and cries like "die mercenaries" and "we are Brøndby, who are you?" on their return to Copenhagen.
On August 31, 2007, Per Bjerregaard announced that he resigned from the director seat, and instead took over as chairman of the board in Brøndby IF. Shortly after his resignation, Peter Schmeichel announced that he was ready to buy Brøndby and become the director. The announcement divided the fans. Some praised the former player for trying to save the club, while others criticized him for bringing investor Aldo Petersen along who is a keen supporter and former stockholder of rivals FC Copenhagen. However, his offer was rejected, which by financial experts was rated as a good decision.
On April 1, 2008, Hermann Haraldsson was appointed to the vacant position.
Soon after manager Tom Køhlert declared his job done and the club chairman Per Bjerregaard searched for a new manager to be in charge of the first team. On June 16, 2008 the club announced the appointment of former player and head coach of Horsens Kent Nielsen. Kent Nielsen will take charge of the first team on January 1, 2009. Until then present coach Tom Køhlert stays in charge.
On July 1, 2008 KasiGroup replaced Codan as the main sponsor of the club. The partnership involved a cooperation with UNICEF, making Brøndby the second club in Europe next to FC Barcelona to wear the logo of UNICEF on their shirts. Furthermore KasiGroup entered a sponsorship for the stadium and promised substantial funds for taking the player squad to the next level. During the 2008 summer break this contributed to Brøndby transferring 5 new players with national team experience in order to strengthen the team.
On the business side, Brøndby recently launched the beginning for a range of new activities by acquiring Brøndby-Hallen, a nearby sports dome, as well as putting forward plans for outdoor concerts and a medical centre. In addition the media focus on Brøndby has changed dramatically with the new communication strategy of Hermann Haraldsson.
Brøndby have always played their games at Brøndby Stadium. A part of the merging of Brøndbyvester IF and Brøndbyøster IF was a promise by the Brøndby municipality mayor to build a ground, and in 1965 it was ready for the club to play at. Through the first years in the secondary Danish leagues, the stadium was little more than a grass field with an athletics track circling the field of play. It wasn't until 1978 that the main stand was built, sporting a capacity of 1,200 seated spectators. As newly promoted to the best Danish league in 1982, concrete terraces opposite the main stand were constructed, allowing for a crowd of 5,000 additional people. Following the first years of success in the highest Danish league, the athletic track was discarded and a further 2,000 seats were installed on top of the concrete stands from 1989 to 1990.
When Brøndby played games against other successful European teams in the 1990-91 UEFA Cup, the then capacity of up to 10,000 spectators was quickly dwarfed by the ticket interest. As the Danish national stadium Idrætsparken in Copenhagen was being rebuilt, the club found no other way to host the games, but to get a dispensation to use scaffolding stands, which boosted the stadium capacity to 18,000 in the semi-final leg of the tournament, a 0-0 draw with AS Roma. Following the European adventure, the club inaugurated its end stands in 1992, allowing for a total of 22,000 spectators.
In May 1998, the club bought Brøndby Stadium from the Brøndby municipality for 23.5 million DKK and immediately spent double that amount to modernize the stadium. When the club qualified for the UEFA Champions League 1998-99, the stadium was still under construction and the games were moved to arch rival F.C. København's Parken stadium. In 2000 all stands were standardized and built to the same height, allowing for crowds of 29,000 at domestic games and 22,000 in the European games, which allow only all-seated crowds. Since then, the stadium has seen a number of lesser or larger infrastructural and technical enhancements, and the February 2004 European game against FC Barcelona was played in front of a 26,031 man crowd.
With the introduction of paid football in Denmark by the Danish Football Association in 1978, the club split into an amateur and a professional department. The amateurs consisted of the various youth departments which had been the trademark of the club since the 1964 merger, as well as the numerous volunteers who service every match of the professional club for free. In 1987 the professional department, Brøndby IF Fodbold A/S, was the second football club in the world (with Tottenham being the first) to float its shares on a public stock exchange. The shares were divided in A and B shares of equal value, with only the B shares for sale to the public. Each A share counts for ten votes and each B share counts for a single ownership vote, and the A shares were divided between three groups to prevent hostile takeovers; the volunteer amateur leaders of the club, the main sponsors of the club, and the company Euro Sportsholding, owned by Brøndby IF itself. The A shares accounted for 64% of the votes, and thereby the power in the club.
When the club was on the verge of financial collapse in 1992, the A shares posed as security to the creditors, until the club was saved and the shares were sold for the symbolic amount of 1 DKK to the newly founded Brøndbyernes IF Fodbold Fond, which strives to keep Brøndby IF controlled by the amateur department. The shares are currently divided into 355,000 A and 3,500,000 B shares, with Brøndbyernes IF Fodbold Fond owning 300,000 of the A shares, accounting for 42.6% of the total votes.
Staff:
Head Coach
Assistant Coach
Fitness Coach
Team Chef
Athletic Coach
Goalkeeper Coach
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Since Michael Laudrup became the first player to represent Brøndby IF in the Danish national team in June 1982, more than 50 players have donned the national team jersey of their respective countries. Apart from Denmark, players from Nigeria, Norway, Lithuania, Burkina Faso, Sweden, Faroe Islands, Morocco, Iceland, Zambia, Australia, and Gambia have represented their countries. The players are displayed on the "Wall of Honour", according to their year of national team debut. Players still playing for the club are marked in bold: