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‘They underestimate us’: Malmö hopeful ahead of Chelsea match

With odds at eight to one against, the chance of Malmö football team MFF beating Chelsea on Thursday night are slim. But this has done nothing to cool the excitement.

Published: 14 February 2019 17:52 CET
'They underestimate us': Malmö hopeful ahead of Chelsea match
Robert Söderholm (left) believes Malmö's MFF will beat Chelsea. Photo: Finn Orange
At Ölkafeet, an MFF supporters' pub in the city's Möllevången Square, fans were starting to gather at 5pm,  warming up with a few beers ahead of this evening's match, the club's first ever against the London giants. 
 
“It feels amazing. It's a big team coming to Malmö to play, it's a big game for everyone in Malmö who loves Malmö FF,” said Emil Karlsson.  But he was  keeping his expectations under control. “To be honest, I expect nothing.” 
 
Runar Wahlgren on the next table said he hoping at best for “a clean sheet, 0:0”. “It's not that likely, but that's my hope. I think they have everything to lose.” 
 
At another table, Robert Söderholm, was holding out for a surprise win. 
 
“Victory I think. Probably a victory,” he said. “They lost six nil against  Manchester City. I don't think they're in their best shape. And they've got an important match against City coming up, so they might hold back some players.” 
 
“I believe they're underestimating us a bit,” adds his friend Leo Gullberg. “Coming in late, not visiting the match arena.” 
 
MFF has lost four out of the five games it has played against English clubs in the UEFA European league, only winning out against Nottingham back in 1995. 
 
It also lost matches against Paris St Germain and Juventus, losing 5:0 and  2:0 respectively. 
 
But Malmö's players were also exuding a  mix of excitement and controlled expectations when they spoke to the local press on Thursday morning. 
 
“This is one of the biggest matches you can play,” said star player Oscar Lewicki.”I believe it's one of those matches you're going to remember when you finally hang up your boots. This is what you play for and its damn exciting to get the chance.” 
 
“It's a big team, a big challenge for us,” said Arnor Traustason, an MFF player from Iceland. “We have the home advantage, the passion and pressure you get at the stadium. The fans have lifted us up before and they can do so again.” 
 
But Marko Mitrovic, who  played for  Chelsea, after training in MFF's youth side, was more downbeat.
 
“I believe it's going to be a walkover,” he said on Fotbollskanalen, 
 
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SHOOTINGS

US criminologist lauds Malmö for anti-gang success

The US criminologist behind the anti-gang strategy designed to reduce the number of shootings and explosions in Malmö has credited the city and its police for the "utterly pragmatic, very professional, very focused" way they have put his ideas into practice.

Published: 8 March 2021 16:12 CET
US criminologist lauds Malmö for anti-gang success
Johan Nilsson/TT

In an online seminar with Malmö mayor Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, David Kennedy, a professor at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said implementing his Group Violence Intervention (GVI) strategy had gone extremely smoothly in the city.

“What really stands out about the Malmö experience is contrary to most of the places we work,” he said. “They made their own assessment of their situation on the ground, they looked at the intervention logic, they decided it made sense, and then, in a very rapid, focused and business-like fashion, they figured out how to do the work.”

He said that this contrasted with police and other authorities in most cities who attempt to implement the strategy, who tend to end up “dragging their feet”, “having huge amounts of political infighting”, and coming up with reasons why their city is too different from other cities where the strategy has been a success.

Malmö’s Sluta Skjut (Stop Shooting) pilot scheme was extended to a three-year programme this January, after its launch in 2018 coincided with a reduction in the number of shootings and explosions in the city.

“We think it’s a good medicine for Malmö for breaking the negative trend that we had,” Malmö police chief Stefan Sintéus said, pointing to the fall from 65 shootings in 2017 to 20 in 2020, and in explosions from 62 in 2017 to 17 in 2020.

A graph from Malmö police showing the reduction in the number of shootings from 2017 to 2020. Graph: Malmö Police
A graph from Malmö police showing the reduction in the number of explosions in the city between 2017 and 2020. Graph: Malmö Police

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In their second evaluation of the programme, published last month, Anna-Karin Ivert, Caroline Mellgren, and Karin Svanberg, three criminologists from Malmö University, reported that violent crime had declined significantly since the program came into force, and said that it was possible that the Sluta Skjut program was partly responsible, although it was difficult to judge exactly to what extent. 

The number of shootings had already started to decline before the scheme was launched, and in November 2019, Sweden’s national police launched Operation Rimfrost, a six-month crackdown on gang crime, which saw Malmö police reinforced by officers from across Sweden.

But Kennedy said he had “very little sympathy” for criminologists critical of the police’s decision to launch such a massive operation at the same time as Sluta Skjut, making it near impossible to evaluate the programme.

“Evaluation is there to improve public policy, public policy is not there to provide the basis for for sophisticated evaluation methodology,” he argued.

“When people with jobs to do, feel that they need to do things in the name of public safety, they should follow their professional, legal and moral judgement. Not doing something to save lives, because it’s going to create evaluation issues, I think, is simply privileging social science in a way that it doesn’t deserve.”

US criminologist David Kennedy partaking in the meeting. Photo: Richard Orange

Sluta Skjut has been based around so-called ‘call-ins’, in which known gang members on probation are asked to attend meetings, where law enforcement officials warn them that if shootings and explosions continue, they and the groups around them will be subject to intense focus from police.

At the same time, social workers and other actors in civil society offer help in leaving gang life.

Of the 250-300 young men who have been involved in the project, about 40 have been sent to prison, while 49 have joined Malmö’s ‘defector’ programme, which helps individuals leave gangs.

Kennedy warned not to focus too much on the number of those involved in the scheme who start to work with social services on leaving gang life.

“What we find in in practice is that most of the impact of this approach doesn’t come either because people go to prison or because they take services and leave gang life,” he said.

“Most of the impact comes from people simply putting their guns down and no longer being violent.”

“We think of the options as continuing to be extremely dangerous, or completely turning one’s life around. That’s not realistic in practice. Most of us don’t change that dramatically ever in our lives.”

He stressed the importance of informal social control in his method, reaching those who gang members love and respect, and encouraging them to put pressure on gang members to abstain from gun violence.

“We all care more about our mothers than we care about the police, and it turns out that if you can find the guy that this very high risk, very dangerous person respects – literally, you know, little old ladies will go up to him and get his attention and tell him to behave himself. And he will.”

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