gozar said:
They are small countries. Not all countries can have a powerhouse team. Sweden have football as number one, but if you eliminate the top 3 players, we have a mediocre national team.
I also think it has to do with the climate. Most of Sweden's top football players are produced in Skåne, the most southern region in Sweden with short winters and longer summers.
Both Norway and Finland has no such zone, their entire countries are swallowed by the snowy winter, making successful football competition harder. Sweden doesn't produce almost any football stars from the northern regions of the country for example, but produce alot of stars in winter sports instead.
This is perhaps also the reason why Sweden is good in both summer and winter sports, because we have an ideal country hosting good conditions for both summer and winter athletes, combined with the typical Scandinavian culture that has always encouraged physical fitness.
Denmark on the other hand is good in football, but really bad in winter sports. They are just like Sweden's Skåne, but has no winter regions.
This was just a comparision of the nordic countries.