Nordic Football News

TPS still looking to strengthen the squad

Marco Casagrande, the CEO of TPS, was delighted with the club’s capture of Finland international Jonatan Johansson. He spoke to NFN after Johansson’s introduction to the media, revealing that TPS are still looking for new signings and that a contract extension is in the making for goalkeeper Jukka Lehtovaara.

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Johansson pleased with Euro 2012 qualification draw

New TPS signing Jonatan Johansson is content with Sunday’s Euro 2012 draw that placed Finland in qualification group E alongside Sweden, Netherlands, Hungary, Moldova and San Marino.

“Netherlands are the favourites”, Johansson stated the obvious. “It is great to play Sweden after a long time. They are going through some changes and are unsure who is staying and who isn’t, so I think we have a good chance against them. The same applies to Hungary. The way I see it, we can claim the second spot in the group”, the striker predicts.

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Jonatan Johansson returns to TPS

New TPS signing Jonatan Johansson was introduced to the media via Skype on Monday. Photo courtesy of Jani Mesikämmen.

TPS have strengthened their attack significantly by signing the 34-year-old Finnish international Jonatan Johansson on a one-year contract. Johansson returns to TPS after spending 14 years abroad, donning the colours of FC Flora Tallinn, Glasgow Rangers, Charlton Athletic, Norwich, Malmö FF, Hibernian and, most recently, St. Johnstone.

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Photo special: Myntti’s back!

Photo by Olli Jantunen.

Henri Myntti was joint top scorer in Veikkausliiga last time he played here in 2008. As a 1.99m tall striker, his goals came from optimal use of his huge frame and a team that was (eventually) set up to maximise those strengths, after he began the season as a defender and was shoved up front in TamU’s search for goals. A move to Hansa Rostock followed, but he did not get playing time and has finally returned to Tampere United, much to the delight of the club’s fans. He had become quite a cult hero in his previous spell, and in this picture he shows how he often uses his size to prevent opposition defenders even seeing the ball, much less take it off him. I’m not sure who the PoPa defender is, but the photographer thinks it might be Joni Vuorinen.

TamU won this match 2-0 and progress to the next round of the Uusi Lahti Cup, a three day indoor football jamboree that is the traditional start of Finland’s pre-season, although it has been usurped a little recently as clubs stretch the league cup programme into January. You can find the results here, and hopefully we’ll have another photo tomorrow.

Photo special: Rafinha shushes TPV

Rafinha celebrates after scoring against TPV in the seventh round of the 2009 Finnish Cup. His two goals were crucial in TamU's win over their Tampere rivals. Photo by Petteri Lehtonen

Photo by Petteri Lehtonen

Rafinha has had an interesting career. He very nearly stopped playing football at all when back in Brazil, until an unlikely guardian angel arrived in the form of then AC Oulu manager Miikka Juntunen. Juntunen was on a talent-spotting mission in Brazil (not too shabby a winter job when you live in Oulu), and persuaded Rafinha he should give Northern Ostrobothnia a try, it being a much more conducive environment for footballing success than Southern Brazil. That was back in 2007, and Rafinha has not looked back since, securing a move to Tampere United where he played as a left-back for a time before finishing the 2009 season as top scorer. He then moved to HJK, spurning offers from abroad because of his young family, and annoying the TamU fans whose idol he had become.

Photo Special: Timo Furuholm

Photo by Tero Wester

Timo Furuholm certainly divides opinion in Finland. His body language and in-your-face style are certainly not popular with TPS fans, but he adds a certain slapstick quality without which Veikkausliiga would be a much duller place. One example of that would be when TPS defender Jarno Heinikangas tackled him during the Turku derby last August. Furuholm gave chase for a bit, but then he thought better of it and elected to simply give Heinikangas a kick up the arse instead. Heinikangas carried on and Furuholm faced no penalty, probably because iof the inherently comic rather than violent nature of the act.

Finnish TV revenue sharing echoes Sepp Blatter’s 6+5 rule

Veikkausliiga has offered a little more information about how it will share revenue from the new TV deal. the sums involved are pretty small, but the distribution formula has been clearly tweaked in the light of recent debates in Finnish football. Clubs will be allocated points based on various criteria, and the more points you get, the more money you receive.

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Photo special: Frozen football

Photo by Tiina Pirilä

Finland has often debated whether to lengthen the season by starting early. As climate change accelerated in recent years, the discussion has intensified and the late-starting schedule has come under fire, but this year things are a little different. Temperatures have barely struggled above -10 across large parts of Finland since the middle of December, and winter football is a good deal more challenging than it has been in recent years. Here Baratunde Wusu shows the PoPa defender and a well-wrapped-up linesman that you don’t need trousers to play in the snow.

Finland gets ready for the television era

Photo by Tero Wester

Finnish club football seems to be on the cusp of some major upheaval. The combination of new leadership at the FA following the retirement of former president Pekka Hämäläinen and the election of Sauli Niinistö to replace him, combined with the arrival of a paying broadcaster and all that entails in terms of fixture lists, have ensured that the media coverage and economics of the sport will change substantially over the next year. The announcement of the 2010 match schedule has caused rejoicing among many Finnish friends of football, a reaction that requires a little bit of explanation.

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Transfer Weekly: Djurgårdens IF sign a truckload of Finns and next season spells potential disaster for TPS as Pasi Rautiainen walks out

Djurgårdens IF are on the verge of re-naming the club Djurgårdens SF after signing half the Finnish national team that face South Korea in a week’s time. Kasper Hämäläinen, Joel Perovuo and Joona Toivio teamed up with Jani Lyyski, another fresh signing, and Daniel Sjölund, who is apparently staying at the Stockholm club after all. After escaping disaster by the skin of their teeth last season, DIF are founding their future dominance of Allsvenskan on Finnish talent. The Weekly approves.

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Transfer Weekly (week 50): The Weekly is estimating percentages as Lyyski signs for DIF and Muurinen says he is only there to help

The Weekly knows it has been bunking off recently and has not been fulfilling its obligations to write a few lines roughly once a week about close to none-existent transfers in Finnish football. And the Weekly used to be a right perky worker. In terms of work ethic, everything changed after Antti Muurinen, the Weekly’s hero, said in Helsingin Sanomat that “Players are 95 per cent of everything and the coach is only there to help.”

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Transfer Weekly (week 47): JJK hire Martonen as coach and are Atletico Madrid really viewing Sasha Anttilainen as a future replacement for Sergio Aguero?

The Weekly is a little bit grumpy today because just when it was on the verge of scoring a new record of how many staples it can shoots inside a litter basket with a staple-gun inside sixty seconds, it was distracted by a volley of incoming transfer news that had been close to non-existent for the best part of a week. So in order for the Weekly to get to pursue his dreams of Olympic representation after staple-gun shooting is made an Olympic sport, lets skim the transfers quickly.

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Finland 2009 in pictures, part two

In the second part of our look at some of the photos from 2009 in Finland, we focus on the fans. Click photos to enlarge.

One of the themes of Tampere football has been the struggle by supporters to get decent facilities in which to play and watch the game. The Veikkausliiga season was slated to start on 18 April, but the Ratina pitch had not yet been uncovered, or warmed via the heating system underneath it, and so the game was postponed until the grass could be left uncovered overnight.

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Transfer Weekly (week 46): FF Jaro, TamU and MyPa taking the spotlight as the transfer merry-go-round sets in motion

The Veikkausliiga season ended a few weeks ago but that is no reason for anyone to think there is no footballing life in the darkness of the cold Finnish winter. So rather than starting to watch ice-hockey, keep up to date with the goings-on in Finnish football with NFN’s Transfer Weekly. We’ll provide you with the hard facts, the unreliable gossip and the blatant lies connected with Veikkausliiga.

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2009 Veikkausliiga champions: player ratings…and a bit about Muurinen’s new contract

A bit over a week has passed since HJK were crowned champions at the Finnair Stadium, a cleansing celebration ending their six year title hiatus. And now that Helsinki has quietened down after being taken over by a seven day long, continuous, pulsating block party (no, seriously, I did see one or two HJK scarves worn proudly on the Saturday night on the town), it’s time to assess the new champions in detail.

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Antti Muurinen’s HJK win 2009 Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga final day highlights

In the end, everything went as expected. HJK got the point they needed to secure their 22nd title, despite Jaro taking the lead on eight minutes after Tillman Grove swept the ball home following a cross from the left. HJK’s cautious outlook has been criticised this season, but a draw was all they needed from Jaro and a draw was what they got when Dawda Bah picked up the ball following confusion in the Jaro defence and slotted past Jaro keeper Vitali Teles.

The HJK coach, always a dignified and courteous presence even when under intense pressure, resisted the temptation to take pot shots at the fans and journalists who had spent most of the season discussing who should replace him. Surely he wanted to tell the fans how wrong they were to demand his departure?

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