Sirius

Founding

On 9 August 1907 the sports club that would become known as IK Sirius was founded in a ditch at the side of a sporting ground in Uppsala. Names like Svartbäckens IK and IK Spurt were originally used but on 5 April 1908 the members settled on the current name. The club was originally founded for athletics, but took up football the following year.

In the 1910s Sirius started competing in Svenska Mästerskapet which was the cup competition that decided who would become the Swedish Champions at that time. In 1917 they reached the semi-finals after victories against teams such as Hammarby IF and IFK Norrköping, a feat which they would repeat again the following year. Their greatest success in the pre-Allsvenskan era came in 1924 when they made it all the way to the Svenska Mästerskapet final where they lost against Fässbergs IF.

The Allsvenskan years

After the formation of the Swedish football league system the club had spent forty years in lower divisions when businessman Owe Bergström became club president in 1964. Even though Sirius was playing in the third tier at the time he was able to use his personal wealth to sign five players from reigning Swedish champions Djurgårdens IF, three of who were part of the Sweden men's national football team. This enabled them to gain promotion to Allsvenskan in 1968, although they were relegated after just one season. The pinnacle was reached during the years of 1973–1974, when the club again gained promotion to the highest division and its squad contained a number of high-profile players, such as Roland Grip.

Obscurity and comeback

After the club's relegation from Allsvenskan in 1974, Sirius played in the second division until they plummeted all the way down to the fourth tier following a couple of difficult years in the beginning of the 1980s. The club recovered slightly and the 1990s were mostly spent in the second tier of Swedish football. However, the club had accumulated large debts and was struggling financially during those decades.

Just as the new fully national second tier Superettan was started in the early 2000s Sirius found themselves back down in the third division again. It would take until 2006 for the team under manager Magnus Pehrsson to be able to get promoted again through a promotion playoff against Väsby United where Uppsala-born team captain Olle Kullinger scored the deciding goal and the club would get to celebrate their 100 year anniversary in the 2007 Superettan.

Superettan and promotion back to Allsvenskan

A big turning point for Sirius came in 2010 when businessman Bengt Ågerup started investing in the club. Even though they were at that point back in the third tier his financial backing enabled them to strengthen their organization with former player Ola Andersson as the new club president, Kim Bergstrand and Thomas Lagerlöf as first team coaches and Petter Hansson as head of the youth academy. Ågerup also paid the full salary of star signing Johan Arneng and covered any yearly losses the club had financially. His investments in the club ended abruptly in 2013 when his company was raided by the Swedish tax authorities due to around $120 million in unpaid taxes.

The investments had paid off however, as in that same year the club won the 2013 Division 1 without losing a single game and returned to Superettan. They also started seeing success in the Swedish Cup where they reached the quarter finals, and the following year the semi-finals. Sirius finished in sixth place in their first year back in the second tier and the next season they barely missed out on reaching the top division after losing the promotion play-offs on the away goals rule. Success would come though in the 2016 Superettan where they finished in first place, qualifying them for promotion with two game left of the season and returning to Allsvenskan after a 42-year-absence.

Allsvenskan and a strategy change

Since returning to Sweden's top flight the club has shifted away from relying on outside investments and is instead focused on developing and giving playing time to young players. When the players eventually get sold that money is reinvested both in infrastructure for the club and the next generation of young players. In the summer of 2026 Sirius made their biggest ever transfer when Robbie Ure was sold to La Liga club Sevilla FC for £5.6m plus add-ons.