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Sweden and Fiorentina icon Hamrin dies aged 89

Kurt Hamrin, the last surviving player from the 1958 World Cup final, has died aged 89, his former club Fiorentina announced on Sunday.

Published: 4 February 2024 15:11 CET
This photo shows Swedish football player Kurt Hamrin (L) pictured with Brazil's Arantes do Nacimento, known as Pele, at Planalto palace in Brasilia
This photo shows Swedish football player Kurt Hamrin (L) with Brazil's Arantes do Nacimento, known as Pele, at Planalto palace in Brasilia on June 26, 2008. Hamrin, the last surviving player from the 1958 World Cup final, has died, his former club Fiorentina announced on Sunday. (Photo by JOEDSON ALVES / AFP)

“Everyone at Fiorentina comes together in grief with the family and the entire football community for the passing of Kurt Hamrin,” the Serie A club said in a statement.

“Hamrin was and will always be a genuine legend of football and in particular for Fiorentina fans.”

Former Juventus, Fiorentina and AC Milan winger Hamrin, nicknamd “Uccellino” (“Little Bird”) was known for his exciting play on the flank and his eye for goal.

He was a key part of the Sweden team which reached the 1958 World Cup final on home soil, where they were beaten by Brazil and a teenage Pele.

Hamrin, who scored 17 goals in 32 international appearances, is best remembered by Swedish fans for his exploits in that World Cup.

He scored in the quarter-finals and the last four to set up the final with a brilliant Brazil team which also featured Mario Zagallo and Garrincha.

“Swedish football has lost one of its greats,” said the country’s football federation.

“It wasn’t just the track record, the goals, the passes and the hard work on the right wing that made ‘Kurre’ a legend who was never forgotten. He was a loyal and popular person wherever he played.

“Swedish football remembers Kurre Hamrin with great warmth and gratitude. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones right now.”

He also left a big mark in Italy where he scored 190 Serie A goals over 15 years at a number of clubs, putting him ninth in the league’s all-time scoring charts.

With Fiorentina, for whom he signed in 1958, Hamrin won the 1961 European Cup Winners’ Cup and two Italian Cups, before moving to AC Milan in 1967.

In two seasons at Milan, Hamrin had even more success than he did at Fiorentina, playing alongside Gianni Rivera in one of the Rossoneri’s (AC Milan’s widely used nickname) best-ever teams.

He won the Serie A title and another Cup Winner’s Cup in 1968 in his debut campaign at the San Siro.

The following season he was key to Milan claiming their second European Cup, netting in the 2-1 aggregate semi-final victory over holders Manchester United before Johan Cruyff’s Ajax were thrashed 4-1 in the final.

He left that summer for Napoli, where he played for two further seasons before moving back to Sweden to finish his career at IFK Stockholm.

He later returned to Florence with his family, and passed away in the Tuscan city he made his second home.

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SPORT

EXPLAINED: Why is Swedish cricket facing a scandal?

As recently as 2015, cricket was welcomed into the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF) as the fastest growing sport in the country. Now, nine years later, the sport has lost state funding and is risking expulsion from the confederation. What happened?

Published: 4 April 2024 14:16 CEST
EXPLAINED: Why is Swedish cricket facing a scandal?

In May last year, RF withdrew the Swedish Cricket Association’s funding due to problems with the association’s democracy.

One of the chief issues, according to RF, is that the cricket association has regularly held extra yearly meetings, with different factions within Swedish cricket using these as an opportunity to express their lack of confidence in the association’s board, regularly dismissing and reappointing different board members.

“Something was not right,” Björn Eriksson, RF chairman between 2015 and 2023, told SVT in its new mini documentary on Swedish cricket.

So, what happened?

In April 2019, the association held an annual general meeting (AGM), where the current chairman, Tariq Suwak, was elected. A few months later in December, this board was dismissed at an extraordinary general meeting.

Between 2021 and 2022, two AGMs and four extraordinary general meetings were held, with some members of the board replaced in 2021 and again in 2022, where Suwak was again appointed chairman.

In spring last year, RF withdrew state funding after an external investigation by Ernst and Young determined that the association’s leadership lacked the ability to lead, was incapable of carrying out long-term structural work to improve the association, lacked transparency and did not have the same level of democracy as other sport associations in Sweden.

“We believe that the association’s management and much of the rest of its activities are permeated by a poor understanding of how associational democracy should work,” the report stated. “Amendments to the statutes and extraordinary annual general meetings are used as a weapon to counteract people with dissenting views.”

“What they say in the report, it’s the truth,” cricket association chairman Tariq Suwak told SVT. “It’s a fair description of Swedish cricket”.

The report also stated that there was a lack of dialogue between association members and its board, which Suwak agrees with.

“I’ve felt the same way, as have many others… that there’s a lack of dialogue with the board. An extraordinary general meeting has felt like the only forum for asking questions and communicating with those who make the decisions,” he told SVT.

In a statement on its website, RF explained its decision to withdraw funding as “based on serious deviations from the values of sport and deviations from the member association’s obligations regarding auditors and auditing according to RF statutes”.

According to SVT’s documentary, the issue appears to be that certain groups have tried to adapt Swedish cricket to the benefit of their own club, for example by getting involved in deciding which teams will play each other, which teams will have the most home games, or even choosing the players for the national team.

Later that year, the club went through a financial crisis, ending the contracts of everyone in its headquarters. It was issued a list of necessary measures which need to be taken in order for it to requalify for economic support and remain a member of RF, including hosting courses in association democracy and tightening up the association’s statutes in order to “reduce the risk of non-democratic elements at annual meetings”.

What happens now?

In December last year, RF granted the cricket association a loan of 750,000 kronor “after the association could show that it has begun measures in accordance with the action plan which are going in a positive direction”.

“There are still major shortcomings, but we see a greater understanding from the association of what needs to be done, and a plan for carrying out that work,” SF vice chairman Toralf Nilsson said at the time.

“This gives us hope that they will be able to solve their challenges and create methods to work with democratic governance, prioritising knowledge of associations and work with where work to build knowledge of running an association as well as work on basic values must be prioritised.

The loan must be paid back by August 2024.

Do you know more about this? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. You can watch SVT Sport’s investigation into this topic here.

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