The Royal League

Beliefs and doubts regarding Scandinavia

Abstract

The Royal league tournament was launched in the format of a Scandinavian equivalent to the UEFA Champions League, consisting of the highest ranked teams from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The aim of the tournament was to enhance the performative competence of the Scandinavian teams by offering them with competitive opposition during winter months when football was otherwise a scarcity. However, the tournament received criticism in the press, and was discontinued after a mere three seasons. By analysing press representations in Sweden of views of the Royal League, this article explores possible explanations for why the tournament was launched, and why it eventually failed. The main such causes presented here, which the article also encourages future research to explore, range from the challenges posed by Scandinavian meteorology and geography, to failed attempts from the organisers to attract viewers by relating to a nationally-ordered intra-Scandinavian rivalry. As such, this article provide important insights to the perceived limits and possibility of Scandinavia as a category in the world of early 21^st century sports.