Wild boars have damaged and dug up football pitches in multiple locations across Sweden. Rottne IF's football pitch is destroyed and requires a major effort to make it playable this year, according to Rottne IF chairman Emil Bolmgren. A wild boar attack has also made the Ekvallen football pitch in Hägerstad unplayable.
Rottne IF had plans to install fencing around the pitches to avoid wild boar damage, and these plans are now being prioritized following the recent destruction. In the Frösunda area outside Stockholm, wild boars have invaded, destroying neighbors' properties, digging up farmers' fields, and tearing up football pitches in search of food. Annika Skoog, a resident in Frösunda since the 1980s, has never experienced anything like this before, noting wild boars arrived in the last five years with an explosion in numbers.
It requires a major effort to get it playable this year.
Wild boars come in groups of six to eight individuals, and the sows are particularly aggressive when protecting their young. Residents avoid being outside in the evenings due to wild boar presence. The largest wild boars are estimated to have a shoulder height of 70–80 cm and weigh around 200 kg.
Several neighbors have installed alarms, electric fences, and contacted hunting teams in response to the threat. The municipality responded to a neighbor that landowners are responsible for the wild boar problem themselves, leaving residents to handle the issue independently. Carl Johan Månsson found his entire garden dug up by wild boars at his holiday home outside Gullabo, and the insurance does not cover the damage.
Last autumn, wild boars dug up several lawns in Rydal, including at Herrgården and near the old football pitch, highlighting the widespread nature of the problem across different regions.