Piteå

The scoreline from the 2018 title race sits on one moment: a strike from Julia Karlernas against Linköping that turned out to be the goal that decided the Damallsvenskan. Piteå IF's women had never won the league before, and the club that got them there had started life in 1985 as the women's section of a much older multi-sport society, formalising into its own organisation only in 2017.

Faith Ikidi, a Nigerian defender who went on to make more than 170 appearances, anchored that side, while June Pedersen, a Norwegian full-back, holds the club records for both league appearances (125) and goals (26) — figures built up over years rather than one campaign. Emelie Lövgren, in the side for over a decade by 2018, was part of the same generation. Stellan Karlsson coached the team to that championship and stayed in charge until October 2024, when Fredrik Bernhardsson took over.

A second trophy followed in May 2024, when Piteå beat BK Häcken 1-0 in the Svenska Cupen final — the club's first cup win. Between the two triumphs came a harder lesson in what it costs to compete from the far north: in 2012 the women's team came close to bankruptcy, its spending on foreign players and infrastructure outrunning its budget, and other sections of the parent club had to cover the shortfall. The 2018 title still brought a European run, in the Women's Champions League, where Piteå went out to Brøndby in the round of 32, losing 3-1 on aggregate.

Geography shapes most of what the club is. Playing out of LF Arena, known locally as Kvarnvallen and holding 3,950, Piteå travels further than any other Damallsvenskan side to reach its opponents, and has no elite women's rival in its own city. The closest thing to a derby is regional, against Bodens BK in Norrbotten county, a fixture known in football shorthand as a "het derby" even though the term is used more often for the men's game. Further afield, Rosengård and Linköping have been the clubs Piteå has actually had to beat for honours. Among those who came up through the club, Madelen Janogy went on to play for Sweden and for Wolfsburg, one line back to a women's section that began as little more than an add-on to a club founded in 1918.