What does all this mean for the club and the community?
"I think it means everything. We come from a small village. Having a team playing at the top level in Sweden is already an achievement, but being crowned champions... it puts the community, the village, on the map.
"Everyone is talking about us. It’s a fairy tale that’s important for both the community and the club. This will be remembered forever; those involved have made history and will be immortalised as legends, as heroes. No one expected this, except the team. They believed, no one else did.
"This is our sixth consecutive season in the Allsvenskan, last season we finished fifth, but with our limited financial resources and where we come from, we shouldn’t have won. And it wasn’t just winning, it was winning with a record points total.
"It’s not about other teams having a bad season. People said the big teams weren’t doing well, but that’s irrelevant - even if they had a good season, they wouldn’t have caught us. In short, it means everything and lays the foundation for what we’re building. We want to keep growing, we’ll try again next season, and we’ll see how it goes."
When did you start to believe it was possible?
"We were top of the table for a while. When we managed back-to-back wins against Djurgarden and Hammarby in Stockholm, in a short period, I started to think it could be possible. Then we beat Malmo. But I only truly started to believe - I'm very cautious - when we defeated Brommapojkarna with just 10 men; we actually played better that way."
What makes this club special and how do you attract players?
"This team created expectations, a winning mentality, that this club should be among Sweden’s elite. It was crazy. That was the foundation. Everyone working at the club had to live up to that expectation.
"Here, it’s not pressure, because everyone knows we do the best we can. When I arrived, things were bad, with consecutive relegations, and I thought, given the circumstances, third place wasn’t a disaster. But I knew it wasn’t good enough for us; we had to do our best to make a plan, execute it, and get back to the top. That helped.
"Over the last 11 years, we’ve had good players. And you ask, how can you have good players if you’re from a small place, don’t pay big salaries, can’t offer the big city environment? We turned that around - we’re a family club. Every player who’s been here says it was one of the best years of their career.
"We’re a club that believes the team comes first. We focused on being the best at things that don’t cost money. Team spirit; everyone talks about it, but here you really feel it. In the morning, everyone greets each other; it’s a rule. We created that environment, and it’s free.
"We excel in other areas where we have to be better than the big clubs: strategy, game plan. If we’re not better than them in those aspects, we can’t beat Malmo or Djurgarden. We shouldn’t take away credit from our players either - they’re excellent - but the eleven create a unity that feels like twelve or thirteen on the pitch.
"We also have a philosophy of constant growth. For 11 years, we’ve improved our key performance indicators. You can’t expect success on the pitch if there isn’t stability and financial success off it. These two things go hand in hand.
"Many clubs get anxious and take risks to win, then fail and end up in trouble. Our approach is more systematic; we always have to improve on the previous year. It’s the same methodology I’ve used in the companies I’ve managed for 25 years."
Speaking of when you arrived in 2015, with the team at risk of dropping to the fourth division...
"First, there was a losing mentality taking over the club. We were relegated, had a decent team, and something not so unusual happened - two consecutive drops. The worst part was the finances; we were on the verge of bankruptcy, in debt to the bank, no money.
"It was a blessing to be relegated to the third tier, because we wouldn’t have been allowed to play in the second division with that financial situation. We had to implement a very strict financial policy. Costs you can control, income varies, and if you think you’ll get 100, we’d budget for 60, 65.
"Everyone questioned it, but we only counted what we were 100% sure of. Then we built our costs so that if everything went wrong, we’d still have some money left at the end of the year, even with minimum income. That’s what we did for the first seven years, when we weren’t selling players.
"We went from five million krona in the red to 15 million in the black. In the last three years, we’ve made the biggest financial leap thanks to transfers, where we’re smart at finding players at affordable prices and selling them for much more."
Given that scenario, what attracted you to the club?
"I’m local, I know the club, I played here, had the chance to be in the first team, but I was at university elsewhere and turned it down.
"Mjallby is the big club here, and when I returned to Sweden, it was an honour to be invited by a director to join the board, and they eventually convinced me to become president because I knew football and was a successful manager.
"When I accepted, in the summer of 2014, Mjallby was in the Allsvenskan; when I was elected, they were in the Superettan, and when I actually started working, they were in the third division. Not the start I expected when I said yes!
"The only positive was that I could make big changes and no one questioned it. Everyone knew we had to make drastic changes - no employees, focus on football, and implement the policies I mentioned before. I’m very proud of that and of seeing a football club with industrial methods, which are necessary in a tough environment like the Allsvenskan."
We’ve seen a lot of comparisons with Leicester, but they had a billionaire owner. Mjallby had to be much more creative financially.
"I don’t take anything away from Leicester, it was great in their context, but that’s where the comparison ends. We’re such different clubs - I didn’t have money to invest in the club. You can’t compare the stories. We have 1,500 people living here, much lower incomes, the 50+1 rule that forces us to do what we did. Without that, we wouldn’t have achieved this."
The decision to appoint Anders Torstensson, a coach without a big track record - how did that happen?
"I’ve known him for many years, played with him. He was a coach in the lower divisions and always found ways to win, won titles there. He’s a winner and always found ways to beat opponents, he has that ability.
"He was the first name that came to mind when we were struggling in 2021. I was the one who called him for help and ended up offering him the head coach job. We survived and were surprised when he said he wanted to return to normal life.
"We had a decent year, our coach left. So we started thinking about our coaching staff with three different personalities. Anders is the DNA of Mjallby, then we brought in a former youth coach, and to join them we found (assistant coach Karl-Marius) Aksum. Anders was the ideal figure for head coach.
"There are many good coaches, but not all are leaders - he was the perfect person. Together, they formed a successful trio, because none of them could have done it alone, but as a team, yes."
What does the future hold for Mjallby?
"We still need to digest all this. The easy answer is that we have to keep doing what we’ve been doing. The system has worked for 10 years, and we see no reason to change. As long as I’m here - and there are elections in March - we’ll keep working with the same methodology of improving year by year.
"Now we need to set new goals. And use the opportunity we have in European competitions, because it will bring in a lot of money, and we need to figure out how to use it to build a foundation for success.
"We need to grow our academy - that’s the future of our team. We don’t want a team without local players; we’d lose a lot of our identity. We’ll spend some money on the first team, but we’re not going to go crazy in the transfer market. We never have.
"We’ve bought excellent players from the third tier who are now top players in the Allsvenskan. Our scouting team needs to find players with potential. We have to seize the opportunity, but keep working the way we always have."
