"Stop! Hammar time"

No other fanbase in women's football can match the ultras of Swedish side Hammarby, who turn up in their thousands for every game, tifos in hand

- Sam Dalling

There's an artificial football pitch at the southern edge of Stockholm's Sodermalm island, flanked by a couple of modest stands. A rickety wooden terrace sits at each end. Unless you're looking for it, the whole thing is easily missed, but every matchday the home of Hammarby's women's team comes alive with sound, colour and joy.

The club's following is unique in the women's game. Simon Sandstrom is a former capo – the leader of the chanting – for Hammarby's men's team, and is credited with making that so after his daughter asked why the women's side didn't have much support. Sandstrom insists, however, on also mentioning the club's under-the-radar tifo creators.

“It's embarrassing that there's been so much focus on me and my daughter,” he tells FourFourTwo. “Without the very private group of guys and girls who do all the painting, we wouldn't be all over the world. Their images are all over social media. They put in thousands of hours a year to make that happen. Every single centimetre is painted by hand.”