Piteå IF was founded as early as 1918, when there was no football section for either men or
women. When the football club IFK Piteå merged into Piteå IF in 1920, football became one of
the activities of the association. In addition to football, Piteå IF has activities in athletics,
orienteering and ice hockey.
Piteå IF’s women’s team is the club’s most successful activity nowadays. Piteå IF plays in the
Women’s League. However, the road there has been long and bumpy. The team has gone up
and down the divisions ever since the first season 1984/85. Before the 1987/88 season,
however, the team got a free opportunity to skip a few steps in its divisional climb when it
merged with Storfors AIK and got Storfors a place in division 1. In the 2008 season, Piteå IF
won Norrettan and was promoted to Damallsvenskan. However, the first stay was only one
year. The 2010 season saw another promotion to the top football league.
For a few years now, Piteå IF has invested quite a lot in bringing in players from other parts of
the world. Until the 2011 season, for example, four Canadian players and five Nigerian players
have played for Piteå. Several Norwegian players and one American have also been active in
the club.
Piteå IF plays its home games at LF Arena, or Kvarnvallen as the stadium is still popularly
known. There is room for a total of 6,000 spectators, of which 1,000 spectators have seats
under the roof.
In addition to the successful women’s team, Piteå IF is known for organising the Piteå Summer
Games together with Öjeby IF every year. In total, over 700 teams participate in the tournament.
Nearly 3,500 matches are played over three days at the end of June. The fact that the
tournament only lasts for three days is largely due to the midnight sun, which allows many
matches to be played late at night. Piteå Summer Games is the second largest football
tournament for children and young people in Sweden, after Gothia Cup.