[1] Malmö FF were the defending champions, having won their 16th Swedish championship and their 19th Allsvenskan title the previous season.
Åtvidaberg and Brommapojkarna were relegated at the end of the 2010 season after finishing in the bottom two places of the table.
Åtvidaberg thus made its immediate return to the Superettan, and Brommapojkarna ended a two-year tenure in the Allsvenskan.
Norrköping returned after a two-year absence, while Syrianska FC made their debut at the highest level of football in Sweden.
The match between Syrianska FC and AIK on 25 April 2011 was halted after twenty minutes of play when an assistant referee was hit by fireworks and, as a result, suffered tinnitus.
[18] Right before the fireworks were launched, AIK's striker, Teteh Bangura, was sent off after stamping Syrianska FC goalkeeper Dwayne Miller on his foot.
[26][27] Malmö FF were involved in another incident at their home arena, this time in a match against Djurgårdens IF, on 30 July 2011.
[31] Swedish Discipline Committee chairman Khennet Thallinger stated that they "want to preserve the due process".
[32] On 5 September 2011, the Committee decided that the game would be replayed from the first kick-off, since it could not be verified which club's supporter section the fireworks came from.