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It is our membership democracy that makes Malmö FF just that, Malmö FF. Anyone who is a member can submit motions, make proposals or have a dialogue with the club. They can make a difference and have their voice heard. That is why the greatest success for Malmö FF is not the many titles we have won, but the fact that we have won them together.

From Pontus, today a first-team player, who as a kid waved his homemade flags in the north stand of the old Malmö Stadium. To seven-year-old Julia, whose biggest idol is the team’s SLO, Riad, because he always makes sure the member meetings are fun, even for a kid. To our chairman Anders, who over 50 years ago started out in the club’s youth teams. To Gilbert, who moved to Sweden from Africa in 1960, saw some boys waving flags by a bus stop, and from then on could always be found hanging on the fence, watching every Malmö training session, finding a family in the sky-blue. And to Nellie, who grew up dreaming of playing for MFF despite there not being a girls’ team, and who today, thanks to a decision made at an extraordinary annual members’ meeting in 2019 to reintroduce a women’s section at the club, now wears the captain’s armband and leads a team that is constantly creating football history.

They are five of over fourteen thousand members, each with their own story, and each just as big a part of Malmö FF.

Malmö FF is not the only member-owned football club in the world. But in Sweden being a member-owned club means something different: here, the members are truly in charge. In 1999 a new sports law was enforced, called the 51% rule. It requires that a Swedish sports association must be owned by its members by at least 51%. Meaning that the members are majority owners of the clubs, and in turn, the clubs own the league.

This means that when big decisions have to be made, the club members actually have a say. Take the debate on VAR, for example. When the question of whether VAR should be introduced to the Swedish league came up, the clubs had to vote on it, and their votes were decided by their members. Malmö FF’s members, like those of most Swedish clubs, said no. As a result, Malmö FF is today actively working against VAR in Swedish football. And the Swedish league is currently the only one of Europe’s top 33 leagues that doesn’t use VAR.

That’s just one example. During our European campaign this season we will be introducing you to a few of our members and their stories. What does Malmö FF mean to them, and why is it so important, and therefore so important to us, to have membership democracy?

Even though, sportingly, financially and internationally, it can sometimes be a disadvantage. But that is a disadvantage we are very happy to live with, as long as Malmö FF remains what it has always been: the club of the members, the club of Malmö.

Football might change, but Malmö FF will always stay 100% member-owned.