Acting
Lars Lagerbäck's last major championship as Swedish national team captain. Henrik Larsson made an unexpected comeback and Sweden started by beating Greece 2-0 after goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Petter Hansson. After two straight losses, Sweden was still eliminated in the group stage.
Malmö FF's golden dreams from the mid-1990s have turned into despair and foreboding. In 1999, something happened that had never happened before; the club leaves the Allsvenskan on its own initiative, after having underperformed sportingly for a long time. Many within the association are shocked and paralyzed, but a young promising striker in Zlatan Ibrahimović and a newly appointed sporting director in Hasse Borg become the club's new hope for the future.