Jan. 2, 05

SODERTALJE, Sweden (Reuters) - Swedish football team Assyriska is a household name for Assyrians around the world.

So when it played for a spot in Sweden's premier division, Ninos Gawrieh and some 30 friends huddled around a television in a house in the Syrian town of Kamishly, cheering it on.

Thousands of other people around the world were also watching the game, hoping that the team would cap its 30-year history with promotion and a hint of glory for the scattered minority whose name it carries, the Assyrians.

"Assyriska feels like a national team for the entire group," said club chairman Zeki Bisso.

"For all of us who were oppressed in our home countries for many years ... this felt superb, it was something every Assyrian wanted to take pride in," he told Reuters.

A Christian minority from the historical region of Mesopotamia between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris in the Middle East, the Assyrians have never had a state of their own, living mainly in Syria, Iraq and Turkey.

They say hundreds of thousands of their forebears were killed in the Turkish Ottoman Empire during World War One, alongside 1.5 million Armenians and other Christian minorities. Turkey denies accusations of genocide.

Assyrians have spread across the globe since, although many still live in Iraq and Syria. Researchers say the current number is unclear, possibly between one and two million.

"There has been quite a lot of confusion and loss of identity, which makes this football club something that is finally positive and uniting," said David Gaunt, a history professor at Sodertorn University College in Stockholm.

BY A HAIR'S BREADTH...

Assyriska was formed in 1974 as part of a club for a growing number of Assyrians who had moved to Sodertalje in central Sweden.

It has come a long way from the 1975 season when it failed to notch up a single point in the country's seventh division and was outscored by 101 goals to 11. It clinched its premier league place after a nail-biting season, which finished with a twist.

Assyriska lost its chance for a top spot when rivals Orgryte scored a winning goal in extra time in the second of two legs of a play-off.

"Everybody was so depressed, they were crying. They reacted even stronger than me, and I come from here!" said Gawrieh, a Sodertalje resident who was visiting Kamishly at the time of the Orgryte match.

A day later, the Swedish Football Association gave Assyriska a premier league place after all when it relegated another top division club, Orebro, because of poor finances.

"At that moment we just felt such enormous joy, I figured everybody in the world is Assyrian now, even God is Assyrian, or at least a supporter," said Robil Haidari, the club's marketing director.

"People rushed to the club house and in a matter of minutes we had hundreds of people here celebrating."

WORLDWIDE FOLLOWING

Assyrians around the world can follow Assyriska's games on the newly established satellite television channel, Suroyo-tv, which broadcast the Orgryte matches to 82 countries, including North America. Busloads of fans from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands attended the game.

"Assyriska is very well known and adored by Assyrian fans throughout the United States and Canada," Firas Jatou, an Assyrian living in California, told Reuters by e-mail.

"Here on the west coast, it would be very difficult to find any Assyrian American who is not aware of Assyriska," he added.

Assyriska will get no free ride in the 2005 premier league season, which kicks off in April.

"My bet is they'll end in the 10th spot (of 14). Anything higher is unrealistic," said Jan Majlard, soccer reporter and commentator at the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.

"They already have the technical skills, now they need to develop the physical side. It seems that Assyriska will be the team to follow this season and it will be fun to see if they are able to keep their playfulness and bohemian style," he added.