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Stuart Baxter meets the press (transcript)

4. August 2010

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I went to the press conference at the Finnish FA yesterday, and it was pretty interesting. This is the first chunk of transcript, much of which wasn’t reported in the Finnish press today. I’ll write up the rest – detailing the Belgium match and Lauri Dalla Valle – tonight or tomorrow. Apologies for the delay.

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TPV 3 Klubi 04 2: ressies out!

1. August 2010

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One of the many loveable idiosyncrasies of Finnish football is the relaxed attitude to registrations taken by the authorities here. Players can switch clubs with bewildering regularity, via an intricate network of co-operation agreements between clubs at all levels of the game. Promising young defender Johannes Mononen has played for all three of Tampere’s top [...]

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Injury-ridden TPS out to avoid upset against Port Talbot Town

30. June 2010

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TPS will host Welsh side Port Talbot Town in their opening fixture of the UEFA Europa League first qualification round tie. Having recently played four games in nine days, TPS are having injury problems. In Wednesday’s pre-game press conference, head coach Marko Rajamäki revealed five players are ruled out of Thursday’s game.

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Veikkausliiga round 8 preview

4. June 2010

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The Finnish league has made it all the way to the 8th round, which makes us here at the NFN Ivory Tower quite ready and willing to single out some teams for harsh criticism. We could also carve out the positives out of some teams’ performances, but who wants to read good news anyway?

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HJK exhibit tactical sophistication

3. June 2010

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The HJK that many have been waiting for finally showed up in the Finnish Cup victory over Honka last week. For once HJK had certainly done their tactical homework. During the defeat in Espoo three weeks ago, they could neither contain Honka’s flowing passing game nor find the keys to unlock the stubborn Honka defence. [...]

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The cutting edge reality of Finnish football fandom

31. May 2010

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Finland’s friendly against Poland was televised live on Saturday evening. That is not such a common occurrence in Finland, as the media tends to rank football somewhere between tractor-pulling and volleyball in the list of broadcasting priorities. Helsingin Sanomat’s reporter at the game, Kristian Sundqvist, kindly gave NFN permission to translate his column from Sunday’s [...]

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Tammela Talk: Finnish football phrase book

23. May 2010

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I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this football season. Pub Harald have expanded their beer-selling operations from Ilves to TPV matches, ensuring that pretty much every game taking place at Tammela can now be enjoyed with alcoholic enhancement. And Finnish football, much as I love it, does often need alcoholic enhancement.

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The Monday Veikkausliiga preview that suffers from force majeure issues

3. May 2010

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We owe you a sincere apology for our erratic previewing of the weekend’s Veikkausliiga round. Our dear friend Egan Richardson is writhing in the misery that confronted his dear hometown of Sheffield, and I have spent my time trying to understand the annual Finnish holiday called Vappu (on May 1st and, in its most liquefied [...]

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Scandinavians Abroad Weekend Round Up

3. May 2010

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What a breathtaking weekend it has been across Europe, with the final day drama taking place in many countries. For some, their faith was already sealed, but for others it went down to the wire as they strived to gain success.

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Tampere is United Only in Success

27. April 2010

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Janne Oivio attempts to make sense of Tampere United’s future while in a drug-induced haze.

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Scandinavians Abroad Weekend Round Up

26. April 2010

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The Temperature is truly reaching boiling point as confirmation of both winners and losers on the continent is steadily becoming apparent. Title chasing sides slip up , teams avoid relegation, others are not as lucky , and one team takes a steady advantage into the second league of a major cup final, all in a [...]

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Finnish football, foreigners, and youth development

25. April 2010

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Soccernet recently asked me to write something about Finland’s new TV deal, specifically in relation to the bonuses for fielding  fewer foreigners and the potential implications if this were applied in different leagues, but I haven’t yet gotten around to it. Partly because I just started a new job and am pretty busy at the [...]

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HJK in 2010: title theirs for the taking but tactical innovation needed to live the European dream

21. April 2010

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Markus Kitunen takes a look at HJK’s prospects for 2010. By all accounts HJK are by far the biggest favourite to win the Veikkausliiga title in 2010. Honka and Inter obviously fancy their chances but while the former have weakened and the latter are still regrouping after a disappointing season, HJK have come out stronger [...]

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Veikkausliiga Power Rankings Week 1

20. April 2010

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Janne Oivio continues his skewed coverage of Veikkausliiga following the preview package published last week. It’s ridiculously early to do a power ranking, but I don’t care. Having just completed NFN’s Massive Veikkausliiga Preview I was so delighted with myself that I decided to begin a running feature which will run hopefully every other week.

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Inter – IFK Mariehamn live on Facebook tonight

19. April 2010

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I am kicking off my Veikkausliiga season in Turku tonight, and will continue our cherished tradition of live blogs. I’m blogging live on our Facebook profile this time, as the NFN website is somewhat lacking in capacity when it comes to handling a lot of traffic. The game kicks off at 20:30 PM Finnish time. [...]

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Scandinavians Abroad Weekend Round Up

19. April 2010

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A weekend full of late comebacks , goals galore and demoralising defeats was played out , amidst the gloomy backdrop of the Icelandic volcano, which is affecting the way football teams travel.

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