Swedish football league system

Swedish Football 2011
Allsvenskan (Tier 1) Superettan (Tier 2) Division 1 (Tier 3) Division 2 (Tier 4) Division 3 (Tier 5) Division 4 (Tier 6) Division 5 (Tier 7) 2011 Svenska Cupen – Final

The Swedish football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Sweden which is controlled by the Swedish Football Association and consists of 276 teams in 22 leagues divided into five levels. Below those five levels, additional regional levels numbered six to ten exist but these lower leagues are controlled by the regional associations and not by the nationwide association. There is, however, promotion and relegation to and from all levels.

Current system

The table below shows how the current system works. For each division, its Swedish name and number of clubs is given. It is not certain that each division is a feeder of teams to the division that lie directly above it and relegates teams to the divisions that lie directly below it, even though this usually is the case. The system used was new for the 2006 season and onwards; the new feature being the additional two Division 1 series on the 3rd level, pushing down Division 2 and Division 3 a level on the ladder. In the 2007 season, the Allsvenskan was expanded from 14 clubs to 16 and so - for that season - only one team was relegated from the top division and three teams were promoted from Superettan. This differed from the usual system, in which two teams are directly relegated, replaced by the top teams from the second division, Superettan, and one team goes to the relegation/promotion playoff versus the third positioned team in Superettan.

The Swedish Football union, SFF, Svenska Fotbollsförbundet, has a good site at http://svenskfotboll.se/. And so do the Swedish Elite Football Society, Föreningen Svensk Elitfotboll, at http://www.svenskelitfotboll.se/.

Level	League(s)/Division(s)
1	Allsvenskan 16 clubs
2	Superettan 16 clubs
3	Division 1 Norra 14 clubs						Division 1 Södra 14 clubs
4	Division 2 Norrland 12 clubs		Division 2 Norra Svealand 12 clubs		Division 2 Östra Svealand 12 clubs		Division 2 Mellersta Götaland 12 clubs		Division 2 Västra Götaland 12 clubs		Division 2 Södra Götaland 12 clubs
5	Division 3 Norra Norrland 12 clubs	Division 3 Mellersta Norrland 12 clubs	Division 3 Södra Norrland 12 clubs	Division 3 Norra Svealand 12 clubs	Division 3 Östra Svealand 12 clubs	Division 3 Västra Svealand 12 clubs	Division 3 Nordöstra Götaland 12 clubs	Division 3 Mellersta Götaland 12 clubs	Division 3 Nordvästra Götaland 12 clubs	Division 3 Sydvästra Götaland 12 clubs	Division 3 Sydöstra Götaland 12 clubs	Division 3 Södra Götaland 12 clubs
6–10	Division 4 through Division 8 are divisions administered by the various regional football associations.

Women's leagues structure

Level	League(s)/Division(s)
1	Damallsvenskan 12 clubs
2	Swedish Ladies Football Division 1 Norrettan 12 clubs						Swedish Ladies Football Division 1 Söderettan 12 clubs
3–6	Swedish Ladies Football Division 2-5 several divisions