In 2005, the two major Scandinavian clubs met in the Royal League tournament (an annual Scandinavian football tournament held three times in the 2000s between teams from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen.
During the match, Swedish fans clashed with the Danish police, and events took a violent turn when officers stormed the section of the visiting football fans armed with batons.
Flemming Ostergaard, who back then was chairman of FC Copenhagen, subsequently blamed the Swedish fans for the riots. But 17 Swedish fans complained about being subjected to police violence, and a few years later, the state prosecutor determined that an officer had acted in a reprehensible manner.
In 2019, Flemming Ostergaard issued an official apology to the fans of Malmo FF, but the strong feelings between the two supporter groups are probably more intense than ever before tonight's return leg in the third qualifying round of the Champions League.
Since the 2005 incident, the relationship between the two clubs' fans has been tense, and when the clubs met for two matches in the Europa League in 2019, it ended in riots again.
"FC Copenhagen is not a club I think about very often. Because it is not a club, we meet very often. But they just represent everything I don't like about modern football. That's why I have a hard time with them", says Agnes Gertten who is a member of the board in Malmo's official supporter group to dr dk.
Flemming Ostergaard, who was handed a suspended prison sentence and fined around £1 million for manipulating the stock market price of Parken Sport & Entertainment in 2008, today says that he wishes people would forget about the incident 20 years ago and enjoy the football match in peace and harmony.
"How long should an old mistake be used as a weapon against FC Copenhagen?" says Ostergaard in a post message on Facebook. "Now I am again being contacted by the media about Malmö FF's hatred of FC Copenhagen. And honestly, it is tiring that a single tragic mistake in Parken over 20 years ago is still being used as an excuse for violence and hatred. Many of Malmö FF's fans today were 5 years old at the time – or not even born. Do we really have to keep that hatred alive, generation after generation?"
After Malmö beat Latvia’s RFS in the previous qualifying round, former Danish international winger Jens Stryger Larsen led the Malmo supporters in a vociferous chorus of “We hate Copenhagen”.
Stryger Larsen's actions were even more controversial because he spent his football youth at Brondby – FC Copenhagen’s fierce rivals – and today he is one of a couple of Danish players in the Malmo squad.
Danish police later criticized his chanting and said it was “helping to stir up a hostile atmosphere” before the two-leg tie got underway in Sweden on Tuesday.
Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Swedish Police sent 29 FC Copenhagen supporters back to the Danish capital to prevent disturbances before the first leg in Malmo a week ago.
Ironically, the Danish Police then "returned the favour" when they sent several Malmo supporters back on the train over the Oresund bridge on Monday to stop the threat of large groups of Swedish and Danish fans clashing in Copenhagen before the match.
The Danish Police will be on red alert before the match as the Malmo supporters have announced a fan walk, which will start at 17.00 CET at Svanemollen, in the central part of Copenhagen, as the Swedish fans make their way towards the Parken Stadium with the game set to start at 19.00 CET.
The first match between the two sides ended in a goalless draw. The winner of the tie will proceed to the playoff round in the qualification for the Champions League.